Carrie Fights Back

Jen Ackerman
Nina Perez
7 March 2010
WST 3015

Carrie Fights Back

In Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats,” the singer brings to the life the popular saying “Hell has no fury like a woman scorned” (Congreve). As she tells the narrative of her destroying a presumable ex-boyfriend’s car before he can cheat on yet another woman, Carrie turns the tables of the familiar violent scenes we are usually exposed in to our media and features a woman behind a swinging bat.
This entire song challenges the not only the system of the violence against women, but on a bigger scale, the male, female dynamic when it comes to the a woman standing up for herself. “Slashed a hole in all four tires. Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats,” Carrie does not sit back and let the man that wronged her walk away unpunished and also more importantly she strives to protect the next girl he might possibly cheat on with “I might've saved a little trouble for the next girl” ("Before He Cheats"). I think what Carrie is going for in this song is really an anthem for an independence woman. While the lyrics preach violence against her offender, which isn’t the correct response to anything, Carrie is more so singing about a woman who stood up for herself. The textbook definition of the violence against women extends the term to the cover any violations of “physical, social, and or physiological integrity of another person or group ( Kirk, Gwyn 258). Under this definition cheating on a spouse or partner can be considered violence and if you look at cheating this way than this song is really about a woman standing up for herself against the violence she experienced. I believe that this song is about empowerment and really a blatant power shift for women.
In the text Fight Like A Girl, author Megan Seely explains how women are indeed warriors. She goes on to list all the different contributions women have made for in battles, wars, and even espionage. And at the end Seely brings attention to the fact that so much of women’s heroic and strong moments in history are quietly left out, leaving little girls with no knowledge of how strong we really are. I think this song is a perfect example of what Seely means by “We need to reclaim our history as warriors, respect the fight within us” (186). Carrie is a woman scorned, but more importantly a woman acting. When looking back into history there are countless stories of men who had been wronged and who took their revenge or stood up to the oppression they were facing. This song does that in a very modern way. I do not think that Carrie Underwood is calling for women to use violence against the men or other women who cross them, but more so to stand up to those who treated you wrong.
For feminists, I believe this song represents empowerment. While it is easy to just call the woman in sing song some man-hater, I think people know it represents something much deeper. This song features a woman unwilling to stand idly by, which is a lesson many women and men need to remember when it comes to the feminist movement.








Works Cited
"Before He Cheats." Rec. 15 Nov. 2005. By Carrie Underwood. Arista, 2005.

Congreve, William. The Mourning Bride: a Tragedy. London: Printed at the Chiswick for Whittingham and Arliss, 1815. Print.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Violence Against Women." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 257-300. Print.

Seely, Megan. "Fighting Back." Fight like a Girl: How to Be a Fearless Feminist. New York: New York UP, 2007. 185-218. Print.