Women's Writes - Works

Women's Writes

Well-behaved women seldom make history.
— Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Day 6

I like music. Maybe you do to. Maybe we even share some music we like in common. Today I am writing about something I’ve thought a lot about lately, something disturbing, something that has been with us a long time that many of us don’t notice. Music can be…creepy…even when it’s meant to be romantic.

STALKING…IT’S JUST SINGING…NO, STALKING

 

Music is supposed to soothe the savage beast, or so I have been told. Why is it, then, there is so much music that threatens women? I have a very good vocabulary, and nowhere in my thesaurus is threat listed as a synonym for soothe. So which is it? Soothe the savage beast? William Congreve would have it so. Perhaps because he never heard modern music? Or maybe just because he was not a woman.

I started thinking about this one day when I was listening to the Beatles channel. I have paid a lot more attention to lyrics in the past decade than I used to, and this was no exception. Perhaps you’ve heard the song – Run for your Life. The lyrics include the line “I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to see you with another man”. The chorus includes the charmingly romantic (I’m kidding – it’s more like creepily psychotic) line “Catch you with another man that’s the end, little girl”.

It’s easy to say it’s just music, but it isn’t, is it? Why is the biggest hit of the Police “Every Breath You Take”? Why do people see that as a sweet, romantic song? Sting admits it is creepy, it is ugly…and apparently was meant to be. Seriously…“Every breath you take, every move you make, I’ll be watching you”. This is not romance; this is a threat. This is stalking. And this was his biggest hit, going to number one on the charts. This was their first hit…and it sold fifteen million singles. The album sold five million copies.

There is nothing that strikes more fear in the heart of a woman than the idea that a man is following her, sneaking around corners, darting behind bushes if she looks his direction, keeping track of her movements. We are trained to be on our guard every minute; we are taught to look in the back seat and under the car before we get in. Of course, if we are close enough to the car to look in the back seat and under the car, we are close enough for a man to grab us, or for him to catch us if we run. One thing we don’t need is men singing songs about chasing us, killing us, mutilating us, or whatever other fantasies they may have.

It isn’t just rock or pop. It’s ubiquitous in country, hip hop, R&B, and of course, rap. Men fantasizing about hurting women, stalking women, killing women…and putting it to music. This is not a new phenomenon, and it is not a few bad boy bands. This is a theme that pervades music. Hurting women is a sure chart topper.