Words x Music x Action = song that saves women’s lives

For the last five days we’ve remembered and honoured the lives lost to woman abuse. But remembering is not enough. We have to take action, action that makes a sustainable difference and action that inspires and creates hope – and we’ve turned to the immense power of words and music to do this… starting with just one word: fearless. 

For us the word fearless is not the absence of fear, but the courage to push through and prevail despite it, to live the lives we’ve always wanted. We believe so strongly in the power of this word that we created an exclusive statement T-shirt with designer Palesa Mokubung and our brand ambassador, Zozibini Tunzi. This got us thinking that if one word can hold so much gravity, imagine the power of many impactful words, coupled with something just as powerful – music. 

Songs are far more than just words to a tune. Songs captivate us, shape our thoughts and opinions, influence, and guide us. In fact, our very brain chemistry is affected by music. 

According to leading neurologist, Oliver Wolf Sacks “The power of music and the plasticity of the brain go together strikingly, especially in young people.” It’s no wonder then that popular music has a profound impact on the way we view the world and our place in it, through connotations and connections it builds in our minds. 

Now, think about the music that blares through the radio on a daily basis, the music that pops up on top hits in our playlists, that repeats on radio five times a day, the music that climbs the charts, the songs that get stuck in our heads. The tunes are often so catchy, that we don’t even pay attention to the lyrics themselves. 

While music has immeasurable power to do good and make a positive impact, it can also have the opposite effect.

Hip Hop – a genre which is extremely popular and widely consumed – unashamedly objectifies women in song lyrics and the portrayal of a misogynistic lifestyle. It desensitises individuals to sexual harassment, exploitation, abuse, and violence toward women” and “legitimises the mistreatment and degradation of women” (Adams & Fuller, 2006, p. 953). 

In a country where a woman is murdered every three hours, where 1 in 4 women are victims of domestic abuse, 1 in 3 women will be raped in her lifetime and where 52 420 sexual offences were reported in just 365 days, we cannot afford to exacerbate the situation further with music that propagates the idea that any form of woman abuse is acceptable. 

So, we asked: What can we do to change the tune and help bring an end to woman abuse?

Our answer? Considering that music has the capacity to do so much good, we want to harness that good to bring about much-needed change to the attitudes, behaviours and beliefs that condone woman abuse through the power of song.