From Jada Pinkett Smith's facebook feed... this is why we must call this stuff out.

[redqueen]

Who will love our daughters?

Who will love our daughters when abuse is the norm? Who will love our daughters from this generation of young men who are being raised by a form of music that promotes sexual and physical violence towards women as acceptable making the violation silent and invisible? And what of our daughters whose acceptance of these disturbing, hateful lyrics is because they simply didn't notice them or they don't matter 'cause the beat is so tight? So...to my women, when will we stop singing the songs, buying the tickets and cheering in the stands? When will we make the connection that through our acceptance, our financial support we are reinforcing a mentality that makes it okay to gang rape a girl and proudly pass pictures around of the incident or even lead to committing brutal crimes like the one we are witnessing in Cleveland. When will we love ourselves, our daughters and our sons enough to say...NO MORE?

J

I mentioned the other day that I like music that carries shitty messages about women. I do, I won't lie. But I can't keep liking it. The first time I hear it, when all I'm hearing is the beat and the melody and not noticing the message yet, I can really enjoy it. Then I hear the message. Then I feel guilty for liking it. Then, I no longer enjoy listening to it. I still know I like the beat, and the melody, and I will wish I could enjoy it the way I did, but it's just not possible. The cognitive dissonance gets to be too much for me.

I also talk to my girls about this stuff, when we hear such songs on the radio. I want them to be conscious of the messages being carried along with the music, as well.

When I hear or see stuff that women need to be more conscious of not supporting, I don't just cringe internally. I say something. I call out why it is problematic. Because the more conscious we become of these things, the less likely we are to keep unconsciously supporting things that contribute to the mistreatment of women.

I saw this on facebook and just had to share it. It made me feel hopeful, thinking that more and more women are starting to call this stuff out, and challenging it, and fighting back.

[abelenkpe]

1. Driving home the other day

With kiddos in the car this song from 30 seconds to Mars comes on:

I've been up in the air, out of my head,
Stuck in a moment of emotion I destroyed.
Is this the end I feel?
Up in the air, fucked up our life,
All of the laws I broke and loves that I've sacrificed.
Is this the end?

I'll wrap my hands around your neck so tight with love, love.

A thousand times I tempted fate.
A thousand times I played this game.
A thousand times that I have said,
Today, today, today.

Whoa, oh oh oh oh oh
Whoa, oh oh oh oh oh

I've been up in the air lost in the night.
I wouldn't trade it all for your life.
You lust for my life.
Is this the end?

Hey!

You were the love of my life, the darkness, the light.
This is a portrait of a tortured you and I.
Is this the, is this the, is this the end?

I'll wrap my hands around your neck so tight with love, love, love.


----------------------

Catchy tune. Seriously Fd up lyrics. I know what you mean. So many songs have violent lyrics when you actually listen. Think this is more about the choking game but still....took the opportunity to point out how messed up and violent the lyrics were and found something else for us to listen to.

[seabeyond]

2. fuck her til she cant stand no mo.

i had my 15 yr old son and my 18 yr old nephew in the car. i LOVE music. i love beat, and i never listen to words. my son is always turning the radio thru channels. (i have serus?). i love rap. easy music to dance to.

we had been talking music and playing it for a while, doing on driving around on errands. had the music loud. moving to a song and heard.... "fuck her til she cant stand no more"

i went off.

we have conversation about this. they tell me there was songs (an areosmith song) that was just as bad in our day. i looked up the lyrics. told the boys, a whole lot difference in play of sex and.... fuck her til she cant stand no mo.

i agree.

cant be quiet about this. effects all of us. we HAVE to speak up.

[ismnotwasm]

6. Oh it was there back in the day. It's always been there.

The more brutal lyrics were codified unless you someone like The lovely Ted Nugent, who was always nuts. At least with "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" he was brutally honest. I guess.


Another fave from him:

Stranglehold

Here I come again now baby
Like a dog in heat
Tell it's me by the way now baby
I like to tap the streets

Now I've been smoking for so long
You know I'm here to stay
Got you in a stranglehold baby
You best get out of the way

Gonna cruise is a bitch now baby
You know you can't do me 'round
If your house gets in my way baby
You know I'll burn it down

You remember the night that you left me
You put me in my place
Got you in a stranglehold now baby
You better cross your way

Sometimes you want to get higher
Sometimes you gotta start low
Some people think they gonna die someday
I got news you never got to go old

Come on come on up
Come on come on up
Come on come on up
Come on come on up
Come on come on baby
Come on come on up
Come on come on baby
Come on come on
Gonna cruise is a bitch now baby
You know you can't do me 'round
If your house gets in my way baby
You know I'll burn it down
You remember the night that you left me
You put me in my place
Got you in a stranglehold now baby
You better cross your way


Think "Run for your Life" by the Beatles "Under my thumb" by the Rolling Stones. Because of censorship laws, lyrics sounded milder but theres a number of them that are pretty bad. Even "every Breathe you Take by the police sounds stalkerish.

Father figure by George Micheal:


I will be your father figure
Put your tiny hand in mine
I will be your preacher teacher
(Be your daddy)
Anything you have in mind
I will be your father figure
I have had enough of crime
I will be the one who loves you -
Until the end of time
That's all I wanted
But sometimes love can be mistaken
For a crime


Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones


Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he's doing alright
Hear him with the women just around midnight

Brown sugar
How come you taste so good?
Brown sugar
Just like a young girl should

Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wonderin' where it's gonna stop
House boy knows that he's doing alright
You shoulda heard him just around midnight

Brown sugar
How come you taste so good, now?
Brown sugar
Just like a young girl should, now

Get along, brown sugar
How come you taste so good, baby?
Got me feelin' now, brown sugar
Just like a black girl should

I bet your mama was a tent show queen
Had all the boyfriends at sweet sixteen
I'm no schoolboy but I know what I like
You shoulda heard me just around midnight

Brown sugar
How come you taste so good, baby?
Brown sugar
Just like a young girl should, yeah

I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah
How come you, how come you taste so good?
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Just like a, just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah"


Here's a few from cracked.com

http://www.cracked.com/article_18431_8-romantic-songs-you-didnt-know-were-about-rape.html

[redqueen]

10. I think hip hop and rap get an unfair amount of criticism for this.

It's always been there, but now that we have porn culture on steroids, the music is reflecting it. Can't really blame the music for reflecting the values of society. We have to blame society for tolerating and rewarding those who advance those things as being valuable messages.

I mean think about it, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young all sang about actually killing women. That's so much worse than pornified, violent sex.

It runs through music from Lou Chrtistie and Ricky Nelson to The Rolling Stones and current bands.

[DonCoquixote]

14. True but I would say

that even when you had wicked lyrics in the old days, few took them seriously, Yes, you had manson, but manson was deranged on his own. Part of the problem is that the line between reality and fantasy is purposefully, willfully blurred nowadays, so that any idiot can become a marketed celebrity.

[LanternWaste]

16. I'm a big fan of early 20th century music...

I'm a big fan of early 20th century music (parlor songs, tin pan alley, and its predecessors for the most part), and over the past few months, I've really been awakened to the amount of male chauvinism in these early top 40 hits, and the attitudes of society the lyrics represented.

For example, a wonderfully toe-tapping piece is Hugh Canon's, 'Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey?' (get Harry Connick's cover of it, and I'm dancing already). We don't know why Bill left, or under what circumstances, but his wife's response in both taking the blame and pleading for his return is...

"...I'll do de cooking, darling, I'll pay de rent; I knows I've done you wrong; ‘Menber dat rainy eve dat I drove you out, Wid nothing but a fine tooth comb? I knows I'se To blame; well, ain't dat a shame? Bill Bailey, won't you please come home? home?"

Granted, it's not as dramatic (or violent) as The Beatles 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer', but therein lies its strength-- it's (and songs like it) never analyzed as a social commentary against women, but simply for its standard 32-bar composition.

And as you said earlier in the thread, it's a tough thing to reconcile the chauvinism in the art with the art itself. I've always been a firm believer in separating the art from the artist, but how does one separate the art from the art? How does one rationalize the enjoyment of a song (or a poem, or a book) that engenders chauvinism (at best) or even violence against women (at worst)? A question that I don't think I'll be able to answer anytime in the near future.

[judesedit]

3. Excellent post.Thank you, Jada, for putting it on facebook and thank you, redqueen, for posting here

[niyad]

4. k and r--there are so many songs that carry such wrong messages

"lightning" by lou christy, and "angel of the morning" have always been what I called flip sides of the same woman-hating message, and those lyrics were fairly innocuous.

[redqueen]

11. I was so young when I heard that Lou Christie song...

and even then I was completely blown away by the message.

[KT2000]

5. Wow! This is great! n/t

[ismnotwasm]

7. Why I listen to this every so often from Ice T

The "Tank Girl" soundtrack

Yes it's violent and still sexist, but it's about a pissed off women, I'm a sucker for 'Kill Bill'type scenarios.

It's goin' down, yo the girl got a gun, best run
Because she's quick to flip and empty out the clip
And make a man understand where she's comin' from
The hardcore's connected to the base of her fate

She just breaks and bring drama to the situation
Ejaculation of my projectile, she's buck wild
Better recognize when she comes she comes correct
Collects respect and if not, you catch a broken neck

Buddy look down and your shirts all bloody, looks like
She caught you with a bad one for messin' with da mad one
Told you 'bout this girl before, you didn't listen to me, as I talk now
You're stalked by the hunter of the fronter who's size five and sexy

Quick, they catch your body and another one next week
Huh, it doesn't matter 'cuz the girl stays strapped
She says she had enough of men and now she's lookin' for payback
And there's no way you can fade her, son
She walks softly but she carries a big gun

She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
And there's no way that you can fade her, son

She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun

The most venomous feminist homie, she ain't soft
You give her trouble then she might cut your head off
Or something that you like to think's the best
She'll blow big holes in your chest

She says she gotta 'cuz she says a lotta ladies won't
She says she gotta 'cuz she says a lotta ladies don't
She says she gotta 'cuz she says a lotta ladies can't
She says she gotta 'cuz she knows a lotta ladies

Romance the thoughts of giving men their own medicine
Electrocute 'em, light 'em up like Con Edison
She got no fear five rings in their ear, holes in their nose
Way-out clothes, living life to the fullest buck shot and bullets

Triggers she'll pull it, Earth she wanna rule it, maybe she will
'Cuz she's quick to kill, the city lights make her dresses tight
Yes she bites, you never know where she'll come from
She walks softly but she carries a big gun

She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
And there's no way that you can fade her, son

She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun

You got no time to trip or argue, you're through, I'll bet she gets ya
Homeboy you'll catch a stretcher like so many before, she's on a
Body count tour but not rock she's puttin' sucker punks in cops
You say she's nothin' but a woman then you come up shot

You say, "Why you wanna kill me?" and she says "Why not?"
Pop, she got a body that'll make you cry
Pop, she got a shawty that'll make you die
Don't bring drama to her homie 'cuz you'll wind up flat

She'll put your ass horizontal then she'll peel your cap
She got no lovin', love is something that she never had
She loved her mother but she hate her motherfucking dad
So stay the hell out her way 'cuz the girl don't play none

She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
So don't even try to play her, son.

She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
She walks softly but she carries a big gun
So don't even try to front, son

She walks softly but she carries a big gun

She walks softly but she carries a big gun

She walks softly but she carries a big gun
...



Read more: ICE T - BIG GUN LYRICS

[ismnotwasm]

8. And OTEP

"The Lord Is My Weapon"

Eternal salvation suffers from inflation

Say what you need to, save your soul
But don't fuck with me,
I'm loosin' control
I'm so tired of this, so sick of you
My tongue is battered and bruised from all these attitudes

Teach me the magic of your sacred poems
Conjuring a voice of signs and omens
Prophecies got debris
The syllables and symbols breath
And as we climb, divine
To sacrifice our wounded minds
This awkward chance to seek, insanity
I can't save you, 'cause I hate me

The lord is my weapon
And I see him shoot pawns
Woman is the devil
Your god is a fraud
Everyone you knew
Everything you've ever done
Suffer for your freedom
Die by the law

The lord is my weapon
And I see him shoot pawns
Woman is the devil
Your god is a fraud
Everyone you knew
Everything you've ever done
Suffer for your freedom
Die by the law

Say what you need to save your soul
But leave your religion at the door
Smoking all of Christians weed
I'm sick of these weak anarchies
You see me as a place to make a bruise
But in my reality I'm a slave to the muse
Fuck these hypocrites, and together will fight

Tyranny of squares, squiggles unite

The lord is my weapon
And I see him shoot pawns
Woman is the devil
Your god is a fraud
Everyone you knew
Everything you've ever done
Suffer for your freedom
Die by the law

All you sinners
Blasphemers
Burn in the pit
Burn
Burn
Burn

The lord is my weapon
And I see him shoot pawns
Woman is the devil
Your god is a fraud
Everyone you knew
Everything you've ever done
Suffer for your freedom
Die by the law

Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me

[Exultant Democracy]

9. "She ws just 17, you know what I mean" "Young girl get out of my mind""Girl you'll be a woman soon"

Nothing new under the sun. But the statistics speak for themselves violence and crime including violence against women is at an all time low and has been dropping dramatically for the last 20 years. Violent video games, music with lyrics that disgust you and even the boogie man of internet porn have all been on the rise during this historic 20 year down swing in crime and violence.

Final thought, people said the same thing about Shakespeare, low brow sex and violence corrosive to the morals of society.

[redqueen]

12. Things are better now than in the past, so STFU about misogynist lyrics... is that your point?

(reeeeaaallly need that wanking smiley)

[Jim Lane]

15. You're citing "Young Girl" but its message is exactly the opposite.

The singer is unhappy to find out that the "woman" is really an underage girl. Key lyric: "My love for you is way out of line."

Full lyrics here.

If a musician sang something like, "I feel like I ought to slap you around but I know that's wrong," that would still excite some critics' ire, simply because it honestly recognized that some people sometimes have violent impulses toward loved ones, but it wouldn't be promoting abuse the way some of the lyrics quoted in this thread do.

[tblue]

13. Love it. Will Smith's rap lyrics

are actually very sweet and show what a decent guy he is. It's almost a serious parody of the real thing (I guess--because I don't listen to too much rap). I like Naz too, and I haven't heard any of his lyrics that sounded anti-woman.

[Luminous Animal]

17. Sara Jones' "your revolution will not happen between these thighs"

http://sarahjonesonline.com/working/poetry/your-revolution/

This song was actually banned from some radio markets while the music she was criticizing played on.

your revolution will not happen between these thighs
your revolution will not happen between these thighs

the real revolution
ain’t about booty size
the Versaces you buys
or the Lexus you drives

and though we’ve lost Biggie Smalls
your Notorious revolution
will never allow you to lace no lyrical douche in my bush
your revolution will not be you killing me softly with Fugees
your revolution won’t knock me up and produce li’l future MCs
because that revolution will not happen between these thighs

your revolution
will not find me in the
backseat of Jeep with LL
hard as hell
doin’ it & doin’ it & doin’ it well

your revolution will not be you
smackin’ it up, flippin’ it, or rubbin’ it down
nor will it take you downtown or humpin’ around
because that revolution will not happen between these thighs
your revolution will not have me singing
ain’t no nigger like the one I got
your revolution will not be you
sending me for no VD shot
your revolution will not involve me feeling your nature rise
or helping you fantasize
because that revolution will not happen between these thighs
and no, my Jamaican brother, your revolution
will not make me feel boombastic and really fantastic
have you groping in the dark for that rubber wrapped in plastic

your revolution will not be me tossing my weave
making believe I’m some caviar-eating, ghetto mafia clown
or me givin’ up my behind just so I can get signed
have someone else write my rhymes?
I’m Sarah Jones, not Foxy Brown
your revolution makes me wonder, where could we go
if we could drop the empty pursuit of props and the ego
revolt back to our Roots, use a little Common sense on a Quest
to make love De La Soul, no pretense … but
your revolution will not be you flexing your sex and status
to express what you “feel”

your revolution will not happen between these thighs
will not happen between these thighs
will not be you shaking and me faking between these thighs
because the revolution, when it finally comes, is gon’ be real