shush 30H!3, shut your lips,/ you make some lyrics that make me feel sick
Songs aren't all meant to be lucious, 4-minute pieces of poetry that make you swoon and/or melt. Some, in fact, can be fun, jangly, silly, or, if they have a good enough beat, even bordering on nonsensical. Stupid, even. I'm pretty tolerant of my music, particularly the music in the danceable category. (Looking at you, Mariah. And Britney. Oh fuck it, all of my massive collection of dance music.)
But, this new song, "Don't Trust Me," by some silly white boys in Colorado, has taken it too far. For your consideration:
The first half of the song have me rocking, rolling, dancing, laughing even, at the amusing "vegetarian" and "scaredofhim" rhyming. Whoo, electronica chorus! Whoo, "don't trust me/never trust me"! Whoo, amusing little anecdote about washing off the under-21 X's! And then, around 1:40, it starts getting weird-- we stop "trusting hos." Uh, okay? Maybe you silly boys are... just being silly?
But then, suddenly, our fun dance becomes clobbered by this deep, scary voice. Well, I take that back. It's not so much the voice that scares me as what the voice is saying: "Shh girl, shut your lips/do the Helen Keller, and talk with your hips." Repeat. Get louder. Sing it again, why don't cha?
Yes, that's right. I'm not about to make some moralizing claim about how maybe using Helen Keller to silence women is gross--oh wait, I just did--but rather how the placement of this in the song is just plain ol' disgusting: it's right smack in the middle, it's the loudest part, the crescendo, the climax, the part you're supposed to sing right the fuck along to.
Last night, I was at a party (in my room, actually) and this song came on (well, someone put it on). Fine. Dance dance dance la la la. Then, everyone (mostly guys) started singing--as is expected--along with the chorus. All of the sudden, we hear a group of men (and some women), chanting "Shhh GIRL, SHUT YOUR LIPS, DO THE HELEN KELLER, AND TALK WITH YOUR HIPS, I SAID SHH GIRL, SHUT YOUR LIPS [screaming louder now] DO THE HELEN KELLER AND TALK WITH YOUR HIPS!"
These are smart, civilized people. These are wonderful, caring men who treat their women with respect and all sort of equality. They are feminists, I'd say, almost all of them. Most are just singing because that's what you do when a popular song comes on and you're drunk and dancing. The women, too. And these are my friends and I am in no way criticizing them at all. What I'm angry at is this song-- and its nasty chorus--for getting normal, great people to sing a chorus about women Shutting The Fuck Up and just grinding and lookin' pretty.
What troubles me even more--or drives me crazy is perhaps the better wording--is that this song is probably playing as I type at dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of dances, bat mitzvahs, proms, younameits-- and everyone's singing along, shouting that to the women, "SHHH, GIRL, SHUT YOUR LIPS" like deaf-blind Helen Keller-- who was, in her own right, and incredibly strong, brave and powerful woman.
And maybe the women who hear this chorus being chanted by their friends/boyfriends/prom-dates don't internalize it. Maybe they interpret the Helen Keller thing as LMFAO-hilarity, or maybe they simply don't care. But there probably is one girl out there, who hears this, and thinks that what her boyfriend wants from her-- to shhh, shut her lips, and just "talk with her hips." That a few people could really take in this nasty message in all its nasty clothing.
Bleeping out an entire chorus of a song isn't going to happen, and it probably shouldn't. But women, should, however, take the chorus and the song that they need to open their mouths and speak even loud, so that asshole guys (even jokingly) don't keep promoting women to shut their lips and just be bodies. So be like "Helen Keller," if you must--but reclaiming their insensitive chorus--and show them that you can overcome expectations of being a piece of ass (or hips).
And, if you can, make sure to talk over that dumbass chorus.
But, this new song, "Don't Trust Me," by some silly white boys in Colorado, has taken it too far. For your consideration:
Click to viewThe first half of the song have me rocking, rolling, dancing, laughing even, at the amusing "vegetarian" and "scaredofhim" rhyming. Whoo, electronica chorus! Whoo, "don't trust me/never trust me"! Whoo, amusing little anecdote about washing off the under-21 X's! And then, around 1:40, it starts getting weird-- we stop "trusting hos." Uh, okay? Maybe you silly boys are... just being silly?
But then, suddenly, our fun dance becomes clobbered by this deep, scary voice. Well, I take that back. It's not so much the voice that scares me as what the voice is saying: "Shh girl, shut your lips/do the Helen Keller, and talk with your hips." Repeat. Get louder. Sing it again, why don't cha?
Yes, that's right. I'm not about to make some moralizing claim about how maybe using Helen Keller to silence women is gross--oh wait, I just did--but rather how the placement of this in the song is just plain ol' disgusting: it's right smack in the middle, it's the loudest part, the crescendo, the climax, the part you're supposed to sing right the fuck along to.
Last night, I was at a party (in my room, actually) and this song came on (well, someone put it on). Fine. Dance dance dance la la la. Then, everyone (mostly guys) started singing--as is expected--along with the chorus. All of the sudden, we hear a group of men (and some women), chanting "Shhh GIRL, SHUT YOUR LIPS, DO THE HELEN KELLER, AND TALK WITH YOUR HIPS, I SAID SHH GIRL, SHUT YOUR LIPS [screaming louder now] DO THE HELEN KELLER AND TALK WITH YOUR HIPS!"
These are smart, civilized people. These are wonderful, caring men who treat their women with respect and all sort of equality. They are feminists, I'd say, almost all of them. Most are just singing because that's what you do when a popular song comes on and you're drunk and dancing. The women, too. And these are my friends and I am in no way criticizing them at all. What I'm angry at is this song-- and its nasty chorus--for getting normal, great people to sing a chorus about women Shutting The Fuck Up and just grinding and lookin' pretty.
What troubles me even more--or drives me crazy is perhaps the better wording--is that this song is probably playing as I type at dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of dances, bat mitzvahs, proms, younameits-- and everyone's singing along, shouting that to the women, "SHHH, GIRL, SHUT YOUR LIPS" like deaf-blind Helen Keller-- who was, in her own right, and incredibly strong, brave and powerful woman.
And maybe the women who hear this chorus being chanted by their friends/boyfriends/prom-dates don't internalize it. Maybe they interpret the Helen Keller thing as LMFAO-hilarity, or maybe they simply don't care. But there probably is one girl out there, who hears this, and thinks that what her boyfriend wants from her-- to shhh, shut her lips, and just "talk with her hips." That a few people could really take in this nasty message in all its nasty clothing.
Bleeping out an entire chorus of a song isn't going to happen, and it probably shouldn't. But women, should, however, take the chorus and the song that they need to open their mouths and speak even loud, so that asshole guys (even jokingly) don't keep promoting women to shut their lips and just be bodies. So be like "Helen Keller," if you must--but reclaiming their insensitive chorus--and show them that you can overcome expectations of being a piece of ass (or hips).
And, if you can, make sure to talk over that dumbass chorus.