How Must the Music Industry Change in order to Stamp out Misogyny?
Popular music has an enormous influence on modern culture. A song can change one’s mood, galvanise, depress or comfort the listener. Whether you’re someone who knows all the lyrics to Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti, as it is now universally known, or can’t even remember the words to Happy Birthday — concerning to say the least — the imagery seeps into your subconscious and, if the tune is catchy enough, it might play on repeat forever (that’s right, forever).
If you’ve ever felt frustrated after turning on the car radio and hearing that song-you-don’t-actually-like-but-can’t-seem-to-stop-humming, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s in the restaurant you looked forward to eating at only to find a queue of 100 other altruistic ‘eat out to help out’ diners, it’s in the taxi home three hours later than your preferred exit time, and once you arrive back, it’s playing on your kid’s iPad from the kitchen pantry when they should be asleep upstairs. What’s your kid doing in the pantry at 11pm?
Bad babysitters aside, it’s worth giving a damn about the nature of music that ends up in the charts, dominating radio airplay and infiltrating your peaceful day out at Tesco, where the good air con is. Considering mainstream music’s ever presence, it’s concerning to reflect on the misogynistic nature of so many songs.
Defamatory language towards women has been used in popular music since the rock and roll days, with performers such as Ted Nugent singing about Jailbait, alluding to engaging in sexual acts with underage girls — most likely groupies — and The Rolling Stones’ Under My Thumb, featuring lyrics such as “Under my thumb, is a squirmin’ dog who’s just had her day.”
In 1991, hip hop group N.W.A popularised the use of degrading language toward women within the gangsta rap subgenre upon the release of their final album, containing corkers such as She Swallowed it, To Kill a Hooker and One Less Bitch. Although reprehensible, this work is likely a result of black men, having been subjugated, enslaved and slandered by white colonizers, needing a way to vent their frustrations. As The Journal of Black Studies, written by Terri M. Adams and Douglas B. Fuller posits:
“Rap artists who use misogynistic imagery in their music probably do so for a variety of reasons. First, misogynistic lyricists, like other Americans, have been influenced by the dominant culture’s views about who African American women are as a group and particularly, about who they are sexually… Using such lyrics allows the male artists to boost themselves while degrading their female counterparts… [it] allows these artists to exalt themselves in a world that constantly oppresses them. It’s a means of asserting their masculinity.”
As a result of widespread indoctrination, particularly in the US, by white men in power who have painted black women as Sapphires and Jezebels (or ‘bitches’ and ‘hos’) among other damaging and demeaning characterisations, black women have become the scapegoat to justify white oppressors’ behaviour and attitudes towards the black community. Modern day hip hop artists have continued to spread these narratives, artists such as Chris Brown, who infamously beat Rihanna without making a dent in his career, Kanye West with noughties club classic Goldigger and Jay Z with Big Pimpin’ back in 2000. Songs like these are at the intersection of racism and misogyny, as the artists named are mostly talking about black women and featuring them in their music videos.
Whilst male rappers, hip hop and pop artists — *cough* Robin Thicke *cough* — have made money off the back of violent and sexually abusive lyricism, women cannot even talk about having a well-lubricated vagina without being lambasted, as seen by the recent vitriol against Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion over their new single, WAP. Since the songs release, the successful collaborators have been scrutinized, mainly by white men, who appear to take issue with a woman expressing the fact that she’s turned on and wants to have sex. Whether you like the song or not, we should be drawing parallels between the way women are torn down for lyrics that empower other females, whilst men singing and rapping explicitly about their own sexual desires is commonly accepted.
With this in mind, it’s always refreshing to see male artists choosing to raise women up. Hip hop and R&B newcomer, Jay Q the Legend has been climbing the charts upon the release of his latest single Amazing Girl, stressing that “it is time to highlight women and their daily contributions to humanity, this is what my song is about, to express how truly amazing women are.” Speaking of Legends, John Legend, has made his feminist alignment clear not only in his music but in his direct speech, stating that “All men should be feminist. If men cared about women’s rights, the world would be a better place. We are better off when women are empowered, it leads to a better society.”
We need to see more men supporting women and making their feminist sensibilities clear in their words, in their actions and in their art. This is the only way we will continue to see progress within the current feminist movement. As consumers of contemporary music, it is also our responsibility to carefully consider which artists we are supporting with our streams and downloads. We cannot feign ignorance when it comes to misogynistic music without simultaneously deeming it ok to treat women with a lack of respect.
