Jolene, and other anti-feminist anthems

Smooth Criminal always freaked me out and it seems like no one ever listens to the actual lyrics.

To pp who said Shaggy - yes, same, it makes me ragey so I change station.

Blurred Lines.

And the song about breaking hearts by Taio Cruz annoys me -

^Now I may not be the worst or the best but you gotta respect my honesty.
And I may break your heart, but I don't really think there's anybody's as bomb as me
So you can take this chance, in the end everybody's gonna be wondering how ya deal
You might say this is Ludacris, but Taio Cruz tell em' how ya feel!
Now listen to me baby
Before I love and leave you
They call me heart breaker
I don't wanna deceive you
If you fall for me
I'm not easy to please
I might tear you apart
Told you from the start, baby from the start.
I'm only gonna break break ya break break ya heart
I'm only gonna break break ya break break ya heart
I'm only gonna break break ya break break ya heart
I'm only gonna break break ya break break ya heart
There's no point trying to hide it
No point trying to evade it
I know I got a problem
Problem with misbehaving^

This thread is genius. I had never even thought about some of this stuff.

Never really thought about what 'More than a woman' would mean, but just looking at that, it is deeply disturbing!

I’d read somewhere that Every breath you take by Sting was about a stalker but people seem to think it’s a love song!

Didnt Sting say he never understood why people thought it was a love song, and were not creeped out by it?

Yeah, but she thinks her man is going to be unfaithful because of Jolene, not because of his lack of fidelity and the whole song is directed at Jolene and not her husband! It's profoundly sexist!
"Woman, control my man's sexuality!"

Cater to u by Destiny's Child. It's just a song about catering to their man's every need.

I admit I wasn’t a great fan of “Jolene” when it was first released, but I discovered this enchanting medieval interpretation of it on YouTube a few weeks ago, and haven’t stopped playing it since. This is “bardcore”, and I love it!

gwenhwyfar it's basically: if you loved me, you'd stop talking about it and shag me.

I agree with this interpretation, it reminds me of a dodgy ex when I was a teenager.

Other opinions are of course available

Has no one mentioned “Saving All My Love For You” yet? It’s literally a mistress, quite accepting of being a mistress and the whole situation.

Avril Lavigne, Girlfriend

My Sharona by The Knack - great song, awful lyrics...

‘I always get it up
For the touch
Of the younger kind’

[quote Creamcrackersandricecakes]@WarOnWomen - yes you're absolutely correct. Stephen Jones, who wrote the song, has stated that it's about male photographers using women to sell things with their sexuality. So if anything, it's a feminist song![/quote]
So - I've noticed this is a common issue with certain kinds of songs/stories/films. Intended to tell a cautionary tale, but then people take it as advocating the behaviour.

The Giving Tree being a good example, in children's books. I think Every Breath You Take is another example, it's about an obsessive, and meant to be.

Does Your Mother Know by Abba is a masterpiece! I loved the way in the first Mamma Mia film they reversed the parts so it was the (much older) woman singing to the besotted young man.

The social background around "Baby It's Cold Outside" is fascinating - the song is based on the very common trope that "nice girls" weren't interested in sex, even when they of course were. The song is a call and response conversation between two adults who both know what they want, but have to play a polite game of invitation and demurral to get to the position where they can both admit it and act on it. Post the sexual revolution however, where we don't approach the lyrics through the same lens, the nuance is lost.

Interestingly, in the original film version of the song (in a movie called Neptune's Daughter) it it sung by two different couples, one where the male singer takes the role of the persuader, and in the other, it is the woman who take that role.

This thread has got me wondering if my beloved Take That were ever misogynistic ..and you know... I think they pretty much pass the test...(am I wrong?) Love them even more now. Oh to be a teenager again.

"gwenhwyfar it's basically: if you loved me, you'd stop talking about it and shag me.

I remember being 14 and my mate's much cooler 18 yr old sister dismissing it like that to usgrin"

More than Words? Can you show me the lyrics?

I think some people look to deep in to songs ,

It’s not anti feminist I guess but “24 hours from Tulsa” always irks me as he seems so disloyal. He was in love with this woman and then drops her like a sack of hot shit for someone he barley knows! All to a jaunty tune.

To be fair the man in the ABBA one is turning down a girl who is too young for him. If anything that’s a good thing?

I don't know how many other people here are old enough to remember Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, accusing a woman of falsely claiming she's having his baby, but there was a response, LYdia Murdock;s Superstar: "I'm Billie Jean and I'm mad as hell/I'm a woman with a story te tell".

@WarOnWomen - yes you're absolutely correct. Stephen Jones, who wrote the song, has stated that it's about male photographers using women to sell things with their sexuality. So if anything, it's a feminist song!

Just popping in to add nothing to the thread except that 'Jolene' is my absolutely favourite song ever. So much so that when the time comes my nearest and dearest know that, by hook or by crook, it needs to feature somewhere in my funeral service .

Tammy Wynette's Good Lovin. (But I love singing her songs with gusto when I am alone.)

Good lovin' keeps a home together good lovin' sure can make it right
If you ever wanna be without him it means lovin' everything about him
That keeps your man around you tight
It takes a whole lotta women to hold it together today
Cause a lot of other women have a whiole lotta time to play
You gotta be saint on Sunday morning a devil on Saturday night
And when you love him do it right
Cause she's around at corner a wrapped in fur
And you've got to be just a little bit better than her
A little bit sweeter with morning kisses a whole lot warmer in the night
With a whole lotta good lovin' to make everything alright
Good lovin' keeps a home together...
If you don't believe what I'm tellin' you is so
Put your man right down the street and watch him go
Right to the arms of a woman who couldn't even hold you a light
When a lotta good lovin' would've made everything alright
If you don't believe...
Yeah a lotta good lovin' would've made everything alright

*gym
I haven't got a gun.