13 Songs You Probably Liked Before Your Feminist Awakening

Slut-shaming, sexism, assumption... It's all here in these classics.

1. Eamon, "Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back)"

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Back in 2003 it was ~cool~ to like this song, but listening to it in 2015, all you hear is rampant misogyny. Not only does Eamon slut-shame his ex-girlfriend by telling everyone she gave someone head, he also angrily refers to her as a "ho" six times, and takes things up a notch by also calling her a "burned bitch".

In fact, not only does he repeatedly tell his ex-girlfriend to go fuck herself, he also berates himself for "loving a ho". It's pretty clear that he's quite angry with everyone involved in this saga – himself, his ex, and whoever she gave head to – but it's the vitriol directed at his ex and the song's abusive refrain that's by far the worst.

At least Frankee stood up for all the girls with her response.

2. Enrique Iglesias, "Tonight I'm Fucking You"

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Remember the lyric "I know you want it" from Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", which caused uproar because it was deemed to encourage rape culture?

Well, "Tonight I'm Fucking You" opens with the lyric "I know you want me", despite quickly making it clear that there is actual PHYSICAL SPACE between the two individuals and therefore absolutely no conversation, let alone consent.

Later in the song comes the line: "You know my motivation / Given my reputation", before the chorus, which consists solely of the phrase: "Tonight I'm fucking you."

This phrase, loaded with presumption, is repeated a total 14 times throughout the song.

There is absolutely no reference to the woman in the song feeling the same way. In fact, we only hear about her in relation to him, with the lines: "I know you want me," and "Now rock your body / Damn I like the way that you move / So give it to me / 'Cause I already know what you wanna do."

Do you though? Do you really?

3. Usher, "Love in This Club"

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Similarly, this song involves a guy seeing a girl he likes the look of in a club and deciding that OF COURSE she wants him based purely on what he sees, without any form of actual, you know, conversation with her.

It features the line: "Looking in your eyes / While you're on the other side / You're doing it on purpose, wind it and work it / I can tell by the way that you're looking at me girl."

Because guys are actual mind readers, in case we weren't all aware by now.

As with "Tonight I'm Fucking You", the woman in question is then essentially told that she has to comply with what the guy wants, with Usher repeatedly telling her he wants to have sex right there and now.

I'm sorry, Usher, but it's probably more likely that she was just out having fun with her friends and not looking to bone anyone in a nightclub, so can you not.

4. Busted, "Who's David"

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This may have been one of Busted's biggest ever singles back in 2004, but it's essentially three minutes of intense slut-shaming.

The first verse attacks the girl in question for being flirtatious and wearing makeup: "You've always been this way since high school / Flirtatious and quite loud / I find your sense of humour spiteful / It shouldn't make you proud / And I know your pretty face gets far with guys / But your makeup ain't enough to hide the lies."

But BOY do they lose it when they reach the chorus: "Are you sure that you're mine? / Aren't you dating other guys? / You're so cheap / And I'm not blind / You're not worthy of my time / Somebody saw, you sleep around the town / And I've got proof because the word's going around."

The second verse involves the guy in the song going through the girl's text messages (what a dick move) and then proceeds to slut-shame her a bit more: "I hated what I saw / You stupid lying bitch, who's David? / Some guy who lives next door / So go live in the house of David if you like / But be sure he don't know Peter, John, or Mike."

The song ends with the refrain: "Don't like you", but let's face it, the feeling is probably mutual.

5. Outkast, "Roses"

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Let's be honest, none of this song is complimentary about the female subject, Caroline.

But the second verse takes a bizarre, violent turn, as the singer describes a fantasy about this woman crashing her car into a ditch: "Caroline! See she's the reason for the word "bitch" / I hope she's speeding on the way to the club / Trying to hurry up to get to some / Baller or singer or somebody like that / And try to put on her makeup in the mirror / And crash, crash, crash into a ditch."

Rejection sucks, sure, but wishing a car crash and possible death on someone?

JFC, Outkast.

6. NSYNC, "It's Gonna Be Me"

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Back when this was released, "friend-zoning" was considered a legit thing in which men were rejected romantically by female friends. But now that it's more widely acknowledged as being actual bullshit that basically equates to men believing they're owed sex from whoever they choose, this song is an awkward anthem for "nice guys" everywhere.

Just take the lyrics: "Every little thing I do / Never seems enough for you / You don't wanna lose it again / But I'm not like them / Baby when you finally / Get to love somebody / Guess what, it's gonna be me."

And despite the fact that the guy in this song is apparently "not like the others", he straight-up tells his love interest she doesn't even have a say in whether or not she gets to date him and is pretty dumb for not considering him in the first place: "You've got no choice, babe / But to move on, and you know / There ain't no time to waste / You're just too blind to see / But in the end, it's gonna be me."

Look, dude, seriously, maybe she's just not that into you.

7. Good Charlotte, "Girls and Boys"

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Another anthem for ~nice guys~ everywhere. Of course girls are only interested in boys who have "cars and money".

And of course their reason for not dating you is because you don't own a Ferrari.

*eye roll*

8. Taylor Swift, "You Belong With Me"

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Taylor's been criticised in the past for fueling gender stereotypes and playing into the culture that values purity and virginity and rejects and vilifies women who are sexual.

This is manifested in the lyrics of "You Belong With Me", in which she's positioned as the quirky outsider who fails to win the affection of a guy who's been seduced by a girl who wears "short skirts" and "heels". Rather than accepting that perhaps the guy just prefers this other woman, Taylor resents this other woman, and makes her the enemy.

Come on, Taylor, you're better than this.

9. One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful"

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The main issue here is that the song revolves around a woman whose best characteristic is that she doesn't know how beautiful she is, which in turn gives women the message that insecurity is attractive.

It also suggests that women can only view themselves as beautiful when they're defined as such by men: "So come on, you got it wrong / To prove I'm right, I put it in a song." It also comes with the assumption that women wear "makeup to cover up" in order to achieve praise from them.

But what if a woman just wants to wear makeup as a statement for herself and not for men at all? WE JUST CAN'T WIN.

Because by the same token, if insecurity is attractive and we need our looks validated by men, it also suggests that women who do have confidence in their appearance are less appealing.

TL;DR: 😔

10. Sean Kingston, "Beautiful Girls"

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And this idea that women knowing their own value is an unattractive quality is perfectly displayed in this song, which contains the lyrics: "You're way too beautiful girl / That's why it'll never work ... Damn all these beautiful girls / They only wanna do you dirt."

So not only is beauty enough to end a relationship, it's also the case that any woman who is beautiful is also going to deliberately screw you over.

So, if we weren't already clear, women are expected to be beautiful, but they're not allowed to know it. Only men can define them as such, but their beauty will probably ruin everything anyway. Cool.

11. The Human League, "Don't You Want Me"

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Everyone knows the chorus of this song, which is pretty desperate, but it's actually the first verse in this song which is really not OK.

It begins: "You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, when I met you / I picked you out, I shook you up / And turned you around, turned you into someone new", which implies that the woman was literally nothing without him. (Probably not true.)

He then goes on: "Now five years later on you've got the world at your feet / Success has been so easy for you." Like, JFC dude, she's been successful, give her a break. But then comes this line: "But don't forget it's me who put you where you are now / And I can put you back there too."

In short: nope.

12. Cute Is What We Aim For, "Fourth Drink Instinct"

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Here we have a song about an underage girl, drinking in a bar. It begins with the lyrics: "She's underage and so very very brave / A fake ID lent her credibility/She sits at the bar / The gents are gonna try so hard", setting up an uncomfortable narrative of the men around her attempting to use the situation to their advantage.

Sure enough, a "gentleman leads her towards the door" before the bridge informs us: "He said it was a one-night stand / But the alcohol didn't let her understand." I can't help but feel that if she was too drunk to understand it was a one-night stand, this "gentleman" probably shouldn't have slept with her in the first place.

The chorus continues: "So what made you think / That he couldn't find a door in the morning? / When he found that bed so easily / In the dark", all of which places the blame with this drunk underage girl.

😐

13. Shaggy, "It Wasn't Me"

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You know how this entire song is about a guy trying to get away with cheating on his girlfriend, despite her walking in and seeing him having sex with another woman all over his home?

Well, Shaggy also implies more than once that this girlfriend is a psychopath who will kill her boyfriend.

He begins by saying: "You better watch your back before she turn into a killer," and later continues: "Wait for your answer: Go over there / But if she pack a gun you know you better run fast."

There's something pretty uncomfortable about attaching the "angry woman" cliché to the girlfriend, while both villainising and mocking her.

I'd imagine that yes, she probably would be slightly annoyed to walk in to find her boyfriend having sex with someone else, but suggesting she'd legit KILL him? Too far, Shaggy. Too far.