There are a lot of musicians out there who claim to be feminist…or other people feel are feminists. From Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Courtney Love of Hole and other riot grrrl band members to Katy Perry and Lady Gaga and other female pop stars, but who’s really feminist and who’s not? Who’s to say who’s feminist and who’s not? There are different types of feminism. In this article, I’m going to talk about the three most popular female musicians of 2011: Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and of course, Lady Gaga.

Let’s start with Taylor Swift…a lot of girls think of her as a “good role model” and whatnot. But why does a girl need to be “good”? Guys can do almost whatever they want without being considered “bad” while girls will be ridiculed for it. The words “Slut”, “B****,” and “W****” are misogynist for example. Guys can do whatever they want, sleep with whoever they want, and no one cares… hey they might even be considered a hero. Girls on the other hand, are called “sluts” and “w****s.” I’ve noticed lot of guys pressure girls into having sex with them and then hate on them for it later. It doesn’t make sense. “Sluts” are even judged by other girls such as Taylor in the song “You Belong With Me”.

Now, let’s talk about Katy Perry. I think she’s the worst out of the three, personally. A lot of conservatives, and other anti-gays think of this song as “bad” because it’s saying being gay is okay. That’s not true at all. It’s quite the opposite actually. You may listen to it once and think it’s progressive, but in reality, it’s not. Listen to the rest of the lyrics, and you’ll figure out that she’s only kissing girls to turn on guys, pretty much. First of all, you shouldn’t be faking who you are just for male approval. Second of all, this song actually makes lesbians look “bad” in my opinion. I mean, most lesbians, like straight couples, are in love. Believe it or not, girls can be in LOVE with other girls. But in this song, she doesn’t really love the girl…she just kisses her as an experimentation. Also “Ur So Gay” and “One of The Guys”…um…you shouldn’t use gay as an insult like you do in that song, and also why aren’t you proud of your femininity?

I’ll finish this with Lady Gaga. While a lot of you may argue that she’s a strong woman in the music world, who does what she wants without caring what males think, I disagree. She is a hypocrite. She dresses “sexy” (I see nothing against that especially since it seems like she’s doing it for her own self and not for males but wait) and sings about really sexual songs, yet she promotes abstinence and safe-sex (I see nothing wrong with that either, but wait). I think it’s kind of hypocritical but just wait. I can’t find the exact quote but I read an article where she said something about how girls can’t enjoy sex, so they better stop having it. I think that‘s slut-shaming too. Also, she acts like feminism is a dirty word. Though she does have some good feministic qualities about her, when asked about whether she was a feminist or not, she acted like feminism was equivalent with man-hating, which was an insult to real feminists everywhere.

While I know there are different types of feminism, so I can’t really say who’s really a feminist and who’s just posing to be one, I personally feel that they are just jumping on the bandwagon. They don’t seem to sing a whole lot about feminist themes, and more importantly, some of their lyrics and everything are problematic, and a lot of their female fan base is misogynist, sexist against their own sex….especially Katy Perry’s. I don’t hate these girls, don’t get me wrong, but I do think you should think twice about what you’re listening to.