tired of the patriarchy

Maji Machafu lioness covered in zebra blood after a hunt.

I like to call it 'the game'.

What music companies do is come up with a brand to target a market, then sign talent to fit that market. Here's The Game: how well each album does determines how much creative control you as an artist have over the next album; you sign for multiple albums at a time, and if you make no money you're done. This means you can be 'shelved' in favor of another artist in your genre; you cannot sign with anyone else but they won't approve release of your next album.

If you come to the table with no writing chops, your job is pretty much to sing what's written for you until you can prove yourself. Example; Taylor Swift used to write pop with the people her teams chose frequently (as you'll see in a moment!), but as a superstar she's been working with Aaron Dessner from The National (and I, a former hater, give folklore a *chef's kiss*)

Aight let's fuckin go let's start with the song that made my mother ban Britney Spears from our house:

there are lots of places that list songwriters, but the easiest way is usually to check the lyric sites (which pull from those places)

Max Martin and Rami. Very famous writing/production team (both men), who have made pop songs for decades now. That album was one of their first projects together. Max Martin you may have heard of before. Here are his Billboard Hot 100 hits; you can see how he writes to the "brand" of each artist:

MAX MARTIN ALSO GOT DR. LUKE FAMOUS. Dr. Luke (of abusing Ke$ha fame) was the fucking guitarist for SNL until like 2007- but he met Max at a house party and they started swapping songs and eventually they wrote a big P!nk song together- THIS ONE:

Their next big hit was "I Kissed A Girl" for Katy Perry (who was discovered and signed as a 15 year old LITERAL CHURCH GIRL SINGING GOSPEL SONGS BY THE WAY!) Are you getting the picture? Dr Luke signed Kesha when she was 18!

Somewhere along the way Max Martin started another writing team called Wolf Cousins, which still functions as a songwriter club where he mentors other men on how to crack the charts. They made 1989 by Taylor and "Talking Body" by Tove Lo and Ariana's My Everything and Sweetener and and and - the list goes on, you can look it up.

Want a different genre? Let's check a song from someone who came to the industry with more influence and social power, at an older age: Cardi B's "WAP" (w Megan Thee Stallion). They're both credited as songwriters, but look at who else is:

Austin, James and Jorden? Yeah, I know em that's these guys, Ayo N Keyz and Megan's ex-boo Pardison Fontaine:

So, this was a kinda meh song Cardi (a brand) was making with Ayo and Keyz (recording) and Pardison Fontaine (writing) - until PF got close with Megan in 2020 and got her involved for some verses, and then they were cooking with sauce:

and THIS WAS THE FINAL PRODUCT! BEHOLD, "HOW TO RECEIVE SEXUAL PLEASURE FROM MEN BY CARDI B"

So yes, I'm sure Cardi/Megan wrote some lines on that song. Only they know who wrote which parts - but my point is this:

If you, as an artist, can't write a charting hit alone, the music companies are gonna stick you in a room with someone who can. Those people - at the company and in the room - are almost always men.

If you want to play The Game, your music gets filtered through the male gaze.

Nothing in pop is exempt from this process.

Everyone uses this model. Everyone. You like Doechii? She was put with Gotye (yes Im serious, the "Somebody I Used to Know" guy). Gracie Abrams? That's Aaron from The National again. Ryan from OneRepublic wrote songs that ended up with Adele and Ellie Goulding. Beyoncé took a song or two from him too, as well as from Ne-Yo and a bunch of others. Jack from Fun/Bleachers has a whole career doing this.

"Fancy" by Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX? I see seven writers credited, they're the only women listed. Remember "Glamorous" by Fergie? Six writers, five are men. Miley Cyrus has star power in her brand and can request to work with who she wants, but she doesn't write well - so her new song "End of the World" credits her, and Molly from Alvvays (an amazing musician and songwriter), and then five men. Miley's first big hit that I remember was "Party In The USA" - but she's not even a credited writer. That song came from Dr Luke and a producer being put in a room with 20 year old Jessie J- and they gave 15 y/o Miley that song because it was a winner and she was an industry baby with a Disney brand who needed a song and could outsell Jessie. "Monster" by Rihanna was another big one. That was Bebe Rexha's (written by Jon Bellion and friends) until it was given to sexy sexy Rihanna and Eminem was added for star power. You can still find Bebe's version leaked on YouTube.

Halsey? Last I checked was Nine Inch Nails. Rosalia? Yes, she plays the game too. Selena Gomez- yup, definitely. Camila Cabello? Haha! Lizzo? Yeah, I think her big hits were all the guy who wrote Derulo's "Talk Dirty". I could keep going. No one is exempt from The Game.

You can be smart about it, like Megan Trainor and Lady Gaga, and study music until you're hooky enough to sign with a label who can see you as a writer and you choose your own cowrites, harmless mostly gay men or older family men, but you can't escape The Game.

As a woman: if they can scout you young and train you to be a consistent cowriter (Lana, Taylor, Lorde) - great! If you can write for others and yourself (Sia, Julia Michaels, Starrah) - even better! If you can't write for shit, you can always be a sexy sexy singer (Katy Perry, Rihanna, Dua Lipa) and have the good ol' boys write for you. (Until you're not sexy sexy anymore, at least.)

Male singers have to play The Game too; Bernie Taupin wrote for Elton John, Jimmy Napes writes many of Sam Smith's hooks, Benny Blanco has a huge career writing for the pop charts- but. BUT. Women write for women, sometimes- while men write for men and women, always.

There's a difference between being a singer/songwriter and being a ghostwriter for people. Being just a writer, as a woman? Difficult as fuck. We can sometimes break into that world (Amy Allen for Sabrina Carpenter, Lauren Christy for Avril Lavigne, Kara Dioguardi, Laura Veltz) and live on royalties without fame, but you must still write for the male gaze brand, selling something that can make music videos and tour and partner with huge sponsors- it's still a boys club. Which is why I started the post with Max fucking Martin who runs a literal songwriting boys club. His is very far from being the only one. His just specializes in this Brand Artist trash for young women, and is good at keeping trend-relevant producers around so they've haunted the charts like misogynistic Swedish ghouls for decades. Look up some recent hits and you'll see Dr Luke is out of favor and Shellback is the new hot sound, and I'm sure some new one on the way.

TLDR- there are a bunch of women in music (hello!) BUT we rarely get signed to write unless we can ALSO perform as the face of a brand; unless we can be sexy sexy marketable. Men are the radio heads, label execs, studio owners, songwriters and producers and gatekeepers, all beholden to a $30 BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY.

So yeah. it's a fucking thing. It's at the core of how it works. Women are the face of the brand catered to a market, men hold the power.

Ive been in this since the aughts and it's been horribly sexist the entire time, top to bottom. I've been stuck in those rooms with those men. I've been badgered for sex. I've been groped (and worse) and stalked and threatened and harassed and more, and I know plenty of industry scandals where women took settlement money to stay quiet about sexual assault, discrimination and more. The hierarchy is clear to everyone. Every time you're in the label offices or studio you see some pretty young women with stars in her eyes, being shown around and promised millions by a sleezy old douchebag.

This shit is systemic. Sex sells and the companies that control everything want to make money so they make and sell sex. It's designed to sell over authentic music not produced by a huge team of marketing specialists and predatory and self-obsessed men. Once in a blue moon does someone escape this formulaic hellscape of the music charts I've tried to show here and - lemme tell you - I fucking live for the moments that they do. All of us in the music world constantly have our ear to the ground for aberrations, moments of genuine artistry and authentic creativity powering through to popularity as these huge music corporations fight with each other for space on the charts. I think the most recent for me was Gigi Perez.

When you start paying attention, it's easy to see who's making money for what. The harsh truth, from a woman in music, is that a lot of women in music are just recording artists who decide to play the game and let men write their brand while they tour and dance in music videos, and it's insidious as fuck what the end result is.

fuck this business

anyways go GO FORTH with this knowledge on how to pick apart a pop song and slay. sorry for ruining the radio for you.

oh, and don't fall for the "breakout indie music" schtick either; Chappell Roan's cowriter is Dan from As Tall as Lions and his other recent project was Olivia Rodrigo:

And the really, really horrible part? Men are so hell-bent on commiting these atrocities that the laws only stop a few. Most men still choose the violence, the abuse, the sexual exploitation, the deviancy...

Why are British teenage girls so unhappy? Here’s the answer (Caitlin Moran, The Times, Sep 13 2024)

"The report, by the Children’s Society, found that British 15-year-old girls are the most unhappy in Europe.

British girls aged 10-15 are “significantly less happy” with their life, appearance, family and school than the average boy — and their happiness is still declining.

Boys’ life satisfaction, meanwhile, remains broadly stable. (…)

But I still didn’t have an “aha!” moment about why this so disproportionately affects girls until… I talked to some teenage girls.

It was at a party, and I went to vape with them on the patio. Because I take my nicotine like children do.

“Duh — it’s the boys,” one said when I brought it up, as all the others agreed.

“The boys?” I asked.

My last book, What About Men?, had been all about how much boys struggle these days: their loneliness; their suicide rates. I’d spent the past year feeling very sympathetic towards boys.

“Yeah, well, who do you think they’re taking out their unhappiness on? It’s us,” another girl said.

“One boy at school used to draw a picture every day of how ugly I was,” a third girl said. “Every day for two years.”

“They’ve all got ‘Rate The Girls’ polls on their WhatsApps,” the first said. “They mark you down for weight gain, haircuts, what you say.”

“But then, if you’re hot, it’s just as bad, in a different way, because they’ll be talking about how they want to f*** you.”

The girls discussed coping techniques. Bad news: none of them worked.

“The only way you can stop them is if you become ‘one of the boys’ and hang out with them. But then,” the second girl said with a sigh, “all the other girls call you a slut. Because you’ve gone over to the boys’ side.”

“Surely it’s not all the boys?” I said. “There must be some nice boys?”

“Oh, yeah,” one girl said. “But they keep their heads down. Because… well, look.”

She showed me the Instagram account of her friend. Under every picture she posted of herself — smiling in a new dress; with her dog — dozens of anonymous accounts had replied with the most rank abuse.

“Fat.” “Slut.” “You gonna try and kill yourself again, for attention?”

“They’re all boys from her school,” she said. “And look, this one boy tried to defend her.”

I saw a series of messages from a brave teenage boy, posting things like, “You’re all big men, leaving these replies under anonymous accounts.”

As I could see, this boy immediately became a target too. Mainly accusations that he was “white knighting” this girl: “You wanna f*** her, bro?”

“So,” I asked, “you don’t think it’s social media pressure to be beautiful, or the economy, that’s making girls so sad?”

“Well, yeah, them too,” the first girl said. “But, Monday-Friday, 9-3, I’m not on social media. I’m not… in the economy. I’m just with these boys. And no one talks about how horrible they are.”

I thought about another recent report, showing a 30 per cent ideological gap between Gen Z men, who are increasingly conservative, and Gen Z women, who are increasingly progressive.

I thought about Andrew Tate, who has nine million mostly young male followers — and faces human trafficking charges, which he denies.

I want people to start admitting that butch and femme are gender identities.

Self proclaimed radical feminists be out there performing extreme femininity and calling themselves femme as if it's innate behavior... As if femme is gender, and as if gender is innate.

The same goes for butches, though I tend to be less critical of butch gender performance because it is gender non conforming for women and usually takes way less time and energy (and doesn't involve purchasing make up and the like).

However I don't think gender is good for anyone, and I don't think any gender is innate, not even butch/femme as gender expressions. The religion of gender takes more than it provides.

I truly believe allowing ourselves to be ourselves without the shackles of gender and without the pretense of "being born" performing certain social/external rituals is the best way to be liberated as lesbians.

Buying into this shit is buying the gender ideology shit.

It's the same old shit feminity/masculinity. Same with the GNC thing for me actually.

I'm just a woman. I shouldn't have to specificied that I am still a woman if I just ✨exist✨ without performing my oppression. My oppression doesn't make me a female, my body, my anatomy does, and then I'm oppressed because of it, not the other way around.

I'm not a ''masc'' because I just exist without performing my oppression, the same way that performing my oppression wouldn't make me a ''femme'' either. Btw femme IS literally woman.

the legal definition of a woman in the uk is now based purely on biological sex, likely preventing trans people from changing their sex on legal documents. we are still apparently protected from discrimination though.

What has been clarified is the legal definition of women

Woman meaning Adult Human Female has been verified as the legal functional definition of woman for all interpretations of legal protections for women including women’s only spaces and measures to achieve gender equality such as women’s representation in politics, business and law

This case was about securing women’s rights and legally clarifying Women as a class with rights and protections under law

The eighth floor of the building was able to telephone the tenth floor to warn them about the fire, but the factory on the ninth floor where these women and girls labored had no such communication and such warning.

The factory owners were criminally charged with manslaughter for actions that contributed to the mass deaths but acquitted. However, this tragedy led to mass sympathy to the labor movement, and unions spurred on safety regulations that passed in New York state and eventually the entire country, and activists were able to reduce child labor in the process.

They were discouraged from breaks because they were actively trying to unionize, and bosses felt that keeping them from unsupervised contact would prevent them from joining the garment workers' union.

This is why unions are important. This is why today, right now, the biggest companies in America are trying to squash unionization of their laborers and why those workers are fighting so hard to unionize.

It’s really hard to feel okay right now. Last night I was at the grocery store fighting back tears because my anxiety and rage are both so overwhelming.

There is nothing worse than feeling powerless, feeling trapped in an unfair and unjust world and feeling as if there is nothing you can do.  In fact, that makes everything around you feel 1000X scarier and suddenly you’re rooting for societal collapse because then at least the worst thing will be here and you don’t have to worry about it any more.  But the thing is: you can either be a part of the solution or be a part of the problem. And if you’re doing nothing, well, you’re part of the problem unfortunately.

We are not doomed...unless we just give up and do nothing.

Right now, the worst people, corporations, and systems are counting on us burning out, giving up, and becoming compliant.  They think we are weak, selfish, and lazy.

Let’s show them how strong we really are!

The good news is that there are many things you CAN do and they come in a variety of different forms and time commitments. You can do all of these or some of these or one of these.  And they all help and matter. This weekend there are protests happening in all 50 states...learn more by following @50501movement.  And if protests aren't the right fit for you, there are MANY other ways you can be involved in fighting back and making this world better.  

I BELIEVE IN US.

Yes, the world gets scarier every day. The list of things to scare and enrage us seems to be growing exponentially. Yet I still believe that we can and will get through this together. 

Every one of us has an important role to play here. Individual action DOES matter, despite what you might be told elsewhere. Can one person change the world on their own? Probably not. But when working alongside thousands and millions of other people, change is inevitable.

This is a mix of activism, female solidarity building, and self care and improvement (which are feminist actions!)

If you would like to participate, challenge yourself to make a bingo and reblog with what you’ve done crossed out. It would be great if we could share specific experiences and things we have learned or enjoyed doing. I am excited to share how going a day without looking in a mirror affects how I see myself!

Not all of these will be feasible for everyone, and absolutely do not put yourself in harms way talking about radical feminism for example. This is just meant to get us slightly out of our comfort zones and make a positive difference in the lives of women. This is also not a competition.

If you need an abortion past 24 weeks for medical reasons there aren’t any doctors in the country trained to do that. You need to travel to the United States.

I won’t even get into Northern Canada since everything up there is harder and more difficult for women but abortion care is pretty dismal in the territories too.