Editorial: Country Music Has Been Ruined By Sexism

Country Music has always had its fair share of cliches, but in the past they seemed more charming than anything else. After all, they were usually dealt with some form of self-awareness, such as in Kenny Chesney's She Thinks My Tractors Sexy, which the title alone lets you know the song is more than a bit tongue-in-cheek. But now the cliches are being reused constantly, the worst part being they're being used in the same fashion each and every time. Cliches are totally fine to utilize if done in a unique manner, and many modern Country Music singers apparently don't even know the word innovation.
So I'll bet you're wondering at this point, what are these cliches exactly that populate modern day Country Music? Well, let's start off with the name most Country Music falls under these days: Bro-Country, That hideous name holds music that is filled with dudes looking to pick up women in cut-off blue jeans, while talking about their trucks and various amounts of booze they enjoy drinking. Now, this might be only irritating at worst if it weren't for the way these songs treat women.

Extremely sexist lyrics like "Get your little fine ass on the step, shimmy up inside" is the kind of nuanced slice of music that used to hold the likes of Merle Haggard and George Jones. No longer are women just companions in life, perhaps in certain songs a woman you love dearly. Nope, they're just objects to be drooled over. Seriously, is there any personality for any of the women in these tunes? Do we learn anything about them beyond the fact that they wear blue jeans?

The worst culprit of this kind of sexism comes courtesy of RaeLynn, whose tune God Made Girls is...good Lord, this thing is a mess of a song. The tunes entire purpose is to say that the only reason God made women in the first place is so they could "...wear a pretty skirt..." or be the only thing to motivate men. Not a thing is said about her having a life independently of her looks or a relationship. It appears if you do not have a certain type of genitals in this world, you don't deserve anything remotely resembling fair treatment in the world country music.

Now, to be fair, several country music artists like Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley, Eric Church, Gary Allan, Eli Young Band, Rascal Flatts and George Strait (God bless this man, showing punks like Chase Rice how real country music is done) have managed to make great pieces of recent country music without resorting to insultingly objectifying women. And of course, there are a few women who manage to beat the genres stereotypes and find success on country music radio, like Carrie Underwood or Miranda Lambert. But this can't be a #notallcountrymusicsingers type of situation. I'm sure the likes of Underwood and Paisley would totally agree that the success of sexist garbage like Blake Sheltons Boys 'Round Here sully the genre and make it hard for it to gain mainstream credibility.

I'm fully aware that sexism in country music, much less the world as a whole, won't just vanish once this editorial goes up. But after witnessing things in the past month like the hideous death threats against Anita Sarkeesian and the NFL's far-too-late reaction to Ray Rices abusive behavior, it just feels like this issue needs to be brought to peoples attention. Women, as well as country music, deserve better than this kind of disgusting sexist trend in modern day music.

And now, enjoy this song from Maddie & Tae that does a great job talking about the problems facing country music. And then just for fun, the perfect country-western song.