Kairos in "Respect" by Aretha Franklin

            Aretha Franklin’s singing career became victorious after choosing the best kairotic moment to release her version of the song “Respect.” It is fair to say that this was a triumphant moment for her because this song led her to be at the top of the music charts during the 1960’s, taking the number one spot in the R&B Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100. Her version of the song is still very well known to this day. Regarding her rhetorical appeal of kairos, she made an effective use of them. Kairos refers to the context, background, events, timing, appropriateness and opportunity preceding the creating of a work of art in any of its forms. The release of Franklin’s song happened during a kairotic period in the sense that several of the most historic feminist movements were going on at the time (1960’s) and women who were part of these movements identified so much with the lyrics of the song that it became like a feminist anthem for them. The Women’s Liberation Movement, for example, was already taking place before the song was released. By 1967, millions of women were taking action by joining the feminist movement, aggressively fighting for equality and against oppression and discrimination through several marches and protests. What a better way to address the issue of gender discrimination than demanding men to give women the respect they deserve? And that’s exactly what Aretha Franklin did with her song. She literally asks for respect when she sings, “All I’m askin’ is for a little respect...” She even spells it, in case someone did not get what she was clearly asking for in her song. She demands “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”

            The recording artist, Franklin, was motivated to compose or rearrange this song by the thousands of women joining the street marches to fight gender inequality. In her song, following the word respect, she makes a command by singing “find out what it means to me.” As a woman, this was a very important topic for her. This song was originally composed by a man named Otis Redding. But the context and the timing in which Aretha Franklin released her own version with some changes to the original one gave a whole new meaning to the song. As it has been stated on the National Public Radio website, “’Respect’ wasn’t a feminist anthem until Aretha Franklin made it one.” This means that after the success of her song, Aretha Franklin was automatically becoming part of the struggle for gender equality because that was the main purpose of the feminist movements at the time.