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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To complain about Gangnam Style for kids

99 replies

middleclassdystopia · 08/01/2014 15:35

Gangnam style(or whatever the hell it's called) has been played at my ds school and my dd pre-school several times at various events over the last year or so.

Okay on one level it's just a pop song, it's catchy and kids that age don't understand the lyrics.

However, whilst i'm no prude, I can't help objecting to my kids singing 'hey sexy lady'

I try to teach equality to my children and I find these lyrics misogynistic.

I feel like complaining, what's wrong with a whole range of other music? Seeing a bunch of 4 year old girls singing this and swaying their hips just seems wrong to me.

OP posts:

CrapBag · 08/01/2014 16:16

I don't like it but I just accept it. Both my DCs love it and know its 'sexy lady' and sing it. I just ignore it but I do think it sounds terrible.

DD is a Katy Perry fan and whilst her songs are good, when you actually listen to the lyrics, they aren't particularly child friendly. And mine seem to be learning the words to songs so they can sing along.

I don't let them watch the music channels. Nearly all artists these days just have massively inappropriate music videos.

Heartbrokenmum73 · 08/01/2014 16:19

WidowWadman - I would love to see that!

But Horrible Histories is no more...

Sirzy · 08/01/2014 16:21

If you listened to the words of 90% of songs there would be something 'inappropriate' in them. It just goes over the head of most children like it probably did with all of us when we were little

MojitoMadness · 08/01/2014 16:31

I remember singing "Aciiiiiiiiiidd" and my mum telling me to stop. Much of the same stuff really. Although I can't quite believe that most of you were still in primary school when Sex on the Beach and The Vengaboys were in the charts. I feel very old.

SilveryMoon · 08/01/2014 16:36

I hate it too. Not the song as such, well I do hate the song, but months ago, my the 5yo ds1 looked at a secondary aged girl walking up the street, looked at her and sang "hey sexy lady". She burst out laughing, I was a bit embarrassed.
He says it casually to me too which I don't like. I know there's not much harm but it just makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

StealthPolarBear · 08/01/2014 16:44

I feel old.

Onethingatatime · 08/01/2014 16:48

At the school I work I have heard it sung as 'hey chips and gravy'

Bodypopper · 08/01/2014 16:53

Mmm I remember singing 'caught me playing with my ding a ling' in the 70s. Nothing new here. Most pop songs are catchy and about sex as that sells.

I did once complain at mc Donald's because was eating there with my kids while shaggies ' I had her on the bathroom floor' was playing loudly at a roped off private party where the children were playing pass the parcel!!!

The young manager looked at me as if I was mad when I pointed out it was a tad inappropriate.

fidgetsnowfly · 08/01/2014 17:39

It is absolutely not on. YANBU at all. I'd be having a word with the teacher.

Oakmaiden · 08/01/2014 17:45

We did a whole school dance to Gangnam at one school I was at. We did turn down the music during that part though - and got the children to shout "Hey, Merry Christmas"...

elmerelephant · 08/01/2014 17:47

When my daughter was 3 the song that summer was horny, horny, horny...

I managed to persuade her it was honey honey honey, but she wasnt really convinced

elliejjtiny · 08/01/2014 17:53

I taught my little sister the horny horny song. I was in so much trouble . Trying to think of what we sang along to when I was that age. Those handclapping rhymes "ooh, ah, I've lost my bra. I left my knickers in my boyfriend's car" etc and "itsy, bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini" My mum hated those as well

candycoatedwaterdrops · 08/01/2014 17:58

I remember singing "I wanna have sex on the beach" at our year 5 disco. Good times!

Original poster

middleclassdystopia · 08/01/2014 19:11

I'd never even heard of the damn song until recently. I'm most definately not 'with it'

It's not sex i'm prudish about. I'm currently pregnant and have had quite frank discussions about where babies come from.

It's the hypocrisy. People being shocked my dd knows babies are born via the vagina but don't mind sexualisation beyond her age

OP posts:

Highlander · 08/01/2014 19:33

Ha ha OP, my school went one stage further and showed the Yr 3s the video!

I wrote to them pointing out that if the children are too young to understand objectification of women, then they're too young to be watching mysonginistic crap like that.

DH was furious with me. Wanker.

persimmon · 08/01/2014 19:40

I feel a bit uncomfortable with the CBBC programme using Who Let the Dogs Out as its theme. But the kids haven't got a clue what it's about.

SofaKing · 08/01/2014 19:41

My nephew used to sing 'You're gorgeous' by Baby bird when he was a child, my sister was mortified.

Gangnam style has been banned at my kids school, the teacher explained to the kids it was because sexy was a bad word.

Cue ds1, 6, asking my WHY sexy is a bad word?

Thanks, school

persimmon · 08/01/2014 19:43

I remember innocently belting out Beaver Patrol by PWEI as a teenager and getting a very funny look from my dad...

echt · 08/01/2014 19:50

I always thought "To Sir, with love." was a bit dodgy. And as for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap's "Young Girl."

WideAwakeMum · 08/01/2014 19:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Topaz25 · 08/01/2014 20:23

I think naughty songs have always been around, they used to play "sex on the beach" at my school disco to get a giggle.

That said, I hate Gangnam Style so much. Not because of the phrase "hey sexy lady" but because the whole song is really repetitive and annoying. The Christmas before last, it was played on repeat at work while our managers danced to it to fundraise for charity. I would have paid them to turn it off. Also, one of the singer Psy's less famous songs titled, "Dear American," contains the less catchy lyrics:
"Kill those fucking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those fucking Yankees who ordered them to torture
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers
Kill them all slowly and painfully."

He hates the West but he's not above making money from us, he's a hypocrite and people lap it up.

SlightlyTerrified · 08/01/2014 20:45

I don't think it is any worse than most pop songs these days, in fact like many posters point out, not a lot has changed and we all listened (and sang along) to stuff like that.

I am not scarred for life and I am guessing that my DCs won't be either, they are only songs. Although it was embarrassing this morning when DS2 (5) called out the front door when I was going to work - 'Bye sexy mummy' just as our elderly neighbour walked by.

MBT1987 · 08/01/2014 20:51

In the 70s, we had Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and Marvin Gaye's... well, entire back-catalogue.
In the 80s, there was Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" and Madonna.
In the 90s, Boyz II Men released "I'll Make Love To You" and Madonna kept being Madonna.

Compared to any of them, "Hey, sexy lady" is absolutely amateurish in the filth stakes. I don't think it's unreasonable, but there's a MOUNTAIN of worse stuff from our childhoods.

Oogly · 08/01/2014 21:43

Anyone remember 'I'm too sexy for my shirt'? My dad went mad at me for singing it when I was about seven, although I had no clue what it meant.

MarthasHarbour · 08/01/2014 21:53

Yep another 70s child here who used to sing 'Do you think I'm sexy'. My parents didn't bat an eyelid

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