I heard the lyrics of a song by Helen Reddy:
I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
[…]
I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin' arms across the land
But I'm still an embryo
With a long, long way to go
The noun woman is used without an article throughout the song. Yet, when the singer says she is an embryo, the indefinite article is used. Is this usage of "woman" correct?
I think that "woman" in the song, is similar to "God" in the phrase "In God we trust." Am I right?
Best Answer
"I am woman", in this sense, means that the singer is acting as a representative/personification of the entire class of women.
Upon seeing the first test explosion of an atomic bomb Robert Oppenheimer quotes Hindu scripture with "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds", meaning (I presume) that he feels a responsibility for the deaths that are likely to follow, and, in a sense feels like the Devil, or whatever force other you associate with death.