Pink Houses and American Exceptionalism

John Cougar Mellencamp’s hit song, “Pink Houses”, was written with the intention of challenging and debunking American culture and dominant ideologies but the song has been misinterpreted and misused to the point where it is now an anthem for patriotism and the dominant ideologies of American culture. The first verse of the song is about the struggle of an African American man and his community against the federal government when they use eminent domain to take private properties from the community to build an interstate highway. In the song, the specific story is about I-65 in Indiana.

The line, “You know he thinks he’s got it so good,” shows that although he has “an interstate runnin’ through his front yard”, he is glad that he was able to keep his house and was not forced out like his neighbors whose houses had been replaced by the interstate.

The chorus “Oh but ain't that America, for you and me/ Ain't that America, we're something to see baby/ Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah/ Little pink houses for you and me, oh for you and me” mocks American patriotism, rather than supports it. On John Mellencamp’s website, there is a Rolling stone article that is John Mellencamp reflecting on fifteen of his most notable songs. In the article, Mellencamp reflects on the song “Pink Houses” saying, “This one [Pink Houses] has been misconstrued over the years because of the chorus - it sounds very rah-rah. But it's really an anti-American song. The American dream had pretty much proven itself as not working anymore”. Mellencamp did not intend for this song to be used to support the dominant ideologies of American culture and patriotism that it is often used to support. He has actively fought against the use of his songs, including “Pink Houses” for political causes that are at odds with his beliefs and with the true content of his songs, such as the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and John McCain. Although many people consider him one of the faces of a blue-collar, conservative heartland rock movement, he does not support many of the political views and much of the patriotism that is often associated with heartland rock. After 9-11, Mellencamp told the New York Daily News that he found the “U.S.A.-U.S.A.” chants that the crowd would often do at his concerts to be “frightening” and that he would rush between songs so that the audience would not have enough time to start chanting.

The third verse begins with the lines “Well there’s people, and more people. What do they know” this mocks conservative anti immigration ideologies; that illegal immigrants are coming into our country in large numbers through open borders and are causing problems. In the words of the 2016 Republican party’s nominee for president, “People are pouring across our borders unabated. Public reports routinely state great amounts of crime are being committed by illegal immigrants.” John Mellencamp disagrees with this rhetoric, he has played his music at a rally for Hillary Clinton in his home state of Indiana.

The middle two and last two lines of the third verse “Go to work in some high rise and vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico” and “‘Cause the simple man, baby Pays for thrills, the bills, [and] the pills that kill] mock people who fall into working 9 to 5 for corporate America and fall into the cookie cutter conformist patterns of the upper middle class American lifestyle rather than following their dreams and daring to be themselves. Mellencamp has personal experience in this field, he briefly worked installing telephones when he was in college before he moved to New York to pursue a career in music.

The second to last two lines of the third verse, “And there’s winners and there’s losers But they ain’t no big deal” reflects Mellencamp’s distaste for America’s system of corporate capitalism.

There's More To Empire Than What Meets The Eye

Empire, a hit drama on Fox that is centered around the hip hop industry and drama between the family members who built it, exposes a wide variety of stereotypes. The show does not only defy gender stereotypes but it also addresses racial stereotypes as well. Empire is a work of feminism because it is resisting typical roles that women play in the public and private sphere, while also redefining what it means to be a woman in America. In popular culture women are often portrayed as either a wife/mother that is submissive to a man or a sex symbol/seductress that has evil power over men. It is very refreshing to see a complex character such as Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) that takes aspects from both sides of the spectrum and breaks both stereotypes. While the show is very complex it does a great job at using satire to expose the inequality that is so heavily embedded in American culture.


Cookie Lyon automatically breaks the pure and dainty stereotype for women because in the first episode she is being released from prison. The show becomes complicated when it is revealed that Cookie took the fall for Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) by not giving him up when she was caught by the cops. This raises the question is she really showing agency since the reason she is breaking one stereotype is for the “service” of a man, another big stereotype of women. It is clear however that regardless of the reason she still isn’t what was once the ideal woman simply because she was not there for her children and family for 17 years, due to incarceration. Cookie also changes the role of a mother by protecting and providing for kids, a role that was originally a “man’s job.”Cookie goes to extreme lengths to help her sons, such as going up against their “evil” dad Lucious and starting her own label called Lyon Dynasty. This shows independence and that Cookie is fully capable of being their for her son and living her dreams. Cookie also breaks the stereotype that all wifes/mothers can’t be sexy. Cookie is both the seductress and the mother, however she uses her “evil powers” over men for the benefit for her son’s. At one point Cookie rekindles a relationship with an old friend to get a song for her son Jamal.




The agency shown by Cookie in Empire is amazing, even though to break a few stereotype others were enforced. I think overcoming this unequal ideology is a give and take relationship in which you have to lose some battles to win the war. Just as in real life women are starting to be made up in their image and not in the eyes of a man. For this to continue works of feminism such as Empire must to continue to be created to show the world that while equality may not be simple it is definitely achievable, we all just have to do our part.