“Little Game” (Benny, 2014). A product of the cultural politics of the millennial age, “Little Game” was conceived by 15-year-old Ben J. Pierce, who purposefully designed the song and video to fit into the conduits of social media. The song and video protest the robotic complacency of standardized gender roles and the consequences of non-conformity. The video echoes the putatively naiveté of the lyrics. The point is that the hegemony of traditional gender construction is so, so simple to go along with, like a game, given that it literally begins as a role-playing game at childhood. But the realities are quite serious: a socially condoned banishment of many individuals into a kind of nightmarish land of misfit gender where not just gender “freaks” suffer but kill themselves. Not child’s play at all.
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Protest Songs: A Turnip Truck(s) List
The word “protest” comes from the Latin noun testis, “one who attests, witness.” To protest thus is to bear witness, to testify publicly, to invoke, in front of or before the public. With this in mind, the editors at The Turnip Truck(s) have compiled a list of what we consider the greatest protest songs of all time. Songs that testify or bear witness to an idea, issue, political or humanitarian problem. Songs that invoke or call upon people to listen, be aware, act. Look for a new protest song every Sunday at The Turnip Truck(s).