Via wishymom @ Flickr.
The young women circulated a petition on their campus last week, asking students to support banning songs with misogynist themes and lyrics. Senior Madeline Conrique said the club wasn’t lobbying for G-rated tunes; they just don’t want to hear songs that debase women when they’re trying to celebrate and have fun. Their peers didn’t make it easy. Some kids pressured others not to sign the petition and accused club members of trying to ruin their good time. The petition garnered about 130 signatures, and in the end administrators guaranteed they could remove 20 songs from the playlist (I would be interested to know which songs were banned).
I’m super impressed by the awareness, initiative, and bravey these young women have shown. I am blown away that their high school has a Women’s Health and Issues Club! When I was in high school I probably didn’t even know the definition of “misogyny.” Prom blatantly emphasize gender roles and the endeavor can be an exercise in traditional gender performance. Add misogynist music and prom can be a frustrating event for a bad-ass young feminist.
Loud and proud feminism – or opposition to any oppression – can result in some pretty crappy social consequences. It can not have been easy for them to stand up for their convictions in a high school environment. These daring and determined young harpies have bright futures ahead of them and I hope they have a great time this weekend.
Wow, this is awesome. Brava! I’m glad they stuck to their guns and I hope they got support from their school administrators. Enjoy your prom, ladies!
I love these girls. I really wish I had been this smart and brave in high school.
@Khrushchev: I’m not even sure I’m this smart and brave now. The idea of even having a conversation with grown men on this subject exhausts me, let alone offering yourself up for ridicule by teenage boys on this basis.
Wow, good for them. This is in sharp contrast to my prom, where the slow song they played at the end of the night was “I’m in Love with a Stripper”.
Oh, and here’s the list of songs:
“Shake” – Pitbull
“Get Buck in Here” – P.Diddy
“Drop” – Timbaland
“Low” – Flo Rida, ft. T-Pain
“One More Drink” – Ludacris
“Starstruck” – Lady Gaga
“Go Girl” – Pitbull
“Right Round” – Flo Rida
“Smack That” – Akon
“Lollipop” – Lil’ Wayne
“Get Low” – Lil’ Jon
“Turning Me On” – Keri Hilson ft. Lil’ Wayne
“Rockin’ That Thang” – The Dream
“Beep” – Bobby Valentino ft. Young Jac
“Boom, Shake, Drop” – DJ Laz
“Turn Me On” – Kevin Little
“I’m In Miami” – LMFAO
“A Mille” – Lil’ Wayne
“Bojangles” – Pitbull
“Put that Thang Down” – Ying Yang Twins
At least two of those were played at a wedding I attended a while back.
@baraqiel: NO! “I’m in love with a stripper?” For real?
This reminds me of Chris Rock’s stand-up bit where he talks about how vile and misogynist a lot of hip-hop is, and then talks about how his female friends say “Yeah, but I like to dance to it.” Fortunately these girls are bucking that trend.
Interesting that they are mainly hip hop songs? As SarahMC pointed out the other day many “classic” rock and roll songs are also incredibly misogynistic. Maybe I am just feeling defensive because my boyfriend Lil Wayne is featured three times on this list
. In Lollipop he says his girl is like Hillary Rodham when she’s on top! Who else is dropping HRC on top references? I never thought that was a misogynist song. But obvi I respect their choices as to what they wanted to hear and not hear at prom. Maybe kids in high school don’t listen to the Rolling Stones at their prom anyway. I have had a couple of friends do this for parties and weddings, and I have a feminist DJ friend who makes it her policy. This club is great!
Many classic rock songs are misogynist too, but kids aren’t dancing to the Stones at proms in 2009. As far as I can tell, “kids these days” listen to a lot of hip-hop, so it doesn’t surprise me that the banned songs are from that genre.
I have never even heard of some of those artists.
I’m not sure that even if I had been this smart and brave in high school if I would’ve been able to find other smart and brave folks to stand with me. Peer pressure sucks!
Ha, Becky, that’s totally the song I was coming down here to complain about. Maybe they neglected it because it’s not new enough to be played at a prom now?
@BeckySharper – Oh hell yeah, for real. My prom:
-was in a place where I had previously attended a funeral.
-had a soundtrack that was first, pop hip-hop, then reggaeton and Latin hip-hop because my friend requested a bunch, then more hip-hop, and then I’m in Love with a Stripper, which was the slow song.
-had half the girls there in dresses that had midriff cut-outs or really low necklines, and their dates were in white tuxes with pimp hats.
There were other things that were a fiasco, but they’re sort of irrelevant. The point is: it is good to dance to. That’s why the reggaeton was so awesome, none of us could understand the lyrics so it was guilt-free.
@j.d. – I guess because Lollipop is effectively all about blowjobs? But yeah, very few high schools are going to listen to classic rock at their proms any more, it’s hard to dance to in the way that we youngins dance nowadays.
Also, a remarkable number of these songs include commands in the title.
Part of the issue is that I can’t take most of these artists seriously, so I have a hard time seeing their misogyny as hate speech in the same way as I see the MRAs misogyny as hate speech, for example. Like, Flo Rida? Calls himself that because he’s from Florida. In his logo, the F is in the shape of the state of Florida. I find that so silly that I can’t see him as threatening at all. I wonder if that’s on purpose.
I only know ONE of those songs. And I feel pretty good about that, quite apart from whatever smug Brooklyn hipster-scene crap it might imply.
And bouquets of flowers to those girls for knowing what’s what so early. It makes me kind of hopeful.
It is about blowjobs (which, on its own is not misogynist) but he also talks about how he is in heaven when he is licking her pussy. I really don’t see the ish with that song. But obviously my own opinions on what constitutes misogyny in lyrics is not really the issue.
Don’t kids dance to old school Michael Jackson?
I hope “Billie Jean” is on the playlist tomorrow.
Wait, shouldn’t Billie Jean be on the no play list? This is the problem with movements like this!!! Way too much subjective interpretation…I’m impressed this club could all agree on 20.
Because Jackson’s a kid-toucher or because of the lyrics? I think they picked songs that have blatantly derogatory lyrics and themes. Hell, I just had my revelation about the Stones the other week! I give them major props for even thinking about that sort of thing and for trying to move things in a positive, more woman-friendly direction.
The lyrics!!!! It’s all about MJ talking about a woman lying about her kid being his so she can get money from him! I give them props too, for sure. I’m just pointing out the problems it tends to cause, considering I am an adult who agrees with their sentiments but am still disputing their list. Lil Wayne is seriously misunderstood, y’all. They are definitely brave and awesome for launching this.
No, I agree with j.d. – a lot of them are pretty subjective. I never had a problem with that Kevin Lyttle song, for example. But I definitely give them props for starting the conversation. After this, I’d love to see the playlist from the prom, to see if the principle was carried through even beyond these 20 songs.
baraqiel, I guess the reason I am bringing it up is because feminist attempts at limiting the spread of pornography, for example, was often confused and (for some legitimate reasons) linked with anti-obscenity campaigns which are clearly NOT feminist. So I’m just sensitive to the line between misogynist and just obscene. I love obscenity. I hate misogyny.
Oh, definitely. I’m also confused about some of the songs on the list and I’d love to hear the reasoning behind why they were included. Maybe the Harpies can invite them to do a guest post or something.
This is pure conjecture but perhaps some songs also get included on here because the videos are misogynistic? It seems in hip-hop you don’t have to have outright misogynistic lyrics to have a video full of half-naked women grinding on you (you=the singer).
@baraqiel: I’d be interested to know what the criteria was and how they agreed, too. I know a few of those songs, and never had a problem with them. Honestly, “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga bothers me more (hellooooo, date rape!) than those of these that I’ve heard.
Still, huge huge kudos to these girls for standing up for what they believe and for their right to be comfortable at their own party.
JDR said: “I love obscenity. I hate misogyny.”
And I am amused and fascinated and troubled. And will maybe write a post on the distinction (and the difficulties with it).
The kids are still listening to “Get Low”? I would not have pegged that one for longevity, but what do I know? Those girls are so brave and awesome for what they did.
@HanaMaru Who can give up a song that has women trying to shake it down to the ground? That’s a mainstay (snark).
@HanaMaru, misscalculate – yeah, that whole image of sweat dripping off the guy’s balls, that’s a keeper.
Honestly, though, everyone I know loves that song and sings along to it loudly at parties.
Please do PHD! I’m quite sure I haven’t thought about it enough.
We at WHI love you and we’re so grateful for your support. Thanks so much, Harpyness!
<3
(Also, the 130 signatures isn’t the real figure — it’s just the pages that we had on our persons to show the journalist from Pasadena Star News.)
Awesome! Make sure to give us a report on Monday.
kelsium: “Just Dance” is about date rape? I thought it was about losing yourself in the music.
Congratulations to them! About time, and I’ll bet a lot of others will take courage from this and do the same.
I’ve just discovered your blog, following Google’s cache on this story.
Nice work. I’ll have to bookmark you.
By the way, you don’t have Reclusive Leftist or Women’s Space/The Margins in your blogroll. I think you’re missing out.
This is really late but I think looking at the way this list skews here it would be a serious mistake to just subsume the issues with these songs under general ‘misogyny’. (and I’ll come clean I don’t really think that some are misogynistic, although I support others right to) Race is up in there big and bold and I think it’s related to the fact that it isn’t just coincidence that these songs are popular.
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