Playlist Thursday: Women Empowerment

Pavement Runner has a fun thing going on over at his blog. Have a looksie here. Basically, each week, he comes up with a new theme, and he, along with a few other bloggers, come up with a running playlist related to the said theme. This week’s theme is “Women Empowerment,” so I just had to join in on the fun! Here’s how it works:

Something Old: These will be songs that are at least 5 years old. I know that isn’t too long to be considered old, but music turnover happens quickly.
Something Current: These will be songs that have been released within the past year. I know, but you have to give me some leeway here.
Something to Consider: These will be songs that are not typically heard on the radio and may be by artists you’ve never heard of or considered running to. This is the wild card category, can be old or current.

Something Old

Artist: No Doubt

Title: I’m Just a Girl

Side Note: This song came out in 1995…I was twelve. Way to make me feel old! But I remember being at my friends’ houses after school, jumping on their beds and throwing our hair all around SCREAMING these lyrics as loud as we could.

Many of my Latina friends and I felt like we were in a shell in this world. We were always protected and not given as many freedoms or privileges as our brothers. We wanted to work and travel and do things our mothers never did; most of our mothers wanted us to finish high school and settle down…to stay “traditional.” But my friends and I wondered, “Why couldn’t we have it all?” This song definitely helped us release the emotions we held inside from that inner struggle as Hispanic pre-teens in a new and changing generation.

Quotable: “This world is forcing me to hold your hand, ’cause I’m just a girl…little ‘ol me. Don’t let me out of your sight. I’m just a girl, all pretty and petite, so don’t let me have any rights.”

Something Current:

Artist: Kelly Clarkson

Title: What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)

Side Note: When I hear this song, it takes me back to my single mom days. It was a hard time in my life. This song makes me appreciate it. The experience made me a STRONGER WOMAN. It taught me that I don’t need a man to COMPLETE me; I need one to COMPLEMENT me. Now, I am perfectly OK with being alone, because, as Kelly says, it doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone. (And I also have a tattoo on my shoulder that says, “Lo que no me mate solo me hara mas fuerte,” not that I’m bias or anything! )

Quotable: “You didn’t think that I’d come back, I’d come back swinging. You try to break me, but you see: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, stand a little taller; it doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone.”

Something to Consider:

Artist: Webbie, featuring Lil’ Boosie and Lil’ Phat

Title: Independent

Side Note: This little jewel came out in 2007, a year after I graduated from college and landed my first job at a Big 4 Accounting firm in my hometown of Los Angeles, California. I am the second person to graduate from high school on my mother’s side of the family and the first person to graduate from college (the second on my dad’s side). While some of my family (on my mom’s side) feels indifferent with the fact that I chose a career path in addition to motherhood, I’ll never forget one thing that was said to me when I graduated from the University of Arizona: “You have made Quintero family history.” My mom said it to me over the phone, with tears in her eyes and a shiver in her voice. And while, in the end, my mother did not attend my graduation ceremony, what she said still meant a lot to me…I think it’s one of the only nice things she’s ever said to me. EVER. So here’s to all of the INDEPENDENT MUJERES out there!

Quotable: “I don’t think she ‘ll never look in a man’s face, standin’, waitin’ for him to take care of her. She’d rather go to work and pay the bills on schedule… She got her own house, she got her own car, two jobs, work hard, you a bad broad.”