Rhetoric Essay: Same Love

One Response to Rhetoric Essay: Same Love

1. srd5247 says:

   October 22, 2012 at 8:28 pm

   PLEASE WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO BEFORE READING THE ESSAY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0

   Samuel Dilly
   Professor Mazzant
   English 137H
   October 11, 2012
   Same Love
   That’s so gay. You’re a faggot. Take a second and think about how many times you encounter these phrases on a daily basis. Derogatory terms such as these are some among many other hateful anti-homosexual sayings that are used regularly by adolescents across the country. Why? How have these revolting expressions become part of all of our daily vocabularies? How have the terms ‘gay’ and ‘faggot’ become synonymous with ‘lame’ or ‘not cool’? With the youth of our nation bred into constant subconscious hateful thought, there cannot be a positive future for the morale of our society. Macklemore’s new song and music video, Same Love, aims to point the youth of our society in a new forward thinking direction. Macklemore, one of the fastest rising artists in the hip-hop industry, and currently the number one artist on iTunes without a major record deal, recognizes the issues within our society and uses his influence to attempt to make a difference. Hip-hop music is a huge part the youth of our society, and is very influential on the way we all act, speak, and think. Rappers use the term ‘fag’ to insult another person whether he or she is gay or not, and have in many cases caused their listeners to do the same. Through Same Love Macklemore points out the flaws in this way of life and preaches of moving forward. Because of Macklemore’s own influence in our culture, the youth of society, and rhetorical strategies he has used, I believe he has done an incredible job advocating his message. Through Same Love, Macklemore discusses societies false predispositions on homosexuality, the use of derogatory terms in hip-hop, and how we as a society need to stop avoiding the sexual equality movement and move forward.
   Same Love opens with Macklemore singing, “When I was in the third grade, I thought that I was gay, cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight.” Macklemore immediately hits on the point that society has skewed biases on what it means to be gay in today’s society. We all believe that certain activities or actions need to be classified ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ and that is simply incorrect. Macklemore is effective in communicating this message because in the music video he shows the protagonist, a young homosexual man, playing football with his friends, a preconceived heterosexual activity. He effectively causes us to reconsider how we classify activities, and points out that in reality there is no one idea or action that is ‘gay’ or ‘straight’.
   The song then hit on the most flawed notion about homosexuality; the idea that it is a choice and can be changed or ‘fixed’. First, homosexuality is not a disease and cannot be ‘cured’ nor does it need to be. Macklemore addresses that the center of many of our societies, religion, along with many right-winged conservatives believe that homosexuality is wrong and needs to be fixed. Macklemore’s logic in disproving the idea that one can “pray the gay away” is exemplified when he says, “And God loves all His children is somehow forgotten, but we paraphrase a book written thirty-five hundred years ago, I don’t know.” Macklemore is alluding to the fact that many people use the Bible to justify their bigamy and hate although those aspects are very outdated and not entirely applicable to today’s society. He further drives home this message through the catchy upbeat chorus where Mary Lambert sings, “And I can’t change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to…” This grabs the listener’s attention because the loud vibrato of her voice is a big shift from the quite somberness of Macklemore’s, which forces us to pay attention to what she is saying and recognize that homosexuals do not have a choice, they are who they are. Macklemore’s successful communication of the truth of homosexuality continues when he address the issues within his own industry.
   In an interview with Anderson Cooper in 2011, rapper Eminem was confronted about a song lyric of his in which is blatantly says that he hates faggots. His reasoning was that he grew up in a society in which that word was so commonly used that he does not associate it as a derogatory word referring to homosexuals. This is a huge problem in the hip-hop industry. Macklemore opens up the second verse by saying, “If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me,” which could not be truer based on the lyrics of today’s music. The offensive expressions in today’s hip-hop music, breed a culture of hate among our youth whether or not we would like to recognize it. Macklemore shows through his popularity that rap music does not need to include gay bashing ideals in order to become popular. Macklemore’s message does not fully communicate to the audience until he says, “A word routed in hate yet our genre still ignores it, gay is synonymous with the lesser, it’s the same hate that’s caused wars from religion, gender and skin color, complexion of your pigment.” As these words are spoken the video provides visuals of bombings during war times and picketing during Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches and racial inequality. By showing the visuals of these terrible events and then relating the hate from the terms ‘gay’ and ‘faggot’ to them it effectively shows us that this “lingo” we use in today’s society may be more hurtful than we think and that we should reconsider how we act and speak. All of Macklemore’s preaching about the wrongness of hateful speech would be pointless if he had no motive behind it.
   It’s time to move forward and forget any prejudices that we have about what it means to be gay. Macklemore does, and everyone should yearn for this; but doing something as simple as legalizing gay marriage will not change society’s view on homosexuality. In the concluding lines of the song Macklemore preaches, “No law’s gonna change us, we have to change us, whatever god you believe in we come from the same one” exemplifying the idea that progress needs to come from us, not from the government. The entire song shows the life of a growing up with the battle to discover his true sexual orientation, and eventually all the good that came to his life when he was accepted in his community. Bringing positive change to ones life makes people feel good about themselves, and this song teaches us how to accomplish that. On their YouTube video Macklemore captions the video by writing, “We support civil rights, and hope WA State voters will APPROVE REF 74 and legalize marriage equality. Visit ‪http://www.music4marriage.org‬‬‬‬ for more info,” in the hopes that after watching the video people will have changed their views on homosexuality or now want to help the cause. After seeing the video I know that I visited the website and I’m sure many other have too, hopefully resulting in a large amount of donations. This video has caused a wildfire of positive feedback thought the Internet and social media. Celebrities from Tim Weber to Rihanna to Lady Gaga have been promoting this video and helped spread the message to the youth across the country. Macklemore’s musical talent and his influence among the youth has helped bring a social cause that has been avoided for sometime now to a national stage, and with the success of the video and his new album, hopefully new doors will open up in the gay rights movement.
   There is nothing wrong with being gay in today’s society, period. I would say for the most part, the greater majority of society accepts that statement, but yet the homosexual culture is still ostracized. Many of us who claim to be, and most likely are, accepting of homosexuality, still use the terms ‘gay’ and ‘faggot’ by means to insult one another. We are all very influenced by what goes on around us, and when our favorite musicians are using ‘faggot’ and ‘dyke’ every other word, it embeds this hateful terms into our on vocabularies. Macklemore’s Same Love effectively shows the hate behind these blind words and phrases. The consistent use of these derogatory words needs to be eliminated from all of daily lives and Macklemore’s recent rise to popularity shows that it easily can be done. He shows that one does not need to “gay bash” in order to become popular or fit in with the crowd. The ending message the Macklemore intends to leave us with is that society as whole cannot change their views unless we all change individually. So take a second and think about the reasons, or lack there of, that we all use these derogatory terms. Is it to try and be cool? Is it to try and make ourselves feel better? Whatever the reasons are, it needs to stop. We need to move forward as a society and recognize that all love, is the same love.

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