Everyone knows that being a feminist ruins your ability to enjoy large swathes of pop culture. Movies, TV shows, video games, and music – every mindless diversion you once appreciated is now a minefield of outrage and indignation. I can’t even watch the Food Network anymore, for pete’s sake.
My one remaining toehold in popular culture is the radio, partly because my car doesn’t have an aux jack, and partly (okay, mostly) because I’m in love with Ke$ha.
It is because of this love for Ke$ha that I subject myself to the stream of casual misogyny and objectification that infects at least 50% of the songs on the radio right now. I present to you the top five offenders that have me jabbing the station buttons with the most regularity, in order from “irritating” to “disgusting and infuriating.”
[Note: I haven’t actually watched any of the music videos I include here, because I assume it would raise my blood pressure too much. Just know that they are probably awful and also probably at least mildly NSFW].
5. Justin Timberlake – Not a Bad Thing
My objection to this song is small, and makes me feel like a cranky old rocking-chair feminist. But every time I hear him croon “Don’t act like it’s a bad thing to fall in love with me,” my knee jerk reaction is to shout, “DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE.”
All I’m saying is, maybe the mystery lady in this song has some really good reasons to feel nervous or unhappy about falling in love with someone! Maybe she’s allowed to feel whatever she’s feeling! Maybe JT needs to respect her boundaries! YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE.
ahem.
4. Pitbull – Wild Wild Love
Things I hate about this song:
- It’s by Pitbull, whose lyrics are regularly more misogynistic than Robin Thicke’s, but who compounds his evil by tying his lyrics to incredibly catchy lyrical hooks. I love every song Pitbull’s in except for the parts where Pitbull is in them. It’s kind of the worst.
- It contains the line “I know that you want this/ Wild wild love.” Guess what, that line’s been ruined forever.
- NOBODY CARES HOW MANY WOMEN YOU’RE SLEEPING WITH. Stop equating the number of sexual partners you have with your worth as a man. It’s toxic and predictable and, quite frankly, boring.
3. Austin Mahone – Mmm Yeah
This is the rarest of examples where Pitbull is in a song without being the one who ruins it. The offending lyrics are Austin Mahone’s:
When I saw her
Walking down the street
She looked so fine
I just had to speak
I ask her name
But she turned away
As she walked
All that I can say was
[Chorus]
Mmm mmm yeah yeah
[Repeat ad nauseum]
Bridge:
So tell me where you’re from, where you wanna go
But she walk pass me like I ain’t said a word
Stood there like man
Oh, okay! Cool! A little ditty about street harassment. That’s great. Let’s just normalize and celebrate that. Why not have a radio hit tell women that if they’re beautiful, they are leaving men no choice but to shower them with unwanted advances, even after they’ve expressed disinterest (by walking past like they didn’t hear?)
The woman in this song (and in all of the songs on this list) is shown to us essentially as an object – the entire focus is on how she affects the male singer, and what he wants her to do or not do. But having been on the receiving end of street harassment for over a decade now, all I can imagine is the frustration, irritation, anxiety, or even fear the woman in this song might be feeling as she tunes out yet another asshole on her daily commute to work.
2. Timber – Ke$ha ft. Pitbull
It kills me to put a song by Ke$ha on here. It really does. The problem is, Pitbull’s a song-ruiner.
And these lyrics are so awful that they merit a rape tw:
I’m slicker than an oil spill
She say she won’t, but I bet she will
COOL. THAT’S SO GREAT. SO. GREAT. I’M SO GLAD THAT’S ON THE RADIO.
Seriously, I’m surprised there hasn’t been more of a widespread repudiation of this song in feminist circles. I guess it just hasn’t gone viral the same way Blurred Lines did, because it sure as hell isn’t any less disgusting.
I don’t even have a gif for this one. I’m just . . . angry.
1. Jason DeRulo – Talk Dirty to Me
Most of the other songs on this list had one or two lines that were the most rage-inducing. This song wins the number one spot because it’s awful ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Here are some highlights:
I’m that flight that you get on, international
First class seat on my lap, girl
Riding comfortable
Cause I know what the girl them need
New York to Haiti
I got lipstick stamps on my passport
You make it hard to leave
[foreign women have sex with me to get international travel!]
Every picture I take I pose a threat
Boat or jet, what’d you expect
Her pussy so good I bought her a pet
Anyway, everyday I’m trying to get to it
Got her saved in my phone under “Big Booty”
Anyway, everyday I’m trying to get to it
Got her saved in my phone under “Big Booty”
[foreign women trade sex for material possessions! I don’t need to know their names or acknowledge their personhood!]
This song would be gross and annoying if it were just about women in general. But it’s specifically about Latin American and Asian women. In addition to the charming lyrics, there’s the instrumental hook that comes in at the chorus, which is absolutely uncharacteristic for a pop song and which I can only imagine is filed under some douchebag producer’s “Oriental Soundz” folder. And then, just to cap it off, there’s the woman’s voice at the end of the track, saying “What? I don’t understand,” with a heavy asian accent and then giggling.
Whee.
This shit not only contributes to but celebrates the exotification and sexualization of Latin American and Asian women. The idea that all women from those parts of the world are inherently sexually available and less intelligent contributes to race-specific fetishes, to sexual tourism, to how women are portrayed in the media, how they get hired, and on and on and on. Exotification is a thing that affects the actual lives of actual women, and a song celebrating and perpetuating that myth is getting played on the radio approximately 17 times an hour.

Whee.
OOH! OOH! THIS! I remember requesting a column like this because radio music is so horrible! Yesssssssss.
Also, I adore Kesha (she’s dropped the $!) and her reality show just made me appreciate her more.
HOLD THE PHONE THERE IS A REALITY SHOW?? LINK PLS
And I didn’t know she’d dropped the $! She is really growing up I guess. *sniff*
Well said. And the gif at the bottom, classic 🙂
Well… okay now that my stomach has been THOROUGHLY turned, I’m going back to my classic dance music and mostly instrumental adventure trance.
I LOVE KESHA though. And Lady Gaga, though some of her lyrics are as problematic as the most popular rappers.
Reblogged this on Sly Fawkes and commented:
These are pretty dreadful. The only thing I would say to Jason DeRulo is “you wish, d-bag.” Barf!
Bleck. Just bleck. I’d rather deal with a hairball from one of my cats than have to listen to these. *sigh*
I love Ke$ha TOO! oh man..
So I have not heard like, any of these songs (joys of not having a car?) except “talk dirty”. I think I have a slightly different reaction to awful lyrics like in that song, which is that i just think its hilarious. I remember laughing all the way through that song, with that kind of “I can’t believe this is really a thing” type shock. But yea…it is awful. Thanks for reminding me that plenty of people actually internalize this shit rather than laughing it off as the most ridiculous crap they’ve ever heard.
I actually love the instrumental hook though– its super israeli-sounding, and you don’t usually get to hear that sound on the radio.
I love the hook for itself, but can’t listen to it because of my rage of how it’s being used to contextualize the lyrics. It’s the thing that takes the song over the edge from “Wow is this regular misogyny or exotification?” to “holy shitballs exotification fuck you forever.”
yup. its absurd.
Oh my god I love this post so much. I have to say though I was disappointed to not see “Let Me Take A Selfie” on here which basically implies that every woman ever is a psychotic vain self-obsessed whore-bitch. Maybe that can be #6?
Suggestions definitely accepted! I’m so angry at all the selfie-hate particularly because it’s so focused on shaming women in particular for daring to have positive self-image. SIGH
PRO-SELFIE
PRO-SELFIE FO LYFE.
I am definitely not pro- songs that feature annoying female narrators being as annoying as possible while presenting a negative stereotype that no one actually embodies. If you can even call it a ‘song’.
Thank you for writing this!!