Released in 2012 as a single from their album, The Heist, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love” featuring Mary Lambert landed at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. This song’s timely political message was felt as the campaign for Washington Referendum 74, the legalization of same-sex marriage in Washington was awaiting approval (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis). Demonstrating his support for marriage equality, Macklemore utilizes a sameness feminist argument to defend his position.
A sameness feminist argument can be distilled to a formula where X and Y are two groups that are the same in all relevant ways where they share the same characteristic C. Y gets some subtreatment T in virtue of C; therefore, X should get T, too (Hackett). In the case of “Same Love”, X is heterosexual people who seek marriage while Y is same-gender loving folk seeking marriage. Macklemore establishes that if he was gay, hip-hop would hate him, that “our culture…don’t have acceptance for ‘em (gay people),” and that “gay is synonymous with the lesser.” In this case, he defines heterosexual people, group X, as those who can legally marry, yet same-gender loving folk, group Y, cannot “be united by law” which is subtreatment T.
To express the similarities, or characteristic C, of these two groups Macklemore turns toward religion and love. The first inclination toward faith starts with the line, “God loves all his children, it’s somehow forgotten.” In turn, Macklemore expresses that all people are children of God and are loved, playing on Christian morals. In the last verse, Macklemore returns to the image of God by arguing “whatever God you believe in, we come from the same one” to expand his argument to all faiths. His validation of individual beliefs to support “humans that have had their rights stolen” capitalizes on the moralistic values most faiths hold around loving one’s neighbor due to their shared connection as children of God. This attention to faith addresses religious argument against marriage equality. This is not the only form of sameness Macklemore draws upon. In the last verse he sings, “underneath it’s all the same love” referring that heterosexual love and same-gender love is the same. He claims “human rights (marriage equality) for everybody” due to their being “no difference” in the type of love same-gender loving folk hold than heterosexual couples.
Macklemore does, however, express a dominance argument laced underneath his lyrics. A dominance approach tackles the root cause of oppression, or in this case, the reason why the legalization of marriage equality has not yet happened. He claims “no law is gonna change us, we have to change us” and that “a certificate on paper isn’t gonna solve it all”. These lyrics hint at how the referenced homophobia throughout the song will not dissipate at the legalization of marriage. “To change us” expresses that the root of homophobia is at the core of who we are and that we have to go to the source not just create legislation. He acknowledges legislation that exists banning marriage equality is due to deep-rooted homophobia in “our culture”. Despite a subtle dominance approach, Macklemore concludes that a piece of paper is “a damn good place to start” to ending homophobia where he continues his argument that we come from the same god (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis).
Therefore, Macklemore’s “Same Love” approach to dominance is an extension of his sameness argument. Heterosexual and same-gender loving folk are the same as they are all children of God and their love is the same, thus same-gender loving folk should be able to marry too. His implementation of a sameness approach to promoting marriage equality in “Same Love” is effective; yet, his argument is stronger due to his acknowledgment that even though queer folk and straight couples are the same, culture does not see it that way. Consequently, this far-reaching song provides room for future activist work through a dominance approach.
(March 2018)
Works Cited
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. “Same Love Feat. Mary Lambert.” Same Love Feat. Mary Lambert,
Macklemore/RyanLewis Studios, Seattle, WA, 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0.
