TikTok Is Exposing How Sexist ‘Feminist Icons’ From The Noughties Were

I like to think a lot of the music I listened to growing up framed the way I think and feel about things now. As a kid, you’re introduced to subject matters one might never explore with friends or parents naturally. You’re influenced by the narratives and themes of your favourite songs, encouraged to think in the same way as those you idolise through music. You can laugh, but when I listen back to Britney Spears’ early discography - the soundtrack of my childhood - I can practically see each aspect of my personality forming through song.

For artists like Britney, who predominantly sang about being strong, smart and underestimated (apart from that one controversial song we’ll pretend doesn’t exist for now), it’s nice to remember how female artists empowered generations of young girls. But for others, we are not so lucky, pun intended.

That’s what TikToker’s have realised, at least. Loren Shafer, who has near 900k followers on the app, started a viral series this month reacting to noughties hits from artists who at the time were considered feminist powerhouses… but actually released some pretty sexist music.

Take Avril Lavigne for example, remember the punk icon who represented the antithesis of ‘Bimbo’ in the noughties? Yeah, tons of her songs tear down other women. Posting ‘POV’ videos where Loren pretends to be the woman being sung about, it’s quite clear that the songs we once jammed to as kids were actually perpetuating the idea that women are all in competition with each other.

Pink is a particularly tough pill to swallow – another pun intended – but her song Stupid Girls has to be up there with one of the most sexist pop bangers to come from a female artist. Of course, it was making the point that women don’t have to pretend to be dumb in order to be seen as valuable by men, but some of the lyrics remain slightly… yikes.

We should be clear: these songs pale in comparison to the sexism spewed by male artists in the noughties (Loren also does POV TikToks of those too). From rap to rock ‘n’ roll, EDM to emo, women were constantly reduced to sex objects and degraded by the lyrics of male artists. They are, without a doubt, much worse contributors to the misogynistic attitudes that prevail towards women today when we consider the impact of music on culture. But what’s ironic about these songs by women, is that they the artists who sang them were sold to women as beacons of feminism. Most likely by their male production teams.

Many of them have gone on to express regret. Paramore’s Hayley Williams, for example, refuses to perform their hit song Misery Business because of the misogynist narrative that runs throughout. ‘I know it’s one of the band’s biggest songs but it shouldn’t be used to promote anything having to do with female empowerment or solidarity,’ she said when the song was listed on the Women of Rock Spotify playlist. ‘I’m so proud of Paramore’s career, it’s not about shame. it’s about growth and progression.’

What’s intriguing about this narrative though is how we can look back and reframe the way certain songs may have instilled misogyny into us without even realising. So many of these tracks encouraged us to compete with one another, to tear each other down in the pursuit of male validation. Those traits are what now form the basis of so-called ‘Pick Me girls’ (‘Pick Me boys’ are more so defined by self-deprecation and fake feminist views), a name coined on TikTok for women who seek male approval to the detriment of women around them.

Exposing these songs then is not to tear down the women who sang them, but more so encourage introspection at how misogyny was engrained is us through all forms of popular culture as children. Once we can understand that we can create new art that only empowers and inspires women. And in a way, we already have. In today’s pop music, it’s much less common to hear a pop song sung by a woman that would actively seek to tear down others or instill further misogyny. The condemnation of the Pick Me then is taking its toll. But in the meantime, Britney’s discography is still a great listen…

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