I just wish you were gay. This song was written 3 years ago and uploaded to SoundCloud as a rough recording that was done in her room. She later announced that it was going to be properly recorded and be put on her debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” and also released as a single before the album actually dropped. When people first saw the name of the song some people were offended because they taught she was bashing the LGBTQ+ community, but she quickly made a statement saying that its message is not meant to offensive but just that she wishes he was gay because then he wouldn’t like her for an actual reason. Billie Eilish made this song about the first boy she had a crush on that didn’t feel the same way about her. Using the Rhetorical Situation analysis, I will go ahead analyze this song. The exigence of this song is that the boy that Billie loves does not feel the same way about her, throughout the whole song she sings about how she wants to make him feel okay, that she wish’s he would stay, and that she wishes that she didn’t want to stay. In her lyrics she even is so upset that he doesn’t love her back that she asks if there is a 12 Step program to get over him, as referencing the 12 steps in alcohol anonymous, the lyrics being “Is there a 12 step just for you?
“Our conversation’s all in blue
11 ‘Heys’ (Hey, hey, hey, hey)
Ten fingers tearing out my hair
Nine times you never made it there
I ate alone at 7, you were six minutes away”.
This song was written and made by Billie because of how bad she felt from being rejected by this boy that she had such deep feelings for. As for the audience of this song for her it would be the boy it is written about and also her fans of course. She made this song for this boy as a way to let her feelings out and to stop holding them in. It was of letting go for her. As I said before she did make this song 3 years ago in her bedroom so I am sure back then she didn’t think it would reach the amount of people it has now. Her putting it in the album for her fans to listen to I think she did this because it is common for people to have such strong feelings about people but for that person to not feel the same way back, which is an awful feeling. So, it is nice to be able to relate to a song and to an artist that is in a major limelight. The constraints and opportunities for this song are that she her saying “I wish you were gay” is relatable to her fans because that would be a better reason for someone not to like you back, instead of that person just being completely not interested in you if they were straight. A constraint for this song is that people that listen to it or just read the title might think that she is being homophobic. As for the guy it was meant for I think that the opportunities for this song are that if he has a good sense of humor that he will think it is funny and another being that he could see the way he treated her wasn’t fair and that maybe he could do something about it. As for constraints he could just be offended by her wishing that he was gay or just be upset that she out a song out for everyone to hear about his personal life. Overall, I think that the goal of this song for its audience as the fans is fitting and a good response because of how much her fans love it and relate to it so well. As for the guy it was written for, fun fact he thought it was funny because when she had first wrote the song everyone thought that he was straight, but he did end up being gay so him and Billie just laugh about it now.
Alexa Mendez’s Blog 
I found it!
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You’ve applied the method completely, advanced a clear claim about a fitting response, and supported it with details from the text (including direct lyric quotes). In short, this is a solid start!
I have a few suggestions:
1) First, make sure you explain the method, usually about a paragraph. Pretend you are explaining how to use the method to a COMM major not in our class. What would they need to know to use this method? As you construct that, you should draw upon the materials in the reading reports (e.g., a definition for exigence directly from the Bitzer article) to help with the portion where you explain the method. You don’t need to fix this now — but try to do this in subsequent posts to save you time digging up the quotes at the end of the semester.
2) You should split your post up into more paragraphs. Right now, the text is in pretty large blocks, and readers need some breathing room. For example, in a rhetorical situation post you might have these paragraphs: intro, explain the method, exigence, audience, constraints, conclusion. They’ll be short paragraphs, but the divisions help the reader (and they’ll help you see if you have one that you’re overlooking or that needs more support, etc.). You may have other bits (like the pulled out lyrics) that help provide visual breaks, too.
3) You address exigence and constraints clearly. You might amplify your coverage of audience. Identify WHO the specific “fan” audience is. You’ll need to do some research to dig up who the primary audiences are for her work. Do you see her address them specifically in the song? Does having that conversation in front of the “boy” affect the message in any way?
4) Finally, you have bits at the end of the post (like about how he turned out in real life to be gay, after all) that you need some sources to support. You can cite online materials (like fandom articles, popular press interviews, etc.) for that, but make sure you substantiate/support your evidence so your readers have a place they can go if they want to learn more 🙂
Note that revision suggestions aren’t for right now. They’re to use at the end of the semester, when we will revise and polish everything for the final post/paper. For now, they’re just in the bank of comments you can revisit later. 🙂
This is a solid start. You’re using the method well, providing sufficient examples, and heading down the right path. Keep at it!
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I read this!
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I read this! Great post
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You did a good job of explaining the song and what it’s about. I’ve heard the song before, but I’d argue that those who haven’t would have a good understanding of what it’s about after having read your post. I think your post would be a little more clear if you separated each section (explanation of rhetorical situation, exigence, audience, constraints/opportunities, goal) into different paragraphs. Make “The exigence of this song is that the boy that Billie loves does not feel the same way about her, throughout the whole song she sings about how she wants to make him feel okay, that she wish’s he would stay, and that she wishes that she didn’t want to stay” the start of the second paragraph. The split up the bottom paragraph into two or three other paragraphs.
I love Billie Eilish’s music, and I’m excited to follow posts about it 🙂
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