Feminist Criticism
Feminist Criticism of Petals for Armor by Hayley Williams
Wilson W. Ahrens
Department of Communication, Old Dominion University
COMM 335W: Rhetorical Criticism
Dr. Frances Hassencahl
October 16, 2026
Feminist Criticism of Petals for Armor by Hayley Williams
Decolonization of the mind is a central objective of feminist criticism as defined by Foss, and it is not limited to advocacy for women (Foss, 2026, p. 140). Feminist criticism developed from challenges to patriarchal hegemony, but the frameworks developed by feminist scholars are also useful for challenging the “fundamental assumptions that organize all our thinking” (Foss, 2026, p. 139). Hayley Williams reflects this kind of disruption in the title of her debut solo album, Petals for Armor. Being in an alt-rock band, Williams has had a complex relationship with her femininity, often subverting it and performing hardness for audiences and to protect her own mental well-being within that masculine-dominated niche (Pelly, 2020). This album developed during a period when Williams was questioning that instinct. She asks whether protection requires becoming emotionally hardened and challenges that idea by telling the listener, and herself, to “wrap yourself in petals… petals for armor” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix A).
Each song selected from the album is a complex expression and critique of the self. Williams acknowledges her own role in perpetuating hegemonic assumptions and her complicity in harmful relationships while also mourning the loss and trauma she has suffered within them. She does not portray herself as innocent or as powerless, but as affected, accountable, and capable of deciding what happens next. Across the songs, she determines how to engage her rage, defines femininity within her domestic life, reclaims the narrative surrounding a toxic relationship, performs persistence, and becomes open to intimacy again.
Using Foss’s methods of feminist and ideological criticism, this analysis asks: How do five songs from Petals for Armor disrupt hegemonic assumptions about women, and what alternative forms of power do they construct? I argue that Williams challenges hegemonic assumptions about women but does not reject all the tools of hegemonic power. In fact, she often reappropriates those tools for self-empowerment, reserving softness as an approach to self-care rather than an obligation toward hostile external forces. The alternative power she constructs is based on self-derived control, esteem, and persistence, which ultimately allow her to begin healing from trauma without requiring her to perform respectability.
Feminist Criticism as a Method
Feminist criticism grew out of efforts to resist the oppression of women, but Foss’s method extends beyond evaluating artifacts for misogynistic representations. It examines how rhetors disrupt established ways of thinking, acting, and being and analyzes the alternatives presented. The alternatives Foss covers are equality, which rejects the ranking of people as inherently superior or inferior; immanent value, which means that a person’s worth does not have to be earned or proven; and self-determination, which recognizes individuals as authorities over their own lives (Foss, 2026, pp. 137–139).
Foss asks the critic to first identify and explain the strategies that disrupt hegemonic assumptions and then interrogate how those strategies function. She lists five possible strategies of disruption: generating multiple perspectives, cultivating ambiguity, reframing, enactment, and juxtaposing incongruities. After identifying the strategies within the artifact, the critic assesses whether they successfully achieve their goal of disruption (Foss, 2026, pp. 142–149).
I supplement this procedure with Foss’s method of ideological criticism. This requires identifying the elements of an artifact, evaluating the meanings they suggest, organizing those meanings into an ideology, and examining how that ideology functions for audiences (Foss, 2026, pp. 247–252). For each song, I performed a close reading of the lyrics, vocal performance, and other musical elements. I examined how these elements characterize women and men, who is valued or devalued, and where power is attributed in each song. I then looked at how Williams’s strategies disrupt hegemonic assumptions and what alternatives they construct.
Rhetorical Context and Artifacts
Petals for Armor is Hayley Williams’s debut solo album. She released it in 2020, during the pandemic, after she had spent more than half of her life as the lead singer of Paramore (Pelly, 2020; Williams, 2020). The solo album developed during a period of depression and isolation following Williams’s divorce. In an interview, Williams recalls realizing that she had spent years trying to be tougher than everyone around her, and while creating the album, she began accepting her pain and becoming vulnerable to it rather than allowing it to harden her (Pelly, 2020). Williams also presents vulnerability as a strength, explaining that one person’s willingness to be vulnerable can encourage others to do the same (Riddell, 2020). These interviews provide context, but the song lyrics and musical compositions are the primary artifacts examined in this analysis. The five songs are “Simmer,” “Cinnamon,” “Dead Horse,” “Over Yet,” and “Sugar on the Rim” (Williams, 2020). Complete lyrics are included in Appendices A through E.
I chose Petals for Armor because I felt that it represented one of feminist criticism’s primary objectives as described by Foss: challenging hegemonic assumptions (Foss, 2026, pp. 139, 142). The songs are discussed according to their order on the album. They were chosen because together they create a larger narrative that tells the listener how to interpret their emotional energy. Williams embraces a soft, feminine approach to self-preservation while permitting self-satisfying displays of bitter emotion as well. She does not define femininity through moral purity and admits that she struggles to draw a line between wrath and mercy. These juxtaposed incongruities expose a complexity in women that traditional feminine roles do not account for or permit, giving her authority over how she expresses herself.
“Simmer”
“Simmer” begins with breathwork that gives the impression of practicing control while Williams’s anger remains audible beneath her voice as she smolders out the line, “Rage is a quiet thing” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix A). The bass line throbs. She describes rage as something that creeps in unexpectedly and asks if anger is something inherited in our blood. She later connected this rage to generational trauma among the women in her family, describing her mother and grandmother as part of a long line of survivors (Pelly, 2020).
Williams cultivates ambiguity when she asks “how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix A). She does not celebrate retribution, but she acknowledges the difficulty of being merciful and still compels herself to “simmer down” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix A). Her anger is capable of validating her in the moment, but it cannot vindicate her, and so she acknowledges its capacity to consume her. She opts to breathe. Control. The vocals enact that struggle by allowing the listener to hear her trying to contain an emotion that is difficult to suppress, but she does not argue that women should become harmless. When she says, “If my child needed protection from a fucker like that man, I’d sooner gut him, ‘cause nothing cuts like a mother,” she embraces feminine rage and violence in the role of protecting innocence (Williams, 2020; see Appendix A). Power is not attributed to rage itself, but to how Williams chooses to use it.
Williams does not resolve this tension and ends the song with “ya’ gotta simmer, simmer, simmer” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix A), suggesting an ongoing struggle to manage that emotional energy. “Wrap yourself in petals” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix A) is not a recommendation to de-thorn oneself, but to embrace a feminine mediation of emotional energy and connect with a more ever-present sense of the feminine that is embodied by everyday things in one’s environment. Williams divulges in an interview that she literally enacted this practice by placing bouquets of flowers all around her home as a reminder of the power in choosing softness and began to find feminine expression in new places, including her morning tea of citrus, herbs, and cinnamon (Pelly, 2020; Williams, 2020).
“Cinnamon”
“Cinnamon” explores Williams’s femininity and self-determination through her domestic space (Williams, 2020; see Appendix B). In discussing the song, Williams explained that after leaving an unhealthy marriage, she felt relieved to wake up alone and decide what a morning in her home would look like (Pelly, 2020). The freedom she feels is expressed through leaving the light on and eating breakfast in the nude. All her choices belong to her, and she rejects the idea that she is lonely, proclaiming that she is free.
The statement “Home is where I’m feminine” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix B) cultivates ambiguity because Williams does not explain what femininity must mean. Citrus, cinnamon, nudity, and home all become associated with her experience of femininity, but the song presents it as something she can interpret and experience within a space that she controls, highlighting self-determination. Williams even described masculinity and femininity as qualities that exist within and beyond a gender binary and that anyone can access (Pelly, 2020). This leaves the interpretation open for listeners to embrace gender however they please, thereby challenging a major hegemonic assumption about gender and domesticity.
The domestic sphere has historically been associated with women, and “Cinnamon” does not reject domesticity. Williams reframes her relationship with the home as a place where her body, routines, sensory pleasures, and expressions of femininity belong to her. Men are absent despite the song’s post-divorce context, decentering male authority. That does not prevent the song from saying something about gender and power. Even the unidentified person Williams might allow inside remains conditional on preserving her peace of mind. She controls the threshold and decides whether anyone else receives access to the life she has created within. Williams is valued as sufficient on her own, and power is attributed to her control over her home and her ability to define femininity without requiring outside approval.
“Dead Horse”
“Dead Horse” disrupts the expectation that a woman must be innocent, respectable, and forgiving for her pain to be recognized (Williams, 2020; see Appendix C). The song opens with a real voice memo in which Williams apologizes for taking several days to respond because she was in a depression. The voice recording enacts vulnerability before she converts the experience into a controlled performance (Pelly, 2020).
The opening lyrics describe a recurring dream where Williams wakes up from being held underwater by her partner. I interpret this as a metaphor for emotional suffocation. The man is characterized as suffocating and unfaithful, but Williams does not portray herself as entirely innocent. She admits that she entered the relationship as the other woman and remained when that script flipped. Her assertion that “I got what I deserved” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix C) remains ambiguous. It could be accountability, self-loathing, bitterness, or a mixture of all of those emotions. Williams accepts responsibility for her participation, but that does not mean she deserved a decade of pain. This creates multiple perspectives on the woman in the relationship: she is harmed, participatory, ashamed, and responsible for her decisions without being responsible for everything done to her.
Williams rejects the expectation that she must become the morally superior person after leaving. She calls herself too small to be the bigger person and openly hopes he cries about it. Her bitterness is not perfect healing, but it gives voice to real feelings and creates a moral ambiguity that many recovery narratives would avoid. A pattern emerges in which softness is defined not as traditional feminine endurance, but as a gentle approach to self-care that does not require grace toward past transgressors. The song rejects moral purity while still positioning Williams as someone who has endured. The next song recenters the focus from endurance to persistence.
“Over Yet”
“Over Yet” portrays optimism as deliberate work (Williams, 2020; see Appendix D). The lyrics resemble an exaggerated Jane Fonda-esque workout routine. Williams admitted that she felt cheesy while writing such an openly positive song. She could only finish it by imagining herself as an aerobics instructor motivating people during an apocalypse, until part of her face falls off and reveals that she is a robot underneath (Pelly, 2020). That imagined performance allowed Williams to be ironic in her approach to positivity within emotional darkness without rejecting persistence itself.
The song demonstrates Foss’s strategy of enactment because Williams performs recovery before she has fully achieved it. Repeatedly telling herself that the struggle is not finished does not mean she feels positive and hopeful, but the performance of it helps produce the mindset required to get there. Resistance is also reframed as something that can be approached methodically and worked with to achieve goals rather than treated as just an obstacle. Williams instructs herself to “make it your friend” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix D), replacing an adversarial relationship with a beneficial one. It’s a clever analogy. Exercise literally requires engaging resistance to make your body stronger and more suited for physical challenges. Williams uses this as a metaphor for performing happiness, thereby actively engaging the resistance to it in her own head.
The song ends by recognizing that light and darkness coexist within her: “For every darkened part of me / There’s a light I can see / Both belong / Both are me” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix D). This reflects immanent value because Williams does not have to achieve total recovery before she is worthy. Men are absent, and no outside figure rescues her. Power belongs to Williams as she actively practices persistence and accepts the darker parts of herself.
“Sugar on the Rim”
“Sugar on the Rim” reframes intimacy after pain, while acknowledging that new love cannot erase entirely what came before it (Williams, 2020; see Appendix E). The song juxtaposes old shame, open wounds and scars with sweetness and tenderness: sugar on the rim of a bitter drink. Intimacy cannot remove Williams’s history, but it may allow pleasure and connection to exist beside it. The person addressed only as “you” in the song offers affection to her, but Williams says that she feels redeemed independently of them and establishes her worth before imagining what this new relationship might look like.
Williams also refuses to define herself entirely in light or darkness. She suggests that their painful histories may have been necessary for them to recognize what makes their love different when they retell their “gory story” (Williams, 2020; see Appendix E). The bitterness of the drink is reframed as a necessary ingredient, and the sweetness gives them another way to experience it. Williams remains scarred, but she can choose vulnerability and intimacy without surrendering control over herself. The song attributes power to Williams’s ability to remain open to pleasure and connection after pain, with mutual understanding as the basis of intimacy.
Conclusion
Across the five songs, Williams challenges hegemonic assumptions about how women should engage with their emotions and behave. Women are not portrayed as naturally nurturing, endlessly resilient, or inherently gentle and inoffensive, as Williams consistently exposes and embraces parts of herself that contradict those characterizations. She is angry enough to imagine violence and defends that instinct when it is necessary to protect innocence. She is complicit in a destructive relationship and unapologetically bitter after leaving it, rejecting the idea that she must perform respectability to deserve redemption. In fact, she occasionally reappropriates responses associated with domination, including anger, control, and retribution, to establish boundaries around her emotional, psychological, and physical well-being.
The songs characterize women as affected by hegemonic domination but not as passive victims. In “Simmer,” Williams’s power lies in controlling her rage and having the final say over whether she deals out wrath or chooses mercy. In “Cinnamon,” it is authority over her home and her experience of femininity. In “Dead Horse,” her power lies in accepting accountability while retaining her immanent value and control over the narrative. In “Over Yet,” power is recovered through actively practicing persistence, even before happiness and hope feel natural or true. In “Sugar on the Rim,” it is the ability to choose vulnerability after being hurt without relying on another person to feel redeemed.
Men are directly characterized only in “Simmer” and “Dead Horse,” where they are associated with infidelity and emotional suffocation. “Sugar on the Rim” may imply a potential male partner who is characterized as sweet and gentle, but the gender of “you” remains ambiguous. Men disappear from the remaining songs and Williams increasingly centers her own emotions and recovery. The ideology that emerges rejects the assumption that strength requires a hard external shell while also rejecting moral purity. Williams even embraces hostility when she considers it necessary for protection. Her petals do not act like steel or make her invulnerable, but embracing softness for self-protection does not disarm her. Williams is allowed to remain emotionally responsive and complex, retaining her intensity without losing legitimacy.
This analysis is limited to five songs from one album. Williams’s interviews supplement their context, but her intentions do not determine how every listener interprets the songs. I still adopt my own interpretations of the songs outside of this analysis, and the ideology I find in Petals for Armor supports that practice through its emphasis on self-determination, as feminist disruption does not require every listener to decode the artist’s intended meaning.
The album embraces individualism and uses self-determination to challenge the predefined categories and behavioral norms through which individuals are expected to understand and define themselves. Through its storytelling and progression from rage to renewed intimacy, Petals for Armor deconstructs and redefines femininity and softness under deliberately ambiguous terms. By cultivating ambiguity and generating multiple meanings, the songs resist any single authoritative definition of being. In this way, I believe Williams’s strategies of disruption effectively promote an ideology of feminist expression based on self-determination and immanent value that challenges hegemonic assumptions.
References
Foss, S. K. (2026). Rhetorical criticism: Exploration and practice (6th ed.). Waveland Press.
Pelly, J. (2020, May 8). Hayley Williams breaks down every song on her deeply personal solo album, Petals for Armor. Pitchfork. https://pitchfork.com/features/song-by-song/hayley-williams-petals-for-armor-interview/
Riddell, R. (2020, May 8). Interview: Hayley Williams on her album Petals for Armor. Coup de Main Magazine. https://www.coupdemainmagazine.com/hayley-williams/16647
Williams, H. (2020). Petals for armor [Album]. Atlantic Records.
Appendix A
“Simmer”
Rage is a quiet thing
Ooh, you think that you've tamed it
But it's just lying in wait, hmm
Rage, is it in our veins?
Feel it in my face when
When I least expect it, hmm
Give in
Control, there's so many ways to give in
Eyes closed, another way to make it to ten
Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?
Gotta simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer down
Control, there's so many ways to give in
Eyes closed, another way to make it to ten
Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?
Gotta simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer down
If I had seen my reflection
As something more precious
He would've never, hmm
And if my child needed protection
From a fucker like that man
I'd sooner gut him
'Cause nothing cuts like a mother
Give in
Control, there's so many ways to give in
Eyes closed, another way to make it to ten
Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?
Simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer down
Control, there's so many ways to give in
Eyes closed, another way to make it to ten
Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?
Gotta simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer down
Wrap yourself in petals (wrap yourself)
Wrap yourself in petals (control, control, wrap yourself)
Wrap yourself in petals for armor (control, control)
Petals for armor
Give in
Control, there's so many ways to give in
Eyes closed, another way to make it to ten
Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?
Gotta simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer down
Control, there's so many ways to give in
Eyes closed, another way to make it to ten
Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?
Ya’ gotta simmer, simmer, simmer down
Appendix B
“Cinnamon”
Ah-ah-ah-ah, Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ah-ah-ah, Ah-ah-ah-ah, Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ah-ah-ah, Ah-ah-ah
On the walls of my home
There are signs that I'm alone
I keep on every light
Talk to my dog, he don't mind
Ah-ah-ah-ah, Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ah-ah-ah, Ah-ah-ah-ah, Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ah-ah-ah, Ah-ah-ah
Eat my breakfast in the nude
Lemon water, living room
Home is where I'm feminine
Smells like citrus and cinnamon
Ah-ah-ah-ah (Cinnamon, cinnamon)
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, Ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah (Cinnamon, cinnamon)
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, Ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah (Cinnamon, cinnamon)
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, Ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah (Cinnamon, cinnamon)
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah, Ah-ah-ah-ah
I'm not lonely
I am free
But if I let you in
You would never want to leave
(If I let you, if I let you in)
If ever I let you in
Cinnamon
I'm not lonely, baby, I am free
Mmm, finally
I'm not lonely, babe, I am free
Ah-ah-ah-ah
(I'm not lonely, babe, cinnamon, cinnamon)
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, Ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah, (I'm not lonely, babe, cinnamon, cinnamon)
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, Ah-ah-ah, Ah-ah-ah
If I let you in, cinnamon
If I let you in, cinnamon
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Appendix C
“Dead Horse”
Alright, it took me three days to send you this, but
Uh, sorry, I was in a depression
But I'm trying to come out of it now
Every morning I wake up
From a dream of you holding me
Under water (Was that a dream or a memory?)
Held my breath for a decade
Dyed my hair blue to match my lips
Cool of me to try (Pretty cool I'm still alive) ahh
I beat it like a dead horse
I beat it like a drum
Oh, I stayed with you too long
Skipping like a record
I sang along to a silly little song
I said I beat it like a dead horse
I beat it like a drum
Oh, I stayed with you too long
Skipping like a record
I sang along, a shitty, never-ending song
Sometimes it's good to be the bigger person
But I'm so small I can't compare
And after all, it's only fair, yeah
I got what I deserved
I was the other woman first
Other, others on the line
But I kept trying to make it work, ahh
I beat it like a dead horse
I beat it like a drum
Oh, I stayed with you too long
Skipping like a record
I sang along to a silly little song
I said I beat it like a dead horse
I beat it like a drum
Oh, I stayed with you too long
Skipping like a record
I sang along to your shitty little song
Ya-ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya
Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya
Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya
When I said goodbye, I hope you cried
When I said goodbye, I hope you cried
When I said goodbye, I hope you cried
When I said goodbye, I hope you cried, ah
I beat it like a dead horse
I beat it like a drum
Oh, I stayed with you too long
Skipping like a record
I sang along to a silly little song
I said I beat it like a dead horse
I beat it like a drum
Oh, I stayed with you too long
Skipping like a record
I sang along, and now you get another song
Ya-ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya
Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya
Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (Now you get another song)
Ya-ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya
Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya
Ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya-ya
Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya (Now you get another song)
Appendix D
“Over Yet”
If there's resistance
If there's resistance
It makes you stronger
It's not the end
If there's resistance
If there's resistance
It makes you stronger
Make it your friend
When there's persistence
When there's persistence
You can go farther
Beyond the end
If in the distance
There's more resistance
Try to stay open
Make it your friend
It's the right time to come alive
Baby, if you wanna try
To get out of your head, yes, break a sweat
Baby, tell yourself it ain't over yet
It's the right time to come alive
Baby, if you wanna try
To get out of your head, yes, break a sweat
Baby, tell yourself it ain't over yet
If there's resistance
If there's resistance
It makes you stronger
It's not the end
When there's persistence
When there's persistence
You can go farther
Make it your friend
It's the right time to come alive
Baby, if you wanna try
To get out of your head, yes, break a sweat
Baby, tell yourself it ain't over yet
It's the right time to come alive
Baby, if you wanna try
To get out of your head, yes, break a sweat
Baby, tell yourself it ain't over yet
For every darkened part of me
For every darkened part of me
For every darkened part of me
It's the right time to come alive
Baby, if you wanna try
To get out of your head, yes, break a sweat
Baby, tell yourself it ain't over yet
It's the right time to come alive (for every darkened part of me)
Baby, if you wanna try (there's a light I can see)
To get out of your head, yes, break a sweat (both belong)
Baby, tell yourself it ain't over yet (both are me)
It's the right time, to get out of your head
Appendix E
“Sugar on the Rim”
Sugar on the rim
Sugar on the rim
Sugar on the rim
Sugar on the rim
Sugar on the rim
Sugar on the rim
Do you taste old shame
When you lick my wounds
'Cause I feel redeemed in spite of you
Had a life in hiding but a storm kept coming in
Could you be the silver lining like sugar on the rim
You took me by
You took me by
You took me by
Surprise
You took me by
You took me by
You took me by
Surprise
Never felt this sensation
A kiss to every scar
Eclipse my expectation
Shock to my heart
Sugar on the-
Sugar on the-
Sugar
Sugar
On the rim
On the rim
I love to play with our shadows
In and out of the glow
I'm not afraid of a dark side
Just tell me things I don't know
Maybe we just had to feel it
So we’d know the difference
When we tell our gory story
With a sweetness on our lips
You took me by
You took me by
You took me by
Surprise
Never felt this sensation
A kiss to every scar
Eclipse my expectation
Shock to my heart
Never felt this sensation (Sensation)
A kiss to every scar (Scar)
Eclipse my expectation
Shock to my heart
Sugar on the rim
Sugar on the rim
Sugar on the rim
Sugar on the rim
Sugar on the rim
Bitter if you walk away
Mm, sweeter if you stay
Bitter if you ever walk away
'Cause it just gets sweeter by the day
Bitter if you walk away (Sugar on the rim)
Mm, sweeter if you stay
Bitter if you ever walk away (Walk away)
'Cause it just gets sweeter by the day
Never felt this sensation
A kiss to every scar
Eclipse my expectation
Shock to my heart (Sugar on the rim)
Never felt this sensation (Sensation)
A kiss to every scar (Scar)
Eclipse my expectation
Shock to my heart
Sugar on the-
Sugar on the-
Sugar
Sugar
On the rim
On the rim
