Christina Aguilera’s music video “Fighter” conveys multiple powerful messages towards women in hopes to guide them up the male dominant ladder of society, so that they can gain some sort of power as well. Using social media is a very clever way to get this message across, because of how prominent it is to our society. Since popular culture is all around, it is an easy way for people to use it as a neutral point in which they guide their lives so that the harsh critics within society don’t judge them and label them as an outcast. Being perceived as “normal” has become this picturesque perception of what the “American Dream” should entail, which is why putting powerful messages in social media like Christina Aguilera did in her video is a good start in guiding people in the right path of creating a social change.

Sociologist Dustin Kidd is the author of the article “Harry Potter And The Functions Of Popular Culture”. In this article he conveys many functions that popular culture plays within our society. Dustin Kidd stated that popular culture can “provide the necessary impetus for social change, particularly when it comes in the form of actions that call into question the social mainstream or social authority” (Kidd 71). We can use this claim to look further into Aguilera’s music video, to help us see exactly how a cultural artifact can be used to support his claim. Christina Aguilera used a cultural artifact, in this case her music video, as a stimulus to provide women with an example of how to grasp a hold of their own lives to gain more power. Because music is played everywhere such as on the radio, in the background of commercials, and even in stores, Aguilera was able to reach out to the social mainstream of society to ensure that her messages would be heard. Which is what Dustin Kidd brings forth in his article about how popular culture produces the ability for social change, especially when the majority of society is forced into hearing it.

There is a feminist writer that goes by the name of Samhita who wrote the article “Behind Every Strong Man, There is an Even Stronger Beyoncé”. In this article she states “Pop culture perceptions of grrl power have become the stand-in for what feminism actually is, obscuring the reality that women are far from running the world’ (Samhita paragraph 5). Basically she is saying that girl power anthems are used only as a way to distract women from physically making an effort to gain any kind of power. Backing up her claims there is a video blogger 19percent who says girl power anthems “lulls women into a false sense of achievement, and distracting them from doing the work it takes to actually run the world” (19percent 0:17–0:23). Even though she is talking about Beyoncé’s video “Run The World”, we can conclude by her statement that she thinks all girl power anthems are being used as distractions. The feminist writer Samhita, and the video blogger 19percent both seem to agree that girl power anthems are being used as a distraction so that women cant do the work it actually takes to move up in society. However, looking further into the meanings of these claims it seems that girl power anthems are being used as a guide to show women how to build courage and step up to gain the power and rights that they are seeking.

Christina Aguilera’s Video “Fighter” is about how she was in an abusive relationship, and felt very trapped. In her video she states, “cause if it wasn’t for all that you do, I wouldn’t know just how capable I am to pull through” (Aguilera :55–1:01). She finally gained the courage to breakout and end the relationship. Instead of degrading the other person involved in the relationship, she decides to instead thank them for making her stronger, and realizing that she doesn’t have to stay trapped anymore, and can take a hold of her own life. She was able to change the way she looked at her situation and create a new pathway to follow.

If Samhita and 19percent were to criticize “Fighter”, they would probably say that it is distracting women from taking hold of their own lives. Samhita suggested in her article that “grrl power is often a pop culture tool used to encourage females to buy into a mainstream product” (Samhita paragraph 5). Basically she would say this video was made for the sole purpose of making money, and not to actually get an important message across to the audience. 19percent would probably look at this video and come up with a bunch of statistics to prove Aguilera wrong. She would go and look up domestic abuse laws, and use it against the message that Christina Aguilera is trying to put forth to women. Both of them put together would still argue that this video was made as a distraction, and isn’t helping women get anywhere close to the dominance of males.

Using Christina Aguilera’s video “Fighter” as an example, we can see how artists don’t in fact use their videos as a distraction to its viewers, but however use them as a way to push them into the direction of social change. In the picture below Aguilera is shown in a glass box. For the purpose of this video the glass box signifies the relationship in which she felt trapped. Directly after this screenshot she punches/ shatters the glass freeing herself from that relationship and signifying that she learned from her mistakes, and can use them to make her stronger. Just as Kidd argues that pop culture can be used to provide an impetus for social change, so too I claim that Christina was able to was able to go against the mainstream of society and develop the courage to evolve past these norms of female inferiority and show women that it is in fact okay to set different standards for society.

Aguilera was able to take the old standards that society placed on women, which was accepting the fact that men are the dominant role in relationships, and go against the mainstream to show women that it was okay to take charge of their own lives. By putting this into social media which everyone sees/hears at some point she was able to counteract the old norms and create a new standard for women to follow. She further integrates this new norm later on in her video when she is shown literally being held down with pins ( Figure 2 below). She ends up ripping them out of herself, which is also another indication that she is taking hold of her life, and no longer being pinned down by the dominant figure. So it is a common theme within this video that Christina Aguilera wants to make it known for women that it is in fact okay to take a hold of their own lives. By putting this message in here multiple times she is able to create a new social norm in society.

Dustin Kidd argues that in many cases popular culture is actually the driving force behind social change. If the mainstream of society is able to see flaws within it, then there is going to be a driving force to change these problems so that no more conflicts will occur. With Christina Aguilera’s music video viewers are able to see that an abusive relationship was the driving force to make her stronger and break free from it. By looking at the video women are then driven to change the problem. In this specific situation women could maybe come up with new abuse laws, or any type of law that would make the situation better in the long run, ensuring that women would gain the power and rights that they deserve.

Samhita and 19percent both make the argument that girl power anthems are being used basically as a moneymaker to distract women form doing what it takes to fix the problems within society. However, Dustin Kidd makes the claim that popular culture, such as the cultural artifact “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera, is actually the first step in creating and guiding the viewer into making a social change. I too agree that Girl power anthems aren’t just for entertainment purposes, but are actually the artists way of expressing the problems and changes that they had to make in their own lives. Many people who may or may not have the same problems can now look at this video and see that Christina Aguilera wasn’t afraid to take charge of her own life in order to make a big change in the way she lived her life. They can use this as a motivator to change the daily problems that society naturally drops upon them.

Popular Culture Evolving Social Norms was originally published in 110 Seconds from Now on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.