Where the Boys Are, Part 2

When I think--as I probably do too often--about what pop music means to me, I frequently consider crucial questions of identity formation. I'm a scholar, guys. A professional geek. I think that the texts we consume shape us in important ways, teach us what it means to be human, but also to be female or male. There's beauty and language, sure. But underneath that, there's ideology. And that can be seriously scary stuff.

One of my ongoing concerns with this genre is a fear that the ideology of pop is inherently misogynist. Because of the overweening concern with personal relationships, the ideology of gender relations is central to any understanding of what pop means. And because of the overwhelming percentage of male artists in the field, the representations of such experiences tend to be, well, narrow.

Now, I love this band, but just consider this verse through the lens of gender relations.

Baby when I pointed the gun at you
I thought that you'd be begging down on your knees
Instead you wouldn't even say 'please'
And I didn't know what to do

Why do you lie?
Why do you hold your head up high
So other eyes passing by
See I'm not over you?

I am certainly willing to entertain the argument that this is merely witty overstatement intended to convey dramatic intent. I do not believe that this artist, who shall remain nameless, has ever pulled a weapon on anyone (and we'll pause to remind ourselves for one second of the Freudian implications here, eg: XTC's "My Weapon"). My point has more to do with the supposed crime of "hold[ing one's] head up high" as a rationale at all.

More on this later.