Violence against Women in Music

When I teach "Women and Criminal Justice," my students have the option of completing an extra credit project on gender and expression in music. Essentially, they have to identify a song that focuses in some way on gender and justice. The examples I use in class are:

• Bitch, Meredith Brooks: The quintessential "madonna/whore" duality expressed in pop music. Who would have thought?
• Just a Girl, No Doubt: Although not related directly to CJ, the issues of patriarchy and paternalism pervade (hooray for alliteration!).

Imagine how surprised I was yesterday to find this gem on my favorite pop culture blog:



Consider this my new example.

According to allmusic.com, this was written as a protest song. This isn't a definitive source, so we can't be sure about the intent of the song writers. We do know that Phil Spector arranged the song--given that his ex-wife Ronnie Spector made serious accusations against him about his abuse and control of her, one has to wonder...

It is good to know that even in 1962 there was protest against this song playing on the radio. I suppose the satirical nature of the song wasn't entirely obvious.

UPDATE: Dr. Huginkiss points out that Carole King was a writer on this song, so I think we can definitively place this in the "protest" category. Also, Hole did a cover of this song. There's something about Courtney Love singing it that removes all trace of satire.