Dr. Jesse Kabwila Kapasula's lecture

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I thought that the lecture we attended was very interesting and insightful, although it was not apart of our curriculum, I believe that it was good to listen to and understand the points she was trying to convey. Yes, Beyonce is a great artist and creates pop songs that sell millions of albums, however, in the song "single ladies" she contradicts herself. In today's society women have had more power and more rights than ever before in history, and then Beyonce comes out with this song that sets back women's civil rights a couple decade. She objectifies women and conveys that women are a trophy, or crudely a piece of meat for men. Yes, this song was catchy and probably helped sell a few thousand records, but the lyrics of the song are a little out of place. Women in today's society are still fighting for more and more rights, more equality, and more power; then we have artists creating lyrics as seen in "single ladies." I agree with Dr. Kapasula in the fact that Beyonce was objectifying herself as well as all women, she clearly does not appreciate her place in society as much as she should. I also thought that Dr. Kapasula did a great jobof keeping the lecture entertaining.

Professor Lemak's Lecture

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Professor Lemak gave a lecture last Friday on Rock and Roll music along with the relationship with power and its correlation to Burial at Thebes. The Rock and Roll aspect of the lecture was just to show different ways that people rebel against the government without doing major harm, both physical and mental. Much of the music he talked about rebelled against the government and unjust laws. During the lecture, Lemak touched on how in the Burial of Thebes the characters struggled with the balance of social justice with moral authority and just and unjust laws. The social justice in Burial at Thebes was the dilemma in which Antigone was not allowed by law to bury her brother who happened to be a traitor. King Creon made it known that anyone who even threw dirt on his body would be persecuted. It would have been the moral thing to do to let Antigone bury her own brother even if he was a traitor, simply for the fact that he was family, and that is what family is for. It was unjust of King Creon to make such an outlandish "law." The balance between social justice and moral authority as well as just and unjust laws is an issue that many societies will have to deal with, and societies will also have to learn to find the balance between them. There is only so much that the people can do in certain societies; however, democratic societies have more say in what laws are just and which are not. This is because in a democratic nation, the people make the decisions, and if there is an unjust law, the people can vote against it, or elect officials to do so.