Just don't listen to it. Nobody's forcing you.

Jon, I don't think the author is calling for censorship but rather a community statement to those who do listen to it that the values are not real.

Like earth hour it was voluntary and had little direct impact on energy consumption but it's a reminder to us that there are things we can do to cut down. Sometimes statements have real value but then maybe we have so many special days now that few manage to grab our attention.

I'd be happier if the proposed day avoided music that debased people regardless of gender. Gender specific targetting of issues tends to become entrenched. I'm not aware of music that concerns me right now on that front so thats an in principle statement rather than a "haven't males got it tough in song lyrics" thing.

R0bert

Danni I completely agree that a lot of musical lyrics are inappropriate, sexual and inescapable. Music videos are on display everywhere for every age group to see.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if we all just put our heads in the sand and said, "Hey it's no good for me so I'll just ignore it." NOT!

I'm a middle aged man who grew up in the 1970s with punk, new wave, disco and glam. So I'm a long way from being a prude. But I have to say I find a lot of the music videos these days demeaning not onto to women, but to humanity as a whole.

Fitness First, the nation's largest health club chain, has an internal television network that plays these videos constantly on high rotation as people work out. Without exagerration, nearly every song features women as sluttish pole-dancing, gyrating commodities.

Clearly, the intention of the gym owners is that the videos will make the women customers work out harder in the hope of getting one of those MTV bodies, while keeping the men entertained.

But I suspect most customers find the videos trashy and sleazy. I'm frequently working out with women work colleagues and feel embarrassed on their behalf.

Of course, the liberatarians amongst us will rightly say that no-one is forcing the women in these videos to demean themselves in this way. But we all still have to choice to turn if off. And I think it's time that more of us did.

Jon you missed the point - people are forcing usto you listen and watch these hate filled tunes. Every day, in almost every puplic place. All people should be free to access public places without being intimidated by hate filled rants of people claiming to want to hurt or kill them and their kind. If people want to listen to these foul messages let them, but do not inflict it on the rest of us.

It is the subtitle of the article, not the content which worries.

"What about having one official day when music debasing women is banned from the airwaves?"

What is debasing? How do we define that objectively? Will we require a special committee to determine whether "Thrush and the CXnts" (profanity censored by Online Opinion) are debasing or progressive?

We can take note that the referenced article in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology "it is unlikely that hearing lyrics in a song creates sexist attitudes that do not previously exist". Perhaps not surprising really given the quality of the vocals.

Personally, I already have banned what I consider debasing music and music videos permanently. If I hear a song on a radio station that I don't like, I change channels. Ditto for videos on television. If I like something I will go out of my way to support it. The Radio Log proposal seems to be a step in that direction. If I was musically compenent myself I would produce "good music" to counter "bad music".

Soundtrack of my life? Ahh. That would have to include the political energy of The Clash and The Gang of Four, the otherwordliness of early Ultravox!, The Chameleons, and Shriekback, the ethereal romanticism of Roxy Music, the weirdness of Laurie Anderson, and the fin de siecle with Pop Will Eat Itself.

Welllll...what a WOWSER.. what PRUDE... how the author tries to stifle all our "fun".. what right has she got to deny our artistic choice and freedom......?

She HAS to be a hyperfundamentalist right wing Christian nutter....right?

MIUAUG... is on turbo..on the highway to hell...and now.. even the PASSENGERS are realizing they are on the wrong track.... they are seeing the gradual change of scenary.. from the 'pleasant choice surroundings of the beautiful rainforest of life and values, to the increasingly murkey red and dark toned barren landscape..with an intense glow on the horizon, looming larger with each passing kilometer...

The solutions she offers is not HIT THE FREAKING BRAKES...NOWWWWW and turn this vehicle around!...nope.. its more like "lets stop for a moment and have a picnic on the side of the road to reflect on the virtues of our previous dwelling place" and then all get back in the car on that same highway.

I've been in the fortunate position of creating original music for a Christian community context which became so popular it was PIRATED by Chinese merchants.

We CAN reclaim the music.. but only if we reclaim enduring and eternal values which underpin it.

The increasing number of disgusting images of young, drunken women fighting, swearing and vomiting in the early hours of the morning outside pubs and clubs shows that they don't need any help in being debased.

I recommend Alicia Keys. Her song Superwoman is very positive.

Yes. I doubt very much that songs like Kill You by Eminem are on the airways everywhere. That song would be censored. Even the album would have a minimal of 15+ rating. As for songs such as Don't Cha by the Pussycat Dolls it sounds like the author wants a right of reply. I can see an argument on the street with any good looking girl who looks at her sideways. Some people want to be smarter than others. Some people want to be better looking. When it comes to popular music it's the latter. I would say that it comes with the trade, a very "cut throat" industry!

I have no idea what the authur is talking about. I have not been able to understand the lyrics of popular songs for the last 30 years, so will not listen. The 'singers' diction is so poor it is incomprehensible and usually the backup 'music' drowns the lyrics anyway.

Remote controls are a brilliant invention and mine stays on my lap while watching TV and I pride myself on how quick I can use it, mute all advertisments as well. Anyone with a guitar, without a hat, gets the quick chop.

In would be a decided improvement if the remote was made in the shape of a handgun.

I get really irritated with posts like this. They portray women as these creatures who are completely incapable of having a self image other than that which "society" (and I use that term losely) deems appropriate for them.

While for some people (both men and women) that's true, it is not the majority. Most of my friends are women and most of them are strong, capable and self sufficient. This article is an insult to them.

The author clearly has some sort of issues (self esteem perhaps?) if she is affected by contemporary music in the way she describes. I think she should be glad that she wasn't born a generation or two ago - Elvis swinging his hips around would've been far too much for her. I guess my message to her is to thicken up her skin - she's griping over the smallest of things.

Banjo, why post then? Am curious...

"In would be a decided improvement if the remote was made in the shape of a handgun."
What, to shoot the tv? I'm not sure how that would exactly help... :p

Chade,
The point is that it doesn't matter what the lyrics are if they are not understandable.

Remote in the shape of a handgun. Not to kill the TV, but to eliminate the 'artist'/ programme / commercial I do no wish to watch or listen to. Personal satisfaction to knock him off.

One advantage of getting older, I don't have to do or watch anything I don't like and I won't.

As a parent and someone who has been a fan of and played music since I was young ,I agree the level of pap that is churned out by the commercial media, especially Gangsta rap is pathetic. I have exposed my children to a range of music and we have always tried to encourage them in their own musical endevours. My 14 year old son is a fan of fairly hardcore rock and is in a band. My daughter plays the violin and is into musical theater and singing. Like all parenting, role modelling is the key-my observation is the kids of parents with muzak musical tastes usually have fairly low level commercial music preferences. Music is something you need to be snobby about. Same as what newspaper you read and what TV you watch- its not that complicated.

Ah for the good old days. Remember Kenny Rogers and 'coward of the county'? The fact that a woman was packraped by three men was incidental. The important thing was, her husband proved he was not a coward.
When I mentioned this to people -men and women- at the time, the usual response was a shrug and: "what do you expect? It's country and western."
It may not be right, but the application of different standards for different categories (of anything) appears inevitable.
And then there's the question of how many people actually listen to the lyrics, whether or not they can understand them, or think about the lyrics...
(Actually, I would have been more impressed with the courage of the 'coward' if he had fought the three rapists, and lost. Unthinkable in American culture, of course...)

I am a fan of hip hop music, including the gangsta rap the author (perhaps unknowingly) is critiquing. Unfortunately her fears will not be answered if she has not spoken with fans of this type of music and lyrics. Then she might discover that what on the surface seems objectionable is often, in the vast majority of cases, redemptive. You cannot sing about your problems by ignoring what the issues are - these issues include the reduced or lack of self-esteem that the author is concerned about.

Furthermore, much of this music is progressive in that it deals not only with inappropriate male sexuality (still much a taboo subject) but also it is reclaiming the repressive language previously used to suppress black people (nigga, ho, bitch), along the lines that Mediterranean people have reclaimed the word "wog". An 18-year-old female acquaintance of mine frequently refers to her female friends as bitches, with no obvious ill effects. It is as normal for her as it was for the author to find Madonna "feeling like a virgin" or Chrissy Amphlett’s desire to "touch herself", subjects that were also offensive at the time and still are to some people today. Supposed empowerment for one is still a raunchy dollar for another.

Certainly regard should be given as to who gets to hear these impactful lyrics and when. To the best of my knowledge all such CDs include a warning sticker and I have yet to hear gangsta rap in my local shopping centre. If I were the author I’d be more concerned about the misogynistic or vengeful violence that films such as Wolfe Creek or Reservoir Dogs have on impressionable and disturbed minds.

The author needs to recognise that it is "unlikely that hearing lyrics in a song creates sexist attitudes that do not previously exist", as she herself quoted in her article. That is not to say there is not a problem. All prejudice can be broken down with empathy and understanding.

I agree with the article Claim back the Music. Totally agree. I believe there are so many mixed messages being sent out, and while the teens and younger are adamant they know what's what, they AND their parents scream loud and protest vehemently regarding innocence if anything 'happens'.

But 'innocence' can't possibly be there, can it? The girls with their 'just above the fluff' jeans and shorts, the tops only really working to cover the nipple and then to top it off they sing and wriggle to those songs.

And besides all that, where HAVE the great lyrics gone? And the music? Apropos of that, I've heard some, but as its not 'radio worthy' apparently, that music doesn't make the cut. Our music director (I believe there's really only one for Australia ?) appears to find out what is happening overseas, and will slot in an Australian or two, particularly if they're good for a barbeque and beer, and that's that.

Where are the GOOD radio stations, with fine, fun, music? And lyrics?

Oh, and interestingly the other day heard Mark Gable talking to Steve Cropper and his mate Gary Jones I think it was asking Steve when were Booker T and the MGs going to tour Australia? Now the MGs were there, and Booker T was replaced by the very very talented Lester Snell. But STILL they asked and indicated they'd go and see Booker T and the MGs - if Booker was with them. I thought that was a bit of a snarky slap and I'd give eye teeth to know whether they actually went to see Lester Snell and the MGs?

yes, one whole day of listening to this song only http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=aPDcMyPlFvw

LOL

I wonder whether the author read the actual article or just ABC News' (Reuters) version of it. The researchers concluded that "The results of this research may be viewed as a partial victory for popular critics of misogynistic rap music. As many critics have suspected, misogynistic rap primes more sexist attitudes in males. Most interestingly, it also primes more defensive attitudes in females. Ironically, then, the response of our female participants to Eminem’s 'Kill You' provides some support for the argument that his lyrics are so absurd that his Slim Shady character essentially becomes a parody of unacceptable behavior (Doherty, 2000; Ross & Saxe, 2001)"[1].

I agree that most video clips today are displaying young women purely for the 'male gaze' and this should be fought against, but really, Eminem is not the monster these critics of rap make him out to be. He is parodying the worst of the genre.

1. Cobb, Michael D. and William A. Boettcher, III (2007),'Ambivalent Sexism and Misogynistic Rap Music: Does Exposure to Eminem Increase Sexism?' Journal of Applied Social Psychology 37(12):3025–3042.

Why don't all you feminist losers quit crying and grow up

Probably because there just aren't enough reasonable, articulate and mature role models like you around for all of us gals to get our pretty little heads around.(sob)