(Think Before He Cheats, Carrie Underwood. Lyrics: I dug my key into the side of his
pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive/ carved my name into his leather seats / I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights/ slashed a hole in all 4 tires/ Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.)
pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive/ carved my name into his leather seats / I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights/ slashed a hole in all 4 tires/ Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.)
And this:
(Mama's Broken Heart, Miranda Lambert. Lyrics: Can’t get revenge and keep a spotless reputation / Sometimes revenge is a choice you gotta make/ My mama came from a softer generation/ Where you get a grip and bite your lip just to save a little face/
Go and fix your make up, girl, it’s just a break up/ Run and hide your crazy and start actin’ like a lady/'Cause I raised you better, gotta keep it together/ Even when you fall apart/ But this ain’t my mama’s broken heart)
And this:
(Two Black Cadillacs, Carrie Underwood. Lyrics: Yeah they took turns laying a rose down/ Threw a handful of dirt into the deep ground/ He’s not the only one who had a secret to hide/ ... /
Two months ago his wife called the number on his phone/ Turns out he'd been lying to both of them for oh so long/ They decided then he’d never get away with doing this to them/ Two black Cadillacs waiting for the right time, right time)
And this:
(Better Dig Two, The Band Perry. Lyrics: Put me in the ground/ Put me six foot down/ And let the stone say:/
"Here lies the girl whose only crutch/ Was loving one man just a little too much"/ If you go before I do/ I'm gonna tell the gravedigger that he better dig two.)
And are you serious!? What are we telling our daughters and sons about what it means to be women? Listen, I am all about girl power, but these songs? These songs are not about girl power. In fact, every single one of these songs puts men in control of women's actions. Even the "I bashed his car in" and the "we killed him for cheating" songs put the man in control of the woman's actions "he cheated and so I responded in an extra-legal, irrational way." (And the worst part about the "bashed his car song is that that man is not going to walk out of that bar and think "huh, maybe I shouldn't cheat on women." He going to walk out and think "that woman is crazy" and he's going to be angry at her, and possibly extend it to "all women are crazy" and he's not going to link the destruction of his car to his own behavior. Not only irrational, also ineffective.) The other two songs are even worse when it comes to their portrayal of women, because the dependance levels of the women in those songs is self-destructive.
I think the most insidious part of these songs is that the music is catchy and fun and has that "stick in your head" quality which serves to obscure the awful, awful messages about women that the lyrics are conveying.
Now, I don't think that some girl is going to listen to one of these songs and make a direct connection to her own behavior. But I think that these and songs like them create a whole, cultural idea of a woman that is 1.) dependent/obsessive in her relationship with men and 2.) irrational, overly emotional, unstable. That is a cultural representation of women that is pervasive (*cough* Twilight *cough*) and damaging. And like I always say, the things we see and hear become the things we think and feel.
Let's be better than this.
