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The majority of music focuses on the idea of sex, sexual attraction, and sexual behavior. Some may have chill vibes and perhaps are seen as romantic, however, there are a variety of them that exploit the female body with inappropriate lyrics about women that can be considered derogatory. These songs are top hits, played at parties, on the radio, in stores and restaurants everywhere.
Women have recently begun to create empowering music. Music that talks about healthy sex lives, being comfortable in your own sexuality, and loving oneself. One would think this music would be just as popular, if not more popular than the derogatory music that degrades women and sees them only as sex objects, right? Wrong.
Empowered women are seeing backlash for being proud of their sexuality. They are seen as vulgar and not acceptable for children to listen to. Why? Because they have taken back the derogatory terms, they have been called all of their lives, and are using them to empower themselves?
Where is this energy when it comes to men saying the same things about women? Typically, in the music industry women are seen as sex objects, something to use for their own pleasure and not as a human being who can also enjoy themselves and any sexual relations they may have.
Now, women are becoming comfortable in their own skin and expressing themselves the way that men have been doing for years. Some have said that WAP specifically, the song by Cardi B and Megan the Stallion that was released in 2020 has set the women’s movement back 100’s of years and that feminists aren’t looking for equality, they just want to exploit themselves. Others have brought religion into it and feel that this song and others like it are threatening their own religions and the religions of children.
On the contrary, upon googling “backlash from men’s songs about sex” all that pops up is about WAP. Nothing about Robin Thicke having a song that not only was played on the radio forever and extremely popular but was about ignoring consent and doing whatever he wanted to women. Nor the fact that Chris Brown is not only still creating music, performing live and on the radio, despite being a domestic abuser. There are so many other examples of men referring to women as objects, calling them derogatory names, and discussing their own sexual pleasures in detail in song lyrics. These same songs that are popular and on the radio are just as vulgar and specific as these women’s songs.
Though the problem is with women being comfortable in their sexuality, not men. Men are allowed to be disrespectful and vulgar because “boys will be boys” right? Wrong. Men should not be allowed to continue this behavior. Women are equal, women are powerful, and women are allowed to feel comfortable with their sexuality. Woman are also allowed to be just as open about their sexuality as men. The problem is not with vulgarity it is with oppressing women.