1

Robin Weigold

Mr. Wyatt

HL English

19 September 2022

How Do the Works of Blake Shelton Paint his Image of Gender Equality?

Blake Shelton is an American country singer and songwriter who is widely regarded as

one of the greatest country music artists of all time. Shelton was born in the state of Oklahoma,

and having been raised alongside rather extreme views, he tends to have rather mixed views on

the way he sees women as well as the idea of Women’s Rights. Throughout music videos such

as “Boys ‘Round Here” and “Honey Bee”, Shelton portrays women in a way that they could be

compared to something he “owns”. Shelton also tends to have women in his videos that position

themselves rather provocatively, which only reinforces to the viewer that Blake Shelton’s views

are “correct”. Considering the large demographic Shelton has, as well as the fact that Country

Music as a genre is experiencing constant growth, it is almost guaranteed that Shelton’s music

will continue to reach and affect the opinions of different audiences around the world. The tools

that Blake Shelton utilizes to portray his message surpass the visual and auditory boundaries of

music, as the videos posted alongside his music on youtube, are where Shelton truly is able to

paint a picture of his opinions. Does Blake Shelton represent women as impressionable and

provocative through the use of many different visual and linguistic strategies that can be seen

throughout his works of music and film, in order to promote a narrative that women should be

treated unfairly in comparison to men?

 2

The two pieces that define Blake Shelton’s views the best are his music videos of his

songs “Honey Bee” and “Boys ‘Round Here”. “Boys ‘Round Here” is a country song made by

Blake Shelton in which he talks about typically Southern-American traits such as drinking beer

and driving trucks. To some these themes and music videos might hold no significance, but

Blake Shelton is sending a message that can be found when looking beneath the surface of the

lyrics and visuals. When reading through the lyrics of this song, it is clear that there are many

different messages that Shelton is trying to portray to the viewer. Lines such as “To get the girl,

in your four wheel drive” (Shelton), are ways in which Blake Shelton portrays his message of

extreme masculinity, as this is the type of audience he is attempting to appeal to. Many believe

Blake Shelton’s pieces to be mainly about over masculinity, while having the negative views on

women as a bi-product. However some others believe that the sexist tone of “Boys ‘Round Here”

is the main goal.

“Honey Bee” was written by Blake Shelton and released in 2011. This piece mainly

focuses on women as its main theme and does not talk about other topics as seen in “Boys

‘Round Here”. “Honey Bee” is the song that many use to justify their reasoning as to why Blake

Shelton is portraying sexist messages through his work. The Overall theme that the song follows

is the comparison of men and women. When comparing “Honey Bee” and “Boys ‘Round Here”

it is interesting to see that “Honey Bee” has more lyrics regarding how Shelton views women,

yet “Boys ‘Round Here” has more provocative imagery throughout the music video. This shows

how Blake Shelton may purposefully be portraying this message of sexism through the use of

visual and written techniques. This only supports the idea that the message may be intentional,

especially when “Honey Bee” has lyrics to talk exactly about male superiority.
 3

Throughout Blake Shelton’s pieces of work, a lot of different visual or literary techniques

are used in order to portray the themes of the music. Metaphors are widely used by Blake

Shelton, as he attempts to show the relationship between men and women in many different

ways. It is interesting to see how Shelton utilizes varying literary and visual techniques and

features across different works of music and film. “Honey Bee” is one piece of work where

Shelton tries to portray women as weak and soft while making men seem superior with the use of

metaphors and comparison. Lyrics such as “You be my soft and sweet. I’ll be your strong and

steady”(Shelton) capitulates the message entirely. Although Blake Shelton may be attempting to

create a song that comes across as sweet, he tends to make comparisons that may leave a bitter

taste in the mouths of certain listeners. “You’ll be my glass of wine, I’ll be your shot of whiskey”

(Shelton), is another lyric that lays out how Shelton views the ideal relationship between men

and women. A shot of whiskey is often seen as exciting hard liquor whereas a glass of wine is

seen as dry. This example may be another example of Shelton’s lyricism being used to

inadvertently promote sexism. When following along the lyrics of a song like “Honey Bee”, it is

quite easy to pick up on the metaphors being used by Blake Shelton, as he utilizes them

frequently to compare himself to a woman he likes, yet the question of whether or not his

derogatory tone is intentional or not tends to arise.

“Boys ‘Round Here” is one of Blake Shelton’s most popular songs of all time, reaching

over 100 million views on youtube alone. Many may see this as a major victory for Blake

Shelton, but there will always be certain drawbacks to receiving such excessive amounts of

praise. Unlike “Honey Bee”, “Boys ‘Round Here” follows a slightly different theme, as it

focuses mainly on the idea of overly masculine male culture. Although metaphors and literary

tools were utilized more throughout the previously mentioned “Honey Bee”, “Boys ‘Round
 4

Here” can mainly be analyzed through its visual aspects. Throughout the course of the video,

there are many stereotypes and other pieces of imagery that may leave a certain impression that

Blake Shelton may be intentionally making women look and dress provocatively. “Pistol Annies

& Friends” was another musical group composed of only women that was featured in the music

video. What makes this discerning is the fact that the only purpose they seemed to have had in

the music video was to position themselves provocatively throughout one shot within the entire

video. This leads many to believe that they were only featured to show off their features for the

music video, rather than to perform. What this now reveals about Blake Shelton is that he is

willing to work with female performers under the condition that they look a certain way in his

music videos, as similar provocative positions can be seen within the music video to “Honey

Bee”. Following all the potential evidence that may have been found to suggest Shelton is

intentionally promoting a sexist ideology, it is necessary to compare the thought that the sexism

may only be a bi-product of Shelton’s pieces to the idea that it is all intentional.

When looking at the evidence presented from both points of view it is clear that there is

no strict answer to the question at hand. Shelton does tend to talk about topics and themes that

may be related to sexism but whether or not any of it is intentional is something the viewer is

incapable of knowing. The use of metaphors and Imagery do tend to aid the argument that he is

intentionally promoting these sexist views, as previously discussed Shelton tends to talk about

men as strong and impactful whereas women are weak and innocent. Songs such as “Honey Bee”

do tend to suggest that Shelton sees men as superior just by reading through the lyrics, however

others believe that Blake Shelton is trying to portray a life of balance. When looking at how

Shelton compares himself to the woman he sings about in “Honey Bee”, at first it may seem like

he is just trying to attribute superior traits to himself, but as the song progresses it is clear to see
 5

that Shelton may just try to be portraying a even life where one trait balances out another. This

would then suggest that Shelton is very compassionate for this woman and would suggest that

the sexist undertones of this work are most probably just bi-product of the real message. “Boys

‘Round Here” follows a very different blueprint however, considering that the lyrics in this song

are not as related to women as is the visual representations of women within the video. When

looking at any arguments being made to support that the sexist undertone of “Boys ‘Round

Here” is a coincidence, it is obvious that this song was intended to have provocative dancing and

that the sexist undertone was intentional. There simply is no excuse for Shelton for featuring

women who are inappropriately dressed and dancing for the pleasure of the viewer. However, the

interpretation of either of these pieces is completely up to the viewer, meaning that every opinion

may vary.

From what has been observed within the two works from a rather objective standpoint as

well as point of view, it can be concluded that Shelton takes certain risks by talking about over

masculine and southern themes, as he tends to fall into a chain of thought that leads him to

believe that he has to see women in a certain way just because of the music he makes. This can

then come across differently depending on the piece of work, as was just discussed with “Honey

Bee” and “Boys ‘Round Here”. In the foreseeable future, it is necessary for Shelton to be very

timid with these types of topics, as more people gain access to the internet everyday, meaning

that more people may gain the wrong impression of women after watching some of Shelton’s

music videos. It is in humanity's best interest to rid the world of injustice which can either be

done by removing harmful content from the internet or educating certain creators on modern

political issues. Every time a new conclusion can be drawn which will aid in the progress of
 6

slowly removing unjust ideologies and thoughts, humanity should consider this as a step in the

right direction.

Works Cited:

Blake Shelton. “Blake Shelton - Boys 'Round Here Ft. Pistol Annies & Friends (Official Music

Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 6 May 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXAgv665J14.

Shelton, Blake. “Blake Shelton - Honey Bee (Official Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 11

May 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZjosn2u1gA.