Barbara becomes an icon of French culture, music, and the movie industry. In her lyrics and performance, she speaks about social and cultural problems, love and passion, etc. It is possible to say that the qualities of Barbara’s styles are not typically feminine because she speaks about social and personal problems typical for both sexes, and people of different ages. Thus, Barbara pays much attention to femininity and women’s culture.
In her lyrics and performance, Barbara provides human sympathy for all people but goes beyond traditional definitions of femininity and women’s roles in society. Barbara underlines love and passion, true feelings, and the strengths of human emotions. Barbara does not address that equality and human rights issues but speaks about kindness and sympathy important for all people in the world. Distinctive qualities of her writing and performance were lyricism and melancholic mood. Most of her songs are considered the best example of lyricism based on themes of nature, human experience, and new world perception (Barbara Home Page. 2007). For Barbara, all people are supposed to be temperate, diligent, loyal, hard-working, and cheerful. The above picture is supported with several important cases of domination remaining important because it continues to serve a variety of important social functions. Barbara depicts that women’s leadership abilities are formed under the influence of individual characteristics, internal and external environment. It is concerned with why they choose a particular course of action in preference to others, and why they continue with a chosen action, often over a long period, and in the face of difficulties and problems (Barbara: YouTube, 2007; Barbara Home Page, 2007).
Barbara has many of the characteristics common to all singers but also creates her style in contrast to many women singers. Her distinctive masculine features are (were) short hair cut and she was always dressed in black on the stage (Barbara: biography, 2000). She portrays the life and destinies of women paying attention to inner feelings and emotions. Despite the crudity of narratives, Barbara’s lyrics are animated by a quality more usually identified with a more self-consciously sophisticated form of gender relations. Women characters are depicted as loving and sympathetic, nevertheless very proud and ambitious. In spite historical epoch and predetermined gender roles of women, Barbara underlines that gender roles between women and men are not so important as considered to be. Barbara portrays a positive side of women’s life avoiding such negative things as the absence of education and narrow-mindedness. Barbara portrays women as independent members of society. Gestures, mimic and facial expression, intonation, and manners used by Barbara are not feminine. The main feminine qualities of Barbara are a vivid imagination and romantic nature. The ideal of female sensuality runs through the lyrics. Barbara never moves from her questioning to the larger social statement that is feminism. Also, there are no feminist messages and ideas typical for feminist singers (Barbara: YouTube 2007). Barbara does not speak about a radical change and passion in the life of women. In her lyrics, Barbara depicts problems and gender relations from women’s eyes.
In sum, Barbara’s lyrics and melodies reflect feminine qualities while her appearance, intonations, and gestures are mostly masculine. At a level deeper than consciousness, Barbara discloses her empathy for this female “separation anxiety”. A Barbara’s character, a woman historically conditioned to value bonding as natural to the feminine gender, feels abandonment and separation from men the more acutely.
Bibliography
- Barbara: biography. 2000.
- Barbara Home Page. 2007. Web.
- Barbara: YouTube: 2007. Web.