"Cater 2 U"

Destiny's Child, a pop group from the 90s, recorded a song called "Cater 2 U," about the desire to take care and serve the man in each singer's life. The girls sing in perfect harmony, "I'm here to serve you," "all I wanna do is cater to you," and "your wish is my command," but what message is that sending out to the women who listen to Destiny's Child? This song embodies heterosexual female gender role ideologies. Not only does it create the inferiority of each singer in the pop group, but it constructs the superiority of every man who this song is directed towards. It creates the master/slave relationship between a man and a woman.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French Enlightenment philosopher of the 18th century, explained the construct of inequality in his novel, Discourse on Inequality. He explained there were three different kinds of inequality: between rich/poor, powerful/weak, and master/slave. "Cater 2 U" not only represents the fragility of each woman by saying, "my life is nothing without you," but it also portrays the the willingness to "serve" men. It fits into two of the three inequality categories, perpetrating female gender role ideologies and taking a step in the wrong direction (against true equality between men and women).

-Rachel Scott