The music video for this song is a parody of Robert Palmer's 'Simply Irresistible', where beautiful women dopily bop along behind him, all looking very similar, half-playing their prop guitars. Shania Twain gender-flips this whole scenario, which looks so much more profoundly silly when men do it, and this adds to my reading of the song.
In this, it seems like Shania Twain is having a bit of a laugh at men for their inability to, in a culturally normal way, go out and just let their hair down and have some fun.
"The best thing about being a woman
Is the prerogative to have a little fun" - as if to say that is a prerogative that men miss out on in this case - going out to dance with the girls and just have a messy girls night.
It's, to me, kind of about embracing the ability of women culturally to be silly and frivilous, because when that dopey stereotype of women is so normalised in society, as in 'Simply Irresistible', women get the freedom to behave a bit bonkers, and she seems to note that men are deprived of this freedom, because they've painted themselves into a corner as being 'serious', 'masculine' and having 'authority'. While this was supposed to increase their power, they find themselves powerless to have the kind of fun Shania is singing about in this song.
It's an interesting way of viewing things, because it flips the whole 'victim mentality' that comes with seeing your gender be constantly degraded. With this song, Shania Twain has shifted who the victim is. Hint: IT'S THE PATRIARCHY
The music video for this song is a parody of Robert Palmer's 'Simply Irresistible', where beautiful women dopily bop along behind him, all looking very similar, half-playing their prop guitars. Shania Twain gender-flips this whole scenario, which looks so much more profoundly silly when men do it, and this adds to my reading of the song.
In this, it seems like Shania Twain is having a bit of a laugh at men for their inability to, in a culturally normal way, go out and just let their hair down and have some fun.
"The best thing about being a woman Is the prerogative to have a little fun" - as if to say that is a prerogative that men miss out on in this case - going out to dance with the girls and just have a messy girls night.
It's, to me, kind of about embracing the ability of women culturally to be silly and frivilous, because when that dopey stereotype of women is so normalised in society, as in 'Simply Irresistible', women get the freedom to behave a bit bonkers, and she seems to note that men are deprived of this freedom, because they've painted themselves into a corner as being 'serious', 'masculine' and having 'authority'. While this was supposed to increase their power, they find themselves powerless to have the kind of fun Shania is singing about in this song.
It's an interesting way of viewing things, because it flips the whole 'victim mentality' that comes with seeing your gender be constantly degraded. With this song, Shania Twain has shifted who the victim is. Hint: IT'S THE PATRIARCHY