Miss A is known for being a bold girl group despite such singles as Breathe and Touch, mostly because its most famous singles are along the lines of Good Girl Bad Girl and Goodbye Baby.
The girl group tells boys "you don′t know me, so shut up boy" or "goodbye baby, goodbye, turn around and walk the other way" and the girls manage to look gorgeous in the process. The girls are trying to go a similar route this time around as well, openly dedicating the song to "independent women" and proclaiming "I don′t need a man."
It′s sad to say, however, that I Don′t Need a Man seems to be pushing all the wrong buttons.
The song itself isn′t that bad. The reggae beat is fun, and the melody has a refreshing quality that makes you want to lean back and bounce in your seat. The members deliver what they were supposed to, and nothing really stands out as an ear sore. The "I don′t need a man" hook is also pretty addictive.
The lyrics, however, are a little unsettling. At first glance they seem to really be about the ideal independent woman—the bold woman that can live her great life as she wants. The examples they give of their ideal "independent woman," however, are really off, and at times downright offensive.
For example, one part of the lyrics say, "I pay my own bills, I get what I want to eat, I get my own clothes" and "I don′t get much money, but I worked hard for it, my boyfriend didn′t get me this ring, my car, my clothes, I got them with the money I earned," as examples of what a true independent woman does and what women should be proud of doing.
But, the question is, should women be proud that they can do things that everyone else does and should be doing? Of course you should pay your own bills, pay for what you eat and get your own clothes. This is what you do as a grownup, regardless of whether you′re a woman or a man.
The song takes everything people should be doing naturally and makes it something women should be proud of doing, and in the process, undermines what is normal for women and sets the standard of ′the ideal woman′ pretty low.
The kicker comes in the last few lines of the rap. They seem to speak to women in general with their noses up high in the air, saying, "You play around trusting your boyfriend, but what will you do when your man leaves you? Are you jealous? If you are, you lose."
They put on a haughty tone as if most women will be jealous of the woman in the lyrics, and that most women will agree that this is the ideal woman they want to be. But what it does, instead, is lower the standard for ′independent women′ yet again and make something special out of something quite ordinary.
All in all, the intent of the message is good and the bouncy beat makes it an easy listen, but the execution was unfortunately botched by bad references.
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