There's this really annoying thing in the media and pop culture that happens with lesbians. One of two things happen: they are hyper-sexualised  or, they don't get portrayed at all (or if they do they are never actually called lesbians). So I thought it might be fun to compile my favourite songs about being a lesbian, or song written by lesbians. (Or just about girls liking girls because some of these artists are bi/pan). Enjoy!

SHE

SISTERS ARE DOIN' IT FOR THEMSELVES - Eurythmics

For a while I've felt uneasy about all the seemingly unending praise for Meghan Trainor. Her supposedly 'feminist' and body positive song 'All about that Bass' based all of it's self-loving message on what men want, and simultaneously shamed skinny women. Although she has defended herself saying that she immediately says 'nah i'm just kidding', is it really necessary to include it in the first place?

She then went on to release 'Dear Future Husband', which at the least is confusing and at the worst something straight out of a 'how to jump back in time to the 1950's' manual. The video features her scrubbing a flaw and the lyric 'I'll be the perfect wife / Buying groceries / Buying what you need'. Not exactly the feminist sentiment she seems like she's trying to project at the moment.


In her latest video, 'NO', she is attempting to portray a strong independant woman who doesn't need a man, but 'If I want a man, then I'mma get a man'. The song itself is a good song, catchy enough, i'm not saying it's bad at all but the style, again, flags up something that makes me frustrated.

In interviews Meghan has said that she is 'bringing music back' and that she is bringing 'instruments and doo-wop feeling', yet she seems to have ditched all of this for recycled noughties music. I love noughties music, but I feel like she should at least recognise what got her to where she is, the fact that 'All about that bass' has over 1,000,000,000+ views on youtube, but 'NO' has only 120,000,000 views is very telling (Yes of course AATB has been up longer, but it's undoubtable that NO has had a significantly worse reception). Also, just something I noticed in the 'NO' video, all of the dancer's are the 'skinny bitches' she talked about in AATB - none of them were above a UK size 10.



I feel that if Meghan had just stuck to the original style of AATB and 'Lips are Movin' it would be so much better for her image, and I feel like people would receive her better - I mean 'Better When I'm Dancing' is a great, happy, fun song that I think should have been promoted as much as 'NO'.

What do you think about Meghan's music? 

Apart from being an amazingly fun and catchy song, if you choose to, 'Love Myself' can represent a much more deep and significant issue. Female masturbation. Now, if you've made it this far into the post, well done! The words 'Female masturbation' are taboo, un-talked about and looked down upon, so it's understandable if you felt weird reading these words. Despite the awkwardness that comes with talking about this subject, it is such an important thing to discuss. Here's why.



While male self pleasure is widely accepted as something all boys will do, and are expected to do as soon as, or before, they reach puberty, female pleasure is shunned. The unanomous story I hear from my friends and pretty much every girl I've talked to about this, is that they felt like they were doing something wrong, dirty and in some cases, even a sin. This is part of a wider issue of men's pleasure coming first and women's coming second, or never at all.- the fact that 20% of women never have orgasms during intercourse, and about 80% fake orgasms to speed up men finishing because they are bored and/or fatigued. This also leads in to topics such as the use of women merely as sexual objects, and things used to sell stuff, but that's another post.

By releasing this song, whether she wrote it or not, she is joining a very, very small club of women who openly sing about female pleasure. Hailee Steinfeld has secrured herself a position in the growing group of women expressing themselves unabashedly and this is an incredibly powerful message to be sending, especially since she has such a wide reaching fan base, the majority of which is teenage girls.




With lyrics such as "Know how to satisfy / Keeping that tempo right without you" and "Got me speaking in tongues / The beautiful, it comes without you", this song is undoubtedly about masturbation, and I think that's great. Putting something that's normally taboo into the public eye (and the top ten!) is an incredible feat that is hopefully one more step on the road to female expression being as widely celebrated as male expression and sexuality.

Thanks Hailee.

Credit: Rolling Stone

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Credit: teachrock.org