Music and women's aggression
on twitter I tried to probe to see if anyone could help me find some music. Specifically, I was looking for songs about dangerous women, that had nothing to do with sex, sexuality, seduction, relationships, romance, or physical appearance. It could be either sung by men by observation or by women in first person. I cited songs such Indestructible and Warrior by Disturbed, and Back for More by Five Finger Death Punch as examples of the kinds of aggressive, powerful, warrior/fighter/protector songs I was looking for, just for the perspective/voice of women. And for an example of a third person talking about someone see A Warrior's Call by Volbeat.
I brought up Tex from Red vs Blue and the songs for her was very much the vibe I was looking for, due to her never being unmasked, (edit: I have been informed that this did happen and I didn't know because I never kept up with the series past a certain point. Whelp.) always being in a fully covered suit of armor and being a one woman army, the songs about here wouldn't resort to sexuality in the first place. But alas, no one had Tex playlists for me ): I also mentioned the song Die Another Day by Madonna, as while that song was written for James Bond, because it was sung by a woman in first person perspective, I could apply that.
Of this probing, the only music I found yesterday that truly hit the mark was Alpha by Little Destroyer and Feeding Frenzy by Otep that I found myself. I got a lot of suggestions and most of them ended up having the very things I did not want, a lot of seduction and breaking from relationships in the overtone.
The ones that hit close but not quite, were a scant few songs about general power such as being a queen or just kinda vague empowerment but not physically dangerous and then there were songs about dangerous women as a group but not individuals. In fact this trend appeared more often with songs about aggression that were devoid of sex and sexuality. I know this is tied to the whole social phenomenon of women inherently seeing themselves as collective or community just by being women. It's admittedly never been one I've felt like, and I'm not gonna dive into it because there's been enough breakdowns of all that, but it's frustrating the only neutral aggression or danger from women, is when it's a group. That's cool and all but I'm looking for One Woman Army, songs.
I read through something like 14 different albums worth of lyrics from In This Moment, Lacuna Coil, The Pretty Reckless, Halestorm and Otep, and the only thing I found was that song by Otep. Almost all of them were buried in sex or sexuality in some capacity. Now, before anyone says anything this is fine, I am not condemning this or saying it should stop, I'm just saying I'd really like more music that wasn't drenched in that because it doesn't resonate with me. But all this made me think about women's and men's songs about love and aggression.
Because women are often shoved into this expectation of innocence, sexuality and display/control of it is perceived as inherently powerful and transgressive, and as a result you see it tied with danger as the act of such is perceived as threatening by it's nature. Songs of being the seductress can be one part exerting control of an uncontrollable life, sexual emancipation, or just simply a personal preference. On the contrast, because men are seen as sexual beings from the get-go, they almost never get to have songs about being the sexually emancipated seducer, sexual bravado absolutely gets tossed around, but it's aggression and taking, it's not seducing. I'm sure songs of the man being the lusty seducer in the same vein of women's songs are out there but rare, and if they exist they're not going to be perceived as sexual emancipation, they're going to be perceived as inherently abusive.
And then I started to think about about seduction and enticement styles in both men and women, what would a woman's style of seduction appear when displayed by a man, then it hit me: Vampires. For the record, I don't like vampires, I never have, and it has largely to do with the seduction style of many classic vampires. Be beautiful, be eloquent, be enticing, ravish the victim, these steps when I think about it, echo the same seduction patterns you see in the dangerous seducer type women. Romance novels have a very similar vibe with their men, and this is probably why it resonates and captivates so many women - it's men using seduction language and methods they're familiar with. (which explains why it repulses me so).
But backing up from that, you ever think about how men don't get to have sexy empowering songs without being perceived as a predator for it? And women that display forward sexual desire are perceived as dangerous and broken? Man this has got to stop.
Anywho. I get why sex and sexuality is so ingrained in women's music about freedom and self-discovery, because of the way it is suppressed by most society, but it's not a narrative I resonate with at all.
All this to say, I need more music about women berserkers, please, thank you.
I brought up Tex from Red vs Blue and the songs for her was very much the vibe I was looking for, due to her never being unmasked, (edit: I have been informed that this did happen and I didn't know because I never kept up with the series past a certain point. Whelp.) always being in a fully covered suit of armor and being a one woman army, the songs about here wouldn't resort to sexuality in the first place. But alas, no one had Tex playlists for me ): I also mentioned the song Die Another Day by Madonna, as while that song was written for James Bond, because it was sung by a woman in first person perspective, I could apply that.
Of this probing, the only music I found yesterday that truly hit the mark was Alpha by Little Destroyer and Feeding Frenzy by Otep that I found myself. I got a lot of suggestions and most of them ended up having the very things I did not want, a lot of seduction and breaking from relationships in the overtone.
The ones that hit close but not quite, were a scant few songs about general power such as being a queen or just kinda vague empowerment but not physically dangerous and then there were songs about dangerous women as a group but not individuals. In fact this trend appeared more often with songs about aggression that were devoid of sex and sexuality. I know this is tied to the whole social phenomenon of women inherently seeing themselves as collective or community just by being women. It's admittedly never been one I've felt like, and I'm not gonna dive into it because there's been enough breakdowns of all that, but it's frustrating the only neutral aggression or danger from women, is when it's a group. That's cool and all but I'm looking for One Woman Army, songs.
I read through something like 14 different albums worth of lyrics from In This Moment, Lacuna Coil, The Pretty Reckless, Halestorm and Otep, and the only thing I found was that song by Otep. Almost all of them were buried in sex or sexuality in some capacity. Now, before anyone says anything this is fine, I am not condemning this or saying it should stop, I'm just saying I'd really like more music that wasn't drenched in that because it doesn't resonate with me. But all this made me think about women's and men's songs about love and aggression.
Because women are often shoved into this expectation of innocence, sexuality and display/control of it is perceived as inherently powerful and transgressive, and as a result you see it tied with danger as the act of such is perceived as threatening by it's nature. Songs of being the seductress can be one part exerting control of an uncontrollable life, sexual emancipation, or just simply a personal preference. On the contrast, because men are seen as sexual beings from the get-go, they almost never get to have songs about being the sexually emancipated seducer, sexual bravado absolutely gets tossed around, but it's aggression and taking, it's not seducing. I'm sure songs of the man being the lusty seducer in the same vein of women's songs are out there but rare, and if they exist they're not going to be perceived as sexual emancipation, they're going to be perceived as inherently abusive.
And then I started to think about about seduction and enticement styles in both men and women, what would a woman's style of seduction appear when displayed by a man, then it hit me: Vampires. For the record, I don't like vampires, I never have, and it has largely to do with the seduction style of many classic vampires. Be beautiful, be eloquent, be enticing, ravish the victim, these steps when I think about it, echo the same seduction patterns you see in the dangerous seducer type women. Romance novels have a very similar vibe with their men, and this is probably why it resonates and captivates so many women - it's men using seduction language and methods they're familiar with. (which explains why it repulses me so).
But backing up from that, you ever think about how men don't get to have sexy empowering songs without being perceived as a predator for it? And women that display forward sexual desire are perceived as dangerous and broken? Man this has got to stop.
Anywho. I get why sex and sexuality is so ingrained in women's music about freedom and self-discovery, because of the way it is suppressed by most society, but it's not a narrative I resonate with at all.
All this to say, I need more music about women berserkers, please, thank you.