Misogamy in Reggueaton Lyrics

In this commentary I am not going to flood my judgment from the blind well of those who rant and rave against reggueaton at any given opportunity, nor will I fall into the vicious circle of trying to find equilibrium between its alleged virtues and supposed defects.

Reggueaton is a fact of life. It is now welcomed with passion in almost any corner of the globe; the craftiest politicians dabble with it to win over the masses; the GRAMMIES, MTV and Billboard magazine are awash in it; and people from Cuba to Germany are dancing to it...

At any moment, in Germany, or any other country, the Grimm brother’s Town Musicians of Bremen will be remade with the dog, donkey, rooster and cat dancing to the driving beat of reggueaton in the background.

While, personally, this rhythm always leaves me with the unstoppable urge to go to the bathroom, nothing will stop people from talking at lengths about the genre’s popular nature, humble origins, ghetto stamp, street representation and all the other arguments we have heard over and over again.

So as not to go against the tide and leave the confines of political correctness, I will also climb aboard this bandwagon that proposes that, rather than looking at the genre as a whole, each exponent of this musical form should be judged for the worth of their lyrics in a punctual manner.

This takes us to the heart of the issue: there is no way to defend the way in which reggueaton songs are written in Latin America, in the Caribbean in Cuba, the United States and even in certain places in Europe.

The aggressiveness of the marginal essence of reggueaton has become discrimination against one’s fellow person, the animalization of eroticism, extreme obscenity in texts and destructive levels of undermining female dignity.

So as not to water down this piece by speaking in general terms without referring to any song or artist in particular, I will say that several examples of the aforementioned can be found in Cuba.

Here is an example of the most popular reggueaton choruses heard and sung by young people across the island:

«Déjala que llore por mí (coro: ¡que se vaya!), que aquí nadie se muere por nadie, que con mi gente yo me voy pa´l party, porque yo soy un camaján de la calle (coro: ¡qué volá!) (se repite). Ahora no me vengas llorando, ahora no me vengas pidiendo (...), recoge tus maletas y vete bajando».

“Let her cry for me (chorus: Take off!), here nobody dies for nobody, I’m off to party with my buddies, because I am a street superstar (chorus: What’s up!) Don’t come to me now crying, don’t come to me now asking for anything (...) pack your bags and get out of here.”

The viewpoint of coarse and crude male domination —constantly minimizing the conscience of the feminine sex— that oozes from lyrics like this, is simply degrading.

After the most pornographic treatment possible of Little Red Riding Hood engaged in a lewd verbal struggle with a pedophilic wolf in the sadly popular song by Clan 537, Acento Latino has released another song on the same misogynist theme, once again demeaning women.

None of these musicians —some of whom are even fairer than Vanilla Ice— have anything to do with the ghetto. What is happening is that, with the absence of any barriers whatsoever, artists are looking at all cost for any hook that could become popular without taking a moment to think about the possible negative affects their lyrics might have.

There is no need to take a class on psychology to realize that adolescents identify with movie stars, celebrities, artists and song lyrics. It is a time in life when young people are in the phase of gathering judgment tools that will allow them to save themselves from such natural tendencies. As a result of such songs, adolescents run the risk of using such barbarous frameworks of conduct as a model.

I say barbarous because these and other lyrics (a degree of bad taste that is not only the sole domain of reggueaton) represent visions and concepts that are vulgar, retrograde and uncivilized in relation to their opinions of women.

There is no need to attack women just to get street credentials. To be more “original” there is no need to push the envelope of rudeness. There are already too many street superstars; although, luckily, there are also many people who are able to love others to the point of dying for them.