I love Under My Thumb, but I’ve always imagined it sung by by a really pathetic drunk, trying desperately to show off for his “mates”. I can picture his bleary face, and the other patrons of the bar laughing behind his back at his lame macho fantasising.

I was briefly in a garage band (which, trust me, was never going to leave our garage) with my all-dude housemates in which I would sing misogynist and/or sexist lyrics, i.e. Sex Type Thing, Run for Your Life, Plush. I picked these songs, much to the surprise of my “band” mates, precisely because they KNEW the songs were sexist and let me tell you, it lead to some very interesting conversations about popular lyrics and cultural misogyny. And when their buddies would come over and see a woman screaming/growling, “You shouldn’t have worn that dress!” into a microphone. Well. Again, a lot of really interesting discussions ensued, and, I’d like to think (hope) that some of those discussions were eye-opening to the men involved.

So maybe we can enjoy these songs and their musical styles while constantly pointing out to others what is also inherently wrong with the sentiments/messages they are expressing?

Also, don’t some seemingly anti-woman lyrics actually bring to light to some anti-woman realities? One that jumps to mind is Judy Collins’ “Polly Pretty Polly” which ends in Polly’s murder. The perpetrator is damned and the listener feels empathy for the young woman who pleads for life: “Let me be a single girl, if I can’t be your wife.”

BTW, and not OT I hope: I should have KNOWN my first husband was a douche-bag when he suggested “Under My Thumb” for our second dance. I suggested “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” instead.

Okay, I’ll shut up now.

“If she won’t be a slave, we say that she don’t love us
If she’s real, we say she’s trying to be a man
While putting her down, we pretend that she’s above us

We make her paint her face and dance.
We make her paint her face and dance.”

Pretty damn succinct summation of The Patriarchy, IMHO.

I never really liked many of the Stones’ lyrics, although I like a lot of their music.

Lucky for me, I listen mostly to lefties, The Beatles, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Reinhard Mey.

One of my favourite German bands (Ton Steine Scherben) were prominent anarchists, they have songs advocating squatting, and two of their most famous songs are called ‘Destroy what destroys you’ and ‘No power for nobody’… The ideology might be a bit outdated now, but you can appreciate the feeling behind it, anyway.

But I do love them! And Zeppelin. And Pink Floyd. Hate the Stones, though. I just love music so much that I’ve gotten good at compartmentalizing my feminism and my rock and roll as two seperate facets of who I am, while still keeping a grasp on my values.

Damn you, Mark David Chapman.