Weronika Koleda

WRD 361
11.16.2020

Rina Sawayama Wants You to “STFU” and Listen: Feminist Rhetoric in Music

Music has long functioned as a creative space for individuals to practice storytelling as fueled by

lived experiences. Listening to music is a clear avenue towards not only hearing these stories being told,

but understanding them and connecting to them. This idea is imperative when observing music critically

through a feminist rhetorical lens, considering it establishes opportunities for marginalized identities to

vocalize their experiences within a dominant listening space. This essay defines the goal of feminist

rhetoric as leveling out the playing field on the part of marginalized identities through the sharing of

personal narratives and experiences. “Feminist” underlines the multiplicity of voices and subjectivity,

defined by Jaqueline Royster as “a defining value pays attention context, ways of knowing, language

abilities, and experience…” (29) that enriches our interpretive views of all kinds of voices. “Rhetoric”

regards the implications of invitational rhetoric, as in “the thinking about an issue so that everyone

involved gains a greater understanding of the issue in its subtlety, richness, and complexity,” (5) as

explained by Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin. Such understanding is then paved by Foss and Griffin’s

idea of absolute listening––giving voices space to be heard without judgement and listened to as

experiences of value. Often, these spoken voices are delivered with anger and tone that brings discomfort

to a dominant white audience. In order to improve listening and understanding of heavy emotion, it is

essential that feminist rhetoric works to reestablish an environment where speaking through emotion is

acceptable. Anger and strong emotions are regularly used as catalysts in songs connecting to lived

experiences. Artists like Rina Sawayama harness these sentiments effectively, incorporating rawness and

truth to her storytelling. As music is in itself an open opportunity for invitational rhetoric and lived

experiences as cultural knowledge or value––Rina Sawayama utilizes anger in her song “STFU!” as a

valid means of speaking her truth regarding her Japanese identity and experiences dealing with

microaggressions throughout her life.

 Rina Sawayama is a Japanese-born British singer-songwriter who rose to critical acclaim

following her debut LP “Sawayama”. “STFU!”––released as the lead single on November 22,

2019––garners musical influences from ‘90s and ‘00s acts while emulating blends of nu metal and

avant-pop. Co-directed by Sawayama herself, along with Alessandra “Ali” Kurr, the music video for

“STFU!” illustrates a cathartic release of built up anger over consistent experiences of microaggressions

against her Asian identity. The video opens with Sawayama on a dinner date, featuring British comedian

Ben Ashenden, that is evidently going quite terribly. Throughout their conversation, Ashenden vocalizes

several microaggressions and Asian stereotypes, such as comparing Sawayama as a “sexier version” of

“literally either” Sandra Oh and Lucy Liu, raving about the authenticity of the food at Wagamama’s

because “they hire more Asians there so it feels like the real deal”, and being “quite surprised” she sings

in English. What follows is a release in which Sawayama angirly climbs onto the table, positions

Ashenden as a motionless object as she leans over him, and takes full ownership of her sexuality as

displayed in the cutaway scenes. Sawayama refuses to sit quietly and dismiss the microaggressions, she

instead validates her anger as a way of maintaining power in her identity. Although the track addresses

her personal truths, Sawayama posted to social media explaining that “STFU!” is dedicated to “any

minority who has experienced microaggressions”.

Through her music, Rina Sawayama participates directly in what Foss and Griffin call invitational

rhetoric, “an invitation to understanding as a means to create a relationship rooted in equality, immanent

value, and self-determination. Invitational rhetoric constitutes an invitation to the audience to enter the

rhetor’s world and to see it as the rhetor does,” (Foss and Griffin 5). Music is an open platform that

permits artists like Sawayama to share their lived experiences and perspectives to a broad audience that is

invited to listen without silencing in return. Considering songs are often culturally expected to pull subject

matter from personal experiences and emotions, “STFU!” fits into this norm and therefore deems

Sawayama’s experiences as valid and worthy of understanding. Sawayama carves out space for herself to

be heard and invites her audience to connect to her it, all without taking space away from other artists and

their experiences. Here, “absent are efforts to dominate another because the goal is the understanding and
appreciation of another’s perspective…” (Foss and Griffin 6); therefore, as opposed to narrowing the

perspective on microaggressions, “STFU!” adds to an already building conversation where multiple

viewpoints are encouraged.

The inviting space that Sawayama carves through her music directly represents the purpose of

Third Spaces, made significant by Chicana Feminism. Third Space as a practice “reveals a differential

consciousness' capable of engaging creative and coalitional forms of opposition to the limits of

dichotomous (mis)representations. As a location, Third Space has the potential to be a space of shared

understanding and meaning-making,” (Licona 105). Music at large provides a space for those who are

marginalized or don’t fit into a dichotomous identity to belong and participate in a community of others

who identify similarly. As a bisexual, immigrant woman raised and living in London, Sawayama uses her

music to craft a safe space for her experiences, and specifically molds “STFU!” as a mode of discourse to

make meaning. Specifically, the song discusses the exoticization and sexualization of Asian women

through Ashenden’s comments in the start of the video, as well as lyrically through the line “Expecting

fantasies/Leave our reality…”. We see further discourse on microaggressions when Sawayama climbs

onto the table scattered with food and chopsticks that Ashenden’s character praised as “so authentic”,

even though the restaurant chain he brought up is purely Westernized. As a result, her raw response to

these comments becomes highly more authentic than the ignorant comments of a white man claiming he

knows authentic Japanese food. Sawayama acknowledges that she is not alone in these situations and

sentiments, alluding to these shared experiences in the line, “You've never seen it though I know I'm not

the only one.” Vocalizing these experiences and inviting others into this space to relate to them underlines

the significance of Third Space, that “the point of the theoretical undertakings in third-space sites is to

uncover Other ways of being, and of knowing, in order to make meaning of the everyday,” (Licona 106).

Therefore, “STFU!” acknowledges Other ways of knowing and being through communicating various

microaggressions only understood by people of color.

In creating an invitational space meant to harbor experiential stories, the other side of what

Sawayama taps into is absolute listening, a “way in which rhetoric may contribute to the
acknowledgement and celebration of freely chosen, unique identities by audience members…” (Foss and

Griffin 11). “STFU!” lands perfectly within a medium that is made precisely to be listened to. Music not

only invents a space in which it cannot be interrupted out of existence, but it encourages connection

through the act of listening. Sawayama is visibly and audibly aggressive in her song, commanding the

attention of her audience with lines like “Shut the fuck up/Have you ever thought about taping your big

mouth shut?/'Cause I have, many times, many times” and belting vocals. Her anger is the driving force of

the track; she knows that there is an audience that is clearly hearing her. In and out of the music industry,

anger is often judged, not taken seriously, or made to be uncomfortable especially in regards to the voices

of women of color. Emotion is taken out of women’s hands by the privileged, and then exaggerated or

invalidated into its own kind of silence. Sawayama’s anger refuses to be silenced and refuses to make a

white audience comfortable, because being heard should not serve to make the oppressor comfortable.

She recognizes that her anger is authentic and true because all of her voices are authentic and true, as

explained by Royster, “I claim all my voices as my own very much authentic voices, even when it’s

difficult for others to imagine a person like me having the capacity to do that,” (37). Considering how

anger and strong emotions are usually easier to digest when incorporated into music (as the artform

normalizes writing from emotional places and utilizing emotion as part of a performance), Sawayama is

better able to attain that so-called “freedom of expression”.

The implications of Rina Sawayama’s “STFU!” as situated within a medium that encourages the

sharing of subjective truths connects directly to the goals of feminist rhetoric. The singer uses creative

expression to possess full control and autonomy over her own story and how she wishes to tell

it––lyrically, sonically, and visually. As echoed by Ede, Glenn and Lunsford, “...feminist theory has

consistently challenged any public/private distinction, arguing that knowledge based in the personal, in

lived experience, be valued and accepted as important and significant,” (412). As her identity has been

consistently challenged and misunderstood, Sawayama makes the personal political through invitational

rhetoric. Openly sharing her lived experiences and having them be listened to with understanding ears

serves to build communities, such as Third Spaces, and gather culturally valuable information. Rina
Sawayama illustrates how mainstream mediums and spaces can be carved into as a means of practicing

feminist rhetorics through a creative perspective. As feminism “offers a reason to ‘bridge différences

(rather than to create them), to include (rather than to exclude), and to empower (rather than to seek

power or weakness)’” (Ede et al 437), “STFU!” echoes these ideas as an anthem to empower Sawayama

herself––allowing herself to feel angry and be honest about her experiences––while also empowering

others who resonate with the message the song carries. Sawayama’s music illustrates how anger can be a

vehicle for change and listening, as it slams the truth right into the table of your local Japanese joint.
 Works Cited

Ede, Lisa, et al. “Border Crossings: Intersections of Rhetoric and Feminism.” Rhetorica: A Journal of the
History of Rhetoric, vol. 13, no. 4, 1995, pp. 401–441. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rh.1995.13.4.401. Accessed 11 Sept. 2020.

Foss, Sonja K., and Cindy L. Griffin. "Beyond persuasion: A proposal for an invitational rhetoric."
Communications Monographs 62.1 (1995): 2-18.

Licona, Adela C. "(B)orderlands' Rhetorics and Representations: The Transformative Potential of

Feminist Third-Space Scholarship and Zines." NWSA Journal, vol. 17 no. 2, 2005, p. 104-129.
Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/184739.

Royster, Jacqueline Jones. “When the First Voice You Hear Is Not Your Own.” College Composition and
Communication, vol. 47, no. 1, 1996, pp. 29–40. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/358272. Accessed
11 Sept. 2020

Sawayama, Rina and Alessandra Kurr, directors. Rina Sawayama - STFU! YouTube, 2019,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XojM2D3F-Dc&list=FLYQzgnMtenqWIjrlttPu1ew&index=39&ab_c
hannel=RinaSawayamaVEVO.