What love songs are not sexist?

[DeviTheGaelet]

Discuss....

[DeviTheGaelet]

Not really. My DH has just been playing "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton on his guitar. I hate that song. Complete twaddle where the woman is wonderful because a) she looks after him when he's being a drunk/stoned idiot and b) she's hot and he likes the reflected glory of having arm candy. Everything in the song is about him.
Anyway DH asked me what love songs were not sexist. What do you think?
(I said lady in red by Chris de Burgh, I don't love the song but at least it's actually about the woman rather than him!!)

[ScrambledSmegs]

I like Trouble Me by 10,000 Maniacs. Don't know if it's a love song in the traditional relationship sense, it could be a relationship between friends or family. But I like it because she (Natalie Merchant) seems to be offering love and comfort in its purest sense - for no reason but to support the subject of the song.

[ScrambledSmegs]

The unplugged version is my favourite, the original on Blind Man's Zoo is a bit too boppy IMO.

[ScrambledSmegs]

Can't think of any love songs written by men that aren't sexist though. There must be some, right?

[myoriginal3]

The rose.

[Lottapianos]

Absolute Beginners by David Bowie - one of my favourite love songs
Til There Was You or Here There and Everywhere - Lennon / McCartney
She Makes My Day - Robert Palmer

Wonderful Tonight is total puke, you're right

[CorporalNobbyNobbs]

'At my most beautiful' by R.E.M.

[myoriginal3]

And this will make me sound like a complete eejit but it's by one direction and it's called All those little things

[MysticTwat]

Beautiful south, Lots of there songs.

[SelfCleaningVagina]

For a song to be considered sexist, are you making the assumption that the lyric is about a woman, sung from the POV of a man? Would the same lyric be considered sexist if it was a same sex relationship?

In most songs you don't necessarily even know from the lyric exactly what sex either the subject or the singer is. It's often an assumption.

[SelfCleaningVagina]

Can't think of any love songs written by men that aren't sexist though. There must be some, right?

Can you expand on what you mean by sexist in that regard though, because although it's sometimes very blatant and obvious when a lyric is sexist, I am honestly not sure what you mean by saying you can't think of any non-sexist songs.

[SelfCleaningVagina]

And most of the truly outrageous and obviously sexist lyrics are from the 60's or earlier, or from the gangster rap and urban genre.

[cadnowyllt]

Gram Parsons She

Well, its a bit of an antidote to 'wonderful night'.

[ScrambledSmegs]

I mean I couldn't think of any, not that there aren't any. I'm sure that my brain was just letting me down hence why I said there must be some.

[SelfCleaningVagina]

Okay, fair point, but I am genuinely interested to know what constitutes a sexist lyric, other than the glaringly obvious.

[Happyoutlook]

Evenescance: My heart is broken, and Whisper are the only ones I can think of

[SelfCleaningVagina]

off the top of my head I am going to pluck five well known and well loved 'love songs' out of the ether and then examine the lyrics for sexism now.

Lady in Red - Chris De Burgh

I'm not in love - 10 cc

Wonderful tonight (as it's been mentioned)

I can't live (if living is without you) Harry Nilsson

Nothing Compares 2 U (sung by Sinead O'Connor most famously but written by a man, Prince.)

[BroomstickOfLove]

My favourite love kings are by Patrick Wolf, and they aren't sexist, but are from a man to another man.

I really love House. There aren't many beautiful and passionate love songs about domesticity, so it stands out.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=SCoJXqGn_kg

[HalfShellHero]

God only knows , beach boys?

[unweavedrainbow]

"Funny how love is" by Queen

"...funny how love is coming home in time for tea..."

[MysticTwat]

Ok so not really a love song this one, but after mentioning the beautiful south it reminded me how much I loved this song. A duet written by a man, but really it's all about her.

Man being caught being a twat, thinks only about himself.....

//www.dailymotion.com/video/x301mcp_the-beautiful-south-a-little-time_music

[JillyTheDependableBoot]

The Cure - Pictures of You

[DeviTheGaelet]

I thought of my own
"Sunshine of my life" by Stevie Wonder

Other great suggestions on here, thank you!

self in the case of wonderful tonight it's literally because I get no sense whatsoever of the woman as a person, she is wonderful purely because she does things for the man. Sexism may be the wrong word but it seems very symptomatic of a society where women are judged as to how nice, pretty etc they are.
I actually cannot imagine a woman singing that song about a man.

[FizzBombBathTime]

There's a light that never goes out by the smiths

[DeviTheGaelet]

cadno gram parsons has a beautiful beautiful voice

broomstick house is awesome! Perfect song, thank you

Off to Google 10000 maniacs now