Misogyny Song

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Misogyny Song is a song solely (or primarily, to the exclusion of any other possible meaning) about the hatred or degradation of women, where a woman becomes a mere dehumanized object. This is not simply a song about sex, it is not the Obligatory Bondage Song or Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll song or Intercourse with You song because those can be done without absolutely dehumanizing and insulting the women involved, despite the opinions of some. In fact, "sex" in a Misogyny Song is little more than a A Date with Rosie Palms that just happens to involve a living objectified female...if not something far, far, FAR worse.

A song doesn't even need to include sex or even profane language to be a Misogyny Song: a country song that portrays all women as desiring Stay in the Kitchen most of all is just as much of a Misogyny Song as rap songs about "bitches and hoes" or Heavy Metal or Hard Rock songs about Rape Is Love or Domestic Abuse.

To call something a Misogyny Song is not to accuse the writers or musicians playing it as having the attitudes toward women that the song expresses. Some permutations of the Misogyny Song can actually be Stealth Parody, Sarcasm Mode, or written about a character's perspective rather than the songwriter's; even played straight, it may well be Old Shame for someone who now has far more enlightened attitudes.

Nor is it a statement on the quality of the song, because some Misogyny Songs can actually sound very good, or on the quality of the band that plays it, because some very talented and famous classic Hard Rock and Heavy Metal bands have quite a few, as well as some of the most acclaimed Rap and Hip Hop artists.

It IS simply to say that that song expresses a hatred of women solely for being women for no legitimate or even somewhat arguably justified reason and solely exists to express that hatred or dehumanization as the topic/main focus of the song. Therefore, to prevent a massive case of Trope Decay:

  • The song is not directed at a specific woman (like an ex-lover or ex-spouse or relative), or to tropes (like an Abusive Parent or even almost Always Female ones, like Black Widow or Gold Digger or Yoko Oh No). While said attack may or may not be justified, unless all women are equated to that woman or the song is calling all women that trope, it is a Take That and should be listed there (even if a distasteful or misogynist one) and not a Misogyny Song. Do not list it here.
  • The song is not merely using misogynist terminology to attack something else that is not all women. (For example, "Ronald Reagan is a cunt!" in The Exploited's "War" does not make "War" a Misogyny Song because while the terminology may be misogynist, the song is a Protest Song aimed at Ronald Reagan and the Cold War.)
  • The song is using the abuse of women and the stereotyping of women because they are women/they are weaker/they are sexual and the hatred of women as a way of establishing male "power" or "dominance" or, in even worse cases, encouraging others to hate women or encouraging women to hate themselves.

Also, a Misogyny Song can be written by/sung by either a male or female artist. A female artist who writes a song non-sarcastically telling all women that all they are good for is pleasing their man has written a Misogyny Song just as much as a male artist who does the same.

This has had some noticeable aversions in the Riot Grrl Punk movement at the very least.

This trope has a Spear Counterpart: The Misandry Song, a song bashing/dehumanizing all men. While Misogyny Songs tend to rely heavily on Stay in the Kitchen, Rape Is Love, Black Comedy Rape, Domestic Abuse, heavy use of the Double Standard, and similar tropes, Misandry Songs tend to heavily rely on All Men Are Perverts, All Men Are Rapists, All Abusers Are Male, Your Cheating Heart, Disproportionate Retribution, occasionally Black Comedy Rape or Rape and Revenge and of course Revenge Against Men.

As earlier noted, often a great source of Old Shame for bands and solo artists.

As always, please try to avoid Natter and Complaining About Shows You Don't Like.

Examples of Misogyny Song include:

Parodies, Aversions, Subversions from all genres

  • Girls! Girls! Girls!-Emilie Autumn, a tongue in cheek mock of "look at that silly hysterical girl" thing.
  • Clawfinger's "I Need You" is a subversion: The protagonist has this perspective, but it's quite clear that the singer isn't on his own persona's side. The band uses this kind of "Villain Protagonist" structure in many other songs as well.
  • Parodied by Jon Lajoie in his "Show Me Your Genitals" songs. MC Vagina claims women are only good for three things: Cooking, Cleaning, and Vaginas. He later amends this by adding Their Sisters' Vaginas.
  • Minion Comics features a Teddy Ruxpin-esque stuffed turtle singing a rap song entitled "Punch Your Bitch In The Mouth" advising schoolchildren about how to treat their girlfriends.
  • Radiohead's "Nude" is a scathing attack on (or arguably, a deconstruction of) misogyny songs.
  • The Amateur Transplants' "Northern Birds" and "Nothing At All" play this for laughs.
  • Weezer's "No One Else" was described by Rivers Cuomo as "the jealous obsessive asshole in me freaking out over my girlfriend". However, they don't condone this behaviour since on The Blue Album it's followed by "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here", which is "the same asshole wondering why she left".

Straight examples below per genre of both Misogyny Songs and Misandry Songs

Country Music

Electronic

  • This is a common practice of Power Electronics acts, including Whitehouse, Sutcliffe Jügend, Snuff, RxAxPxE, and Taint.

Heavy Metal and Heavy Mithril

  • "Pleasure Slave" by Manowar is about Happiness in Slavery, and contains the line, "Her only sorrow is for women who live with lies." Apparently, every real woman wants to be a sex slave for Manowar.
  • The Mentors have dedicated nearly their entire music career to promoting misogyny, sexism and rape. Examples include "All Women are Insane," "Sex Slave," and "My Erection is Over." The band calls their genre of music "Rape Rock," and the singer appeared on many television shows including Jerry Springer to promote social acceptance of rape.
  • Orjatar ("slave girl") by Terä Betoni, a group that's all about days of glory and brotherhood (preferably pre-Medeival, which in Finland, its home country, would be Iron Age) — much like Manowar. In Orjatar, the male narrator returns from the hunt successful, and reminds the female of her place, and expects sex in direct words. Her reward will be "divine pleasure". Yeah suuure.
  • "Playing Games" by Loudness. Lyrics here (it's a lyrics site so have adblock activated and don't use an insecure computer). Old Shame.
  • Was a common trope for Hair Metal bands' music in general, under the mistaken idea that expressing troglodyte attitudes toward women was somehow "shocking" or "offensive" in and of itself.
  • "Terror" by My Ruin is pretty much a rare example of a Misandry Song in metal where Tairrie B clearly says that NO MAN will hinder her from being who she is.
  • Genderflipped with "Menocide" by Otep.

Hip Hop and Rap

  • "Crank Dat" by Soulja Boy is a borderline example, because it's pretty obvious the woman in the song is simply a tool for the narrator's own pleasure.
  • "She Swallowed It" by Dr Dre is a textbook example with a tasteless title that pretty much sums up the whole song about "bitches and hoes".
    • Not to mention the even more texbook Hidden Track "Bitches Ain't Shit."

Pop

  • "If I Were a Boy" by Beyoncé is arguably a Misandry Song in that it portrays men as all faithless cheaters.
    • Much of Beyonce's catalog (with Destiny's Child and as a solo artist) could be considered Misandrist.
  • "Just The Way You Are (Drunk at the Bar)" by Brian McFadden is a pro-rape song.
  • "Girls & Boys" by Good Charlotte is less about overt hate and more about bitter stereotyping; its message is that girls are all Gold Diggers with an undertone of materialism correlating strongly with good looks, and boys put up with the financial cost for sex. A couple of lines soften the blow a little by saying that the males aren't perfect either ("boys will laugh at girls when they're not funny") and that it's only one "type" of girl that acts like this, but the rest of the song is just blanket statements.

Reggae/Ska/Dancehall/Calypso/Mento

  • The song "Adam And Eve" by The Bleechers, which was notably covered by Bob Marley And The Wailers, describes the bible story in detail, noting that "Women are the root of all evil." It is unlikely it was meant to be misogynistic but it certainly comes off as being such.
  • Peter Tosh's "Maga Dog," "Soon Come," and "Brand New Second Hand" are all attacks on certain women.

Rock (Includes Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, Progressive Rock, Goth Rock, Glam Rock, etcetera

  • The Beatles, amazingly, have two notable ones:
    • "You Can't Do That" (from the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack) is from the POV of a jealous, possessive boyfriend who does not like his woman talking to any other men at all...

If I catch you talking to that boy again,
I'm gonna let you down,
And leave you flat
Because I told you before, OH,
You can't do that.

    • ...though, it's pretty tame in comparison to "Run for Your Life" (from Rubber Soul). At its heart, the message of this song is that if you decide to end a relationship with the singer, he will brutally murder you if you don't escape him first.
    • In fact, John Lennon (who wrote both of those songs) was a noted womanizer in his earlier years. At the time, such attitudes were valid, but he didn't want to be seen as a Hypocrite. He later tried to atone for these attitudes and the songs he wrote with these attitudes during his solo career, with songs like "Woman" and "Jealous Guy."
  • The Rolling Stones had quite a run of these in the '60s:
    • "Play with Fire"
    • "Under My Thumb"
    • "Stupid Girl"
    • "Out of Time"
    • "Back Street Girl"
  • Theory Of A Deadman's "Bitch Came Back" and "Gentleman". Both of which were co-written by a woman, Kara DioGuardi.
    • In fact, it can be quite common with newer Post-Grunge bands (Nickelback, Buckcherry, Hinder, etc). Possibly explained by how these bands are influenced by Hair Metal.
  • Grindcore act Intestinal Disgorge banked heavily on this trope, to the point where every other song with comprehensible lyrics is about this.

Visual Kei

  • Anti-Feminism as a band is an odd case. They sound like, from their name, the ultimate misogynist band, but the band members claimed they didn't understand their name when they chose it. Your Mileage May Vary.
  • "Sadistic Desire" and "Vanishing Love" by X Japan. As well as the album covers for Vanishing Vision (which is not safe for sanity, much less work) and for Jade (which is simply NSFW and far less bloodily violent but still a bit objectifying of a woman... and makes even less sense since it has absolutely nothing to do with the song)
  • "Fuctrack #6" by Zilch may fall under this due to having the female vocal singing the lines she does and being the "submissive." On the other hand, though, it may not because the male lyrics seem almost self-loathing and craving punishment as the song ends.

Other/doesn't fit elsewhere/needs categorization

  • "Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man" from My Fair Lady
  • The Clement Peerens Explosition has "Foorwijf" and "t is altijd iets met die wijven".
  • Kiss Me Kate has both the misandrous song "I Hate Men" (sung by a woman) and the misogynous song "(I Am Ashamed That) Women Are So Simple" (also sung by a woman). Whether the latter is meant to be sarcastic is up to Alternate Character Interpretation.
  • "If You Want to Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life" by Jimmy Soul. Heavy stereotyping, suggesting that an ugly girl is easier to tame than a pretty one, and that her place is in the kitchen. Although this may be less a case of Misogyny, and more a case of straight up Values Dissonance.
  • Stephen Sondheim has given us a few of these, notably "In Praise Of Women" from A Little Night Music, which treats women as the possessions of men, and "Ladies In Their Sensitivities" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which is the Beadle's advice to Judge Turpin on how to better attract his ward Johanna.
  • Dean Martin and Nat King Cole recorded a duet called "Open Up the Doghouse (Two Cats Are Comin' In)", in which they lament their troubles with their respective wives and conclude that "we gotta slap 'em" and "show 'em who wears the pants". It's clearly Played for Laughs, though.
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