I have hit two women in my life. One as part of sex play (not my scene, we broke up fast), the other I hit across the face in a fit of rage. She beat me stupid after and I didn't protect myself. We broke up.
That is real life violence against women.
One of them was bullying of the worst sort. It is physical intimidation and the absolute definition of hatred, of women hating.
But is that grounds, is the reality of violence against women, an epidemic of intimidation and bullying for the past 5,000 years and with no end in sight, no not fun it, play with it, sing about it?
Yes, it is all true. It never ends. Women remain the slave of the slave through aggression and ruthless welding of power.
I admit it though I don't do it.
But does that make it off limits in popular music? Can rock not discuss the "body talk and bruises" any less than it can discuss, promote, anti-Semites and racism? I mean, really, can't people make their own minds.up? The recent attack on Tyler the Conqueror by Tegan and Sara begs the question: should it not be sung about? Why do I have to say it is stupid? isn't it obviously. As it says on the album: "Tyler, you obviously have some fucking problems". Listen to "Golden" to hear the other side.
There are a number ways misogyny works in music.
1. "Not Fade Out" -Misogyny as fake and fronting bravado
2. "Baby, Let's Play house" – Misogayny as status quo
3. "Love the One Your With" – Misogyny as insensitive woman using
4. "B Movie" – Misogamy as brutal honesty
5. "99 Problems" – Misogamy as cold indifference.
6. "Bitch, Suck Dick" – Misogyny as violent no joke zone.
Here is a verse from "Bitch, Suck Dick"
You boppin' bitch, you like this dick?
We all know why, cause you's a boppin' bitch
I got a burner, I pop you in your lip
Zoom-zoom, yeah, I'm going fast bitch
I'm loud as fuck, I'm ignorant
Beat your bitch in her mouth just for talkin' shit
You lurkin' bitch? Well, I see that shit
Once again I gotta punch a bitch in her shit
I'm icy bitch, don't look at my wrist
Because if you do, I might blind you bitch
Mount Everest ain't fuckin' with my fuckin' wrist
Fuck global warming, this the ice age bitch
Shocked? Sounds a little ho hum to me… if this is gonna make you beat a woman, Tom And Jerry will make you torture a cat. The song isn't very good, the worse on the album, and lest we miss at least one point, let me show it to you: "I'm loud as fuck, I'm ignorant
Beat your bitch in her mouth just for talkin' shit".
Maybe somebody sees a threat in it, I just can't see it myself. It might SOUND serious, but it is ridiculous. REAL VIOLENCE against women is much more like Costello's "B Movie":
I found America hiding in the corner of my wallet
It's a well kept secret, thought that I had better swallow it
Before they make me spit out the truth
Before they find you're lying about your youth
B movie, that's all you are to me
Just a soft soap story
Don't want the woman to adore me
You can't stand it when it goes from real to reel
Too real too real
You can't stand it when I throw punch lines you can feel
All the time, there's a rule book in Brittania
That no one ever waives
And everybody's on the make
It's not your heart I want to break
Turn out the lights
I'm thinking that I want to go to sleep now
Just give me a promise that I'm supposed to keep now
I don't want some fool asking me why
When I find you're finally making me cry
This is scared, confused, violent. It is real in ways Ty, the Creator simply isn't. He is all false bravado on one hand and teenage angst on the other.
Tegan and Sara think we should be up in arms about it. condemning that. But it is like condemning Siouxie And the Banshees for their "Too many Jews for my liking…" It is just hard to take it seriously.
And even if it isn't.
1. Woman beating is a crime.
2. It hasn't needed Tyler, the Conqueror to bring it to the world's attention.
3. So condemn it but once you've condemned it, then what? On one song he threatens Fox News' Bill O'Reilly daughters. It just ain't serious.