How? Closer by NIN is not gender specific. It is:
I wanna f–k you like an animal,
I want to feel you from the inside,
I want to f–k you like an animal,
my whole perspective is gone,
you bring me closer to god.
That is not misogynistic, and neither is the video.
And neither is the rest of the song. It is about an emotional dynamic… which is never made gender specific in the song.
Ok, now show me a human being who hasn’t felt this way at least once in a relationship. The rants on here, apart from the Eminem(Plain or Peanut), and a few others are so overly PC and misguided it isn’t even funny. Perhaps some of you could stand to look up misogynist and stop demonizing songs that you have to reinterpret to find flaw.
Information from http://www.xyno.de/
I think that the real question is which 2 Live Crew song is the most misogynistic. From the site noted above, the titles of just their songs that start with “F”:
Face Down Ass Up
Feel Alright Y’All
Freaky Behavior
A F— Is A F—
The F— Shop
The group’s third album was ruled obscene material in Miami, but the Supreme Court eventually overturned that ruling.
From Hoochie mama:
Given that their legal battles are 2 Live’s only claim to fame, I’m inclined to believe that these actions/lyrics are largely just for publicity, and not intended to provide a fulfilling listening experience.
While some have pointed out that there is a difference between those songs that seem to be so ridiculous as to be parody,there’s also a difference between a song that appears to advocate abuse/mysogyny and those that simply discribe it.
Under that category, I’d nominate Don’t Leave Me Now from The Wall. I think it certainly describes an abusive setting as Pink has his breakdown.
*
Don’t leave me now
Don’t say it’s the end of the road
Remember the flowers I sent
I need you Babe
To put through the shredder
In front of my friends
Ooooh Babe
Don’t leave me now
How could you go?
When you know how I need You
To beat to a pulp on a Saturday night
Ooooh Babe
Don’t leave me now
How can you treat me this way
Running away
Ooooh Babe
Why are you running away?
Ooooh Babe!
*
Sounds disturbingly like few drooling mouthbreathers I’ve been unfortunate enough to meet.
That is about a person who has reformed himself, regretting the actions he has done.
BTW, domestic violence from both sides has been a staple in many songs throughout the years. Here was one from an old, old (1940s) song “The Dozens”:
Four, five six, seven, eight, nine ten
I love your ma but she got too many men
About “Kim” by Eminem, whew, how to explain this? I think he was doing a dramatic reenactment of how sickening domestic violence really is, using his Stag-o-Lee like persona Slim Shady (note that Kim, Eminem’s estranged wife, never claimed physical spousal abuse). He did it way too well.
“The Most Offensive Song Ever” by Mr. Hankey and Kenny.
–Tim
That was Dr. Dre who said that, in “Mentally Ill in Amityville”. They were playing evil horrorcore characters, in the vein of Stag-o-Lee, as I mentioned before.
It’s “My anaconda don’t want none unless you’ve got buns hon.” I can go on with the whole song if you want. I had this song ingrained into my head. This is what I get for watching MTV regularly as a child.
It’s not the most misogynistic song out there, but “Any Man of Mine” by Shania Twain bugs the hell out of me because it portrays women as shallow, wretched creatures.
Lyrics, in part:
“I can be late for a date, that’s fine
But you’d better be on time.”
WTF? And how self-centered are WE?
Can you imagine how this song would have been received if Shania was ugly…?
Originally posted by PunditLisa
OOOHHHH!!! Excellent point, my dear! You are so right.
Shania Twain. Doesn’t she also sing a song about how she doesn’t need brains in a man, as long as he’s good in bed?
I agree with whoever posted that Brittainy Spears does a lot to hurt young girls’ images of themselves and how they should think about things.
“Closer” is NOT insulting to women! How many of us haven’t looked at our loved ones and wanted to have mad, passionate, animalistic sex?? If you haven’t, I humbly suggest you give it a try!
I pretty much stay away from singers and musical groups that insult women, and men too for that matter. TLC’s “Scrubs” annoyed the hell out of me when I first heard it.
Peace,
Tracy
So true. “Love Fool” doesn’t celebrate emotionally unhealthy relationships; it describes them.
The Beatles had some pretty frightening stuff that I’m at a loss to remember.
Maybe it’s just me, but any of the old 50’s stuff that talks seriously about how “she’s mine” kinda creeps me out.
How about Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue”?
Makes it sound like it’s a bad thing?
Lots of women have men’s names now. At least if you believe TV show character naming conventions.
Just for my own peace of mind, I’d like to point out the The Downward Spiral is a concept album. It is about one man’s descent into suicide (hence the name.)
Closer is about using sex to forget his problems
and the last line
Back to the OP, I vote for anything by 2LiveCrew
The Freeze - ‘Before I Hit That Rubber Room’
Anti-Nowhere League - ‘Woman’
Macc Lads - anything at all really…
As much as I love the bastards, there’s no contest, listen to any Insane Clown Posse song.
I’m a little surprised to see “Under my Thumb” here as an example of misogyny. Oh, I know that the song refers to a man keeping his girlfriend/wife under strict control, but it always seemed to me that it was about someone getting her just desserts. The song starts out:
Under my thumb
The girl who once had me down
Under my thumb
The girl who once pushed me around
I always thought of the song as a “Ha ha, the tables are turned,” type of song rather than a “Ha ha, now I’ve got her in her place,” type of song.