If I’m being totally honest, I can probably think of many ways that I am hypocritical (for example, I simultaneously hate global warming and love air conditioning) but the one that is niggling most at my conscience is music.
I know, I know, in a world where children are dying in sweat shops & I still buy sandals at Wal-Mart, I choose music to get really worked up about. But here’s my problem – I love music. All kinds of music (my two favorite genres are Punk/Emo, like AFI or My Chemical Romance, and anti-folk like Joshua Radin and Regina Spektor) . And I cannot get through a workout without it. The worst part of running long races for me isn’t the hills or the heat or the surprise Gatorade on the water table (try throwing that over your head) but the fact that I can’t use my MP3 player. And let’s face it, classes like BodyPump, Hip Hop Hustle and my beloved Turbokick are defined by their great music. Music, I might add, that offers to “fold me like a pornography poster” right after rapping a list of sexual positions that would make the Kama Sutra take notes.
I’m a Hoochie Trapped in a Feminist’s Body
That song (that you are now undoubtedly singing in your head, you’re welcome) is “Low” by Flo Rida. It is not some obscure rap song purchased only by pimply, Penthouse-hiding adolescent boys; “Low” hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. It is played on almost every radio station in the country. And it is all about using a female sex worker (stripper? prostitute?) to fulfill every male sexual fantasy. But hey, “that shorty, she was worth the money.” At least he’s frugal. I know I hate it when I get a dud hooker.
Think that’s the exception? Check out the current Billboard Top 100. Number 2 is the innocuous-sounding “Lollipop” by Lil Wayne that covers oral sex in such detail that hookers are suing him for disclosing their trade secrets. I probably don’t need to add that Lil Wayne is not interested in the nameless shorty for her intellect or ability to cook a souffle. But who needs talents when you have mad blow-job skills? Number 4 is Usher’s Love in the Club. Number 6 is Ray J’s Sexy Can I. If all you knew about women was what you heard on the top ten you’d think all of us were horny, T&A popping, sex toys. We’re either strippers, prostitutes or wanna-be porn stars. We’re bought (cheaply) with drugs, booze, and fancy cars. And all we do with our time is grind on the dance floor until some man throws us over his shoulder and takes us home (or possibly, just to his car).
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Turbo Jennie is in a unique position to comment on my quandry. A middle school health teacher by day, she facilitates the Young Women’s Leadership Forum. By night she teaches TurboKick and Hip Hop Hustle – grooving to the same songs that she dissects with her teen-aged students. Oh, and did I mention she has a minor in Women’s Studies? If anyone could understand my inner conflict it would be her.
Jennie says, “I find myself frequently turning the channel when I find lyrics too offensive and the offensive shit that the radio gets away with playing is shocking. A song like Low is pretty tame compared to some of the stuff I hear on the radio. I’ve had to learn to take songs at face value and listen to them strictly for the beat/fun workout tune and that it is. This is an issue that I think is so relevant and one I know would piss me off even more if I watched music videos, which I don’t.”
Other students (victims?) of my totally unrandom polling echoed her sentiments by saying that they usually don’t listen to the lyrics, just the beat. All of them seemed shocked when I repeated the lyrics for them. But then speaking the lyrics sounds a whole lot worse than rapping them. Too bad I can’t rap;)
Ms. Misogyny
Tonight’s my hip-hop class. I love it. Actually, I LOVE it. So I’ll be there. Grooving to the beat and trying not to listen to the lyrics. Like Jennie says, “[It] wouldn’t be the same if I popped in Celine Dion or Maroon 5. Besides Justin Timberlake’s only got 4 minutes to save the world! We must help him!!”
So now I have to know – What’s on your iPod?
At my Y they play a lot of oldies and random pop songs re-mixed to the right beat. I suppose that might not work for a hip-hop class, but at least turbokick. This issue really gets under my skin because women help perpetuate this problem. When we tacitly agree to ‘just ignore the lyrics and only listen to the beat’ that it just as bad as encouraging them. Other than finding something else (Bill Cosby is coming out with a rap album soon–no joke!) to work out to, I don’t know what a girl is to do!
Oh, and the music on my IPod is probably way too slow for you to work out to!
HOOCHIE TRAPPER IN A FEMINIST BODY?!
that is the best thing Ive read in ages.
(and NO you do NOT wanna know what’s in my mp3 player. Ill need to uber sanitize soon since the Tornado is beginning to ‘get’ things)
LOVE Low.
it’s one of our fave post yo gabba gabba and prebath dance dittys.
M.
ps–in all seriousness I volunteer with a group of inner city kids all working to capture ANTI WOMEN or us of the N-word hiphop.
very cool.
(ooh and I need to look into WHOM is rapping on BC’s album! thankfully it isnt the Jello Pudding Pop Consuming Wonder himself :))
I like a little hip-hop (Missy!), but I definitely spurn the misogynist lyrics.
My iPod is full of hard rock – my favorite band to run to (and really just my favorite band) is Tool. Nothing like death metal drumming to get you up to speed!! (If not familiar, the music is hard, but not death metal itself – it’s not for everyone 🙂
You know how you don’t watch TV? Well, I don’t listen to the radio. I’d never heard of Flo-Rida until 2 days ago, and I’ve never heard any of the songs you mentioned. I kinda live under a rock and I’m okay with that.
I guess you could say I’m a street punk stuck in a scientist’s body. My iPod’s full of punk and my Sirius is stuck on the Punk Station.
Love this post! It’s funny because I don’t listen to a lot of rap in my normal life (more of an R&B kind of girl) but my IPod is full of rap. My pole dancing (strictly for fun & fitness, not money) playlist music is even worse. And I beg to differ about Maroon 5 – that song “Kiwi” has pretty racy lyrics. The rap industry doesn’t have dirty lyrics in a choke hold.
Oh, I’m gonna agree with keyalus here. Maroon 5 has some down and dirty lyrics. Songs about Jane? More like songs about sex with Jane. But I love that album.
I listen to a lot of indy/local music, which tends to not focus so much on objectifying women as ranting about politics or making fun of themselves or moaning about their love lives (because you just can’t enjoy the music you listen to properly unless you make fun of it:)). But I’ve got to admit that there’s some pretty catchy songs out there that objectify women. It’s certainly a dilemma!
Here’s a handful of my get-moving tracks . . . dancey with a bit of pop and funk in them.
http://comradegogo.muxtape.com/
(It’s my online mix tape, just for you guys. Click on the songs to play them.)
At my new hire meeting at the gym last week, I was specifically told NOT to use music that has any profanity or any explicit lyrics. ( Of course, it’s easier for me, since I teach Pilates, and Usher isn’t exactly conducive to that.)
But it is a conundrum. (I just love big, fancy words!) Sometimes I’ll hear a song and love it, until I catch on to what they’re actually saying. And videos? Fuhgeddaboudit!!
(My favorite hip-hop moment was when Queen Latifah said “Who you callin’ a bitch?” And that was 15 years ago!!!!)
Guess I’ll just have to keep rockin’ the showtunes on my ipod.
What?
I feel the same conflict, Char – “Low” gets me pumped to workout but it’s so BAD, word-wise. Also, I love running to “Smack My Bitch Up” and yet, it’s a song about, well, violence against women. Now that I see this in print, I think I have to delete it from my iPod. That’s just BAD. I’m slinking away now…
had to edit the spelling!
Yes, it’s my 13 yo dd’s Ipod, but the Hiphop tunes are my man TobyMac, Grits, Manifest… These are Christian Hiphop so might not be your thing…
Unless tuboKick is rocking “Party Train”, I’m at a loss!! No tv OR radio here, either.
Don’t do misogyny and like my own BJs.
Lori
I have a lot of hip hop and pop but I also find that the upbeat contemporary Christian music is best for getting me through my longer runs… “You” by Brit Nicole was playing when I finished my first 5k… check it out at iTunes and you’ll see what I mean…
Ever since my 6 year old, (who was 5 at the time), got into my iPod and then came to me and asked what a “birf-day suit” was, I went through it all and cleaned up big time. I don’t listen to anything that I would cringe at my kids hearing. I G to PG over here now. I SOOO know I’m missing out on some awesome beats and music, but that was the tipping point for me.
I took a hip-hop class back in the day and the teacher had a bunch of old-school Michael jackson mixed just for the class. (but I life in happy valley, so uh, no surprise there, lol…)
As a women’s studies double major, I totally get this, but I am also the girl who doesn’t have a problem with Howard Stern. I got a lot of crap for that one, repeatedly. Chris Rock has a really funny bit about rap music on his Never Scared DVD. There is one part where he talks about the Lil John song “Get Low” that was really popular at the time, and his thing was that girls will dance to anything that has a good beat no matter how bad the lyrics are and their response is always “he isn’t talking about me”. It’s a funny segment and I’m not really doing it justice, but I have never really gotten riled up over music. I guess if you think about the third world and other major problems women are facing, it just seems so minor.
This is a toughie. I like the beat of songs like Low and even lyrics like “back that ass up”. Terrible I know, but sometimes we get into selective focus. I tend to not watch the videos of the songs because they irritate me but on the iPod, I just get lost in the beat. It’s tough to be a music purist when it comes to workout music. It’s almost like saying I’ll never eat fast food ever again.
Turbo Jennie here! I’m glad that people get fired up about this topic. It’s a tough one!! (I also think people missed my point on playing Maroon 5 in Hip Hop class) Bottom line for working out and great music is that music is the motivator. People flock to Turbokick and Hip Hop for the music (which by the way I buy premixed from the company that owns TurboKick and Hip Hop Hustle) I also agree that these lyrics aren’t privy to Hip Hop. Metal and Rock songs are just as guilty. Anyone ever heard how Nickelback “likes your pants around your knees and they way your looking up at me” It goes on and on people!! Thank you for having an opinion about this anatagonizing topic!!