to object to misogynistic song lyrics on childs hoodie

[maevesport]

Hoodie for an 8 year old boy recieved from elderly relatives as a gift has the partially changed R&B song lyrics ..."I got 99 problems but Bench aint one " on the front.Bench is the clothing brand and replaces the word "bitch" from the original lyrics.
I would not put this on my son and think its inappropriate for a little boys top.
Why would a clothing company think its cool to introduce the idea of calling women/girls b*hes to a child ???
Obviously well meaning relatives had no idea.

"I think maeves concern maybe, his preference for calling his women friends "bitches"

doesn't use the term bitch to refer to a woman even once in the song

I don't mind "bitch". Nice strong word when used well

See Sigourney Weaver's marvellous "Get away from her you bitch" in Aliens.

Which as a fan of his music will no doubt be clear to you.

However, young people will not necessarily understand that. It is not very clear. The anti racism message is clear but the chorus, which is the catchy bit that people will remember does sound mysoginistic. Intentionally or not.

Still doesn't make the hoodie bad either way.

And hats off to the staunch defence of JayZ.

Ummm

I just think its not the way to go for childs top .
Never bought Bench brand and unlikely I ever would but its made me really annoyed and just wondered if others find it so..........

I think growing up is tricky enough these days without having R &B lyrics and clothing brands across your tummy aged 8 !

"The anti racism message is clear but the chorus, which is the catchy bit that people will remember does sound mysoginistic. Intentionally or not."

well it is intended to sound that way to be fair as it's part of his attack on main stream racism that people would assume the worst about rappers without listening to the content and criticise them for their glorification of mysoginistic and violent lyrics in a way which never happened to traditionally white genres which have examples of songs with appalling lyrics but recieve a fraction of the criticism that rap does.

But I think that's not quite the point of the thread and I just wanted to talk about Jay-Z as I'm now listening to the Blueprint and it's brilliant.

Sounds fine. He has a big garden with all kinds of weeds and pests and ill plants but he's very proud of his garden bench. Lovely.

It was Ice-T's lyric long before it was Jay Z's.

yup, and I don't think anyone could argue that his song that they took the hook from was not mysoginistic.

Slogans of any kind on clothes aren't my cup of tea either Maeve.

I don't like some of the stuff you see on children's clothes but would not have even noticed this and doubt your relatives will have noticed either so they might be offended if you give it away. Like it or not Bench is thought of as trendy and it seems daft to deprive your son of something "cool" for such a tenuous objection.

the point of the song is to draw attention to the stereotyping of black males in America. Which is kinda what you're doing

it's about a drug sniffing police dog

I wouldn't like it.
I know it replaces the word bitch, so do other adults.
Not what I would want my child to wear.
Not a joke for them to promote.
Not quite as bad as the baby clothing with 50 shades slogans, though!

'the point of the song is to draw attention to the stereotyping of black males in America. Which is kinda what you're doing'

The original Ice T version was all about different kinds of women he was dating, and Quimby is correct, it is misogynistic. I'm a big hip hop fan but I wouldn't really want my child wearing this.

Agree with op and Sophie and don't care about the original song or what They were really trying to say about racism. Bitch as a reference to women is not ok and it's not even a good slogan for Bench. There might be all sorts of subtexts here but no, it's not on and it's naff. Charity shop trip coming up?

"They were really trying to say about racism. Bitch as a reference to women is not ok"

Well the point people are making is that in jay z's song it isn't a reference to women so people attributing mysogyny to him are off base. His song is actually viewed as very culturally significant in the discussion on racism in America and especially the subtle effect of "acceptable racism"

"The original Ice T version was all about different kinds of women he was dating"

"Dating" is a very polite way of putting it

How is bitch not a reference to women?

And I don't care if the song is actually about racism. I don't care if it's about astrophysics. That doesn't make it ok to talk about women in that way. In fact it makes it worse - to be alert enough to care about and have views about the ways different races are treated but not to give the same attention to the way women are treated. Because racisism is more important than misogyny because it affects men ?

Because he's talking about a female dog, that's how

I wouldn't even have realised it was from a song!

I think it is distasteful, cheap and not the sort of thing I would like to see a child wearing. But unfortunately I have seen a lot worse!

I appreciate the feedback.
I think alot of women feel like I do.
I do not think its right to refer to women in that way at all - regardless of what song is about.
I would like Bench to avoid using such lyrics and to respect women and girls as much as anyone else in society.

Its not a big ask as there are lots of cool lyrics that are not offensive.
I do not want to wince when I see childrens clothes and tops.

Because he's talking about a female dog? Really? Jay-Z is running some sort of Barbara Woodhouse dog training academy?

I didn't know it was a song lyric

DrJohnson - listen to the song. The "bitch" he references is a police sniffer dog, it's all there in the lyrics.

'If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son, I've got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one'

Come on, I'm a big hip hop fan (although not so much a fan of jay Z, his biggest hit was ripped off from someone else) but I can't deny the lyric is misogynistic. He uses girl and bitch interchangeably.