Why must we suffer 'cause John Mayer's sick?

[vovat]

You might have heard by now about John Mayer's Playboy interview, in which he says something about having a "nigger pass" and a "David Duke cock." Margaret Cho wrote a post about how our society is accepting of such casual racism, which unfortunately seems to be the case. I never liked Mayer anyway, though. Why? His music is just dreadfully boring. The dude just drones on and on as if showing even the slightest hint of enthusiasm would make his head explode or something. When your songs are that bad, it doesn't really matter too much what you're singing about. As far as I can tell, though, the lyrics are also quite crappy. Take, for instance, his song "Daughters," which I used to hear all the time when I worked at a place that pumped in an easy listening station. (Incidentally, a hint for any workplace that does this: I'd much rather not listen to anything than hear the same lousy songs every day.) Here's the chorus to this piece of garbage:

Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too

All right, I can agree that treating children well is important, but why limit it to girls? What about the boys? Well, it looks like Mayer has an answer to that:

Boys, you can break
You'll find out how much they can take
Boys will be strong
And boys soldier on

Okay, John, are you serious? When you sing everything in the exact same tone, it's hard to tell, but that Playboy interview does have him saying he hates other men. The thing is, from listening to his songs and looking at his facial expressions, Mayer appears to suffer from chronic depression. I remember someone mentioning that pictures of him made it look like he really needed to poop, and while I don't see that so much, he DOES look to be in perpetual pain.

And that's not even bringing his racist tendencies into account. Maybe if whoever raised him hadn't live by the "boys, you can break" philosophy, he wouldn't have turned out to be so much of a basket case. Then again, he also might not have made the money that comes from being a fixture on bad radio stations.

Come on, the fact that someone can have a hit song in this day and age saying that women are all delicate flowers who need to be protected just shows how generally ineffective the feminist movement has been. Oh, and the reason they're supposed to be protected is that "girls become lovers, who turn into mothers"? So if a woman has no interest in falling in love or bearing children, then what, it's okay if her parents abused her? Whatever happened to individualism, John? Or would it be too much for a guy with a self-described "David Duke cock" to get past stereotypes?

By the way, Mayer also said in the interview that he wouldn't normally date someone like Jessica Simpson, but sex with her was like crack cocaine to him. If only Jessica could read, I'm sure she'd be offended! No, seriously, I'm no fan of Jessica, but I like her a lot more than Jennifer Aniston, and Mayer is apparently still in love with her. Then again, I guess it makes sense that a terribly bland musician would be interested in a terribly bland woman. Hey, John, have you given any thought as to your next girlfriend? I hear Bristol Palin is available.

Comments

[alicornmoon.livejournal.com]

I feel that there is too much pressure the other way around actually. If you do want to be the protected one, lover, mother, etc, you get *heck* for it :(. Suddenly, it must not be your own mindset and you must have be 'brainwashed' into it, not worth anything else you say because you picked it. I don't think ONE hit song saying that view is hurting anyone anyone longterm, as there are ten very loud ones, against it to replace it all the time. Forgive me for wanting to be or being delicate, and setting so much 'work' back -.-
feminist is the freedom to choose, not to live in a word where nothing is ever said about maybe wanting to be a what you might think is an out of date role :\ .

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

You might be interested in this post I wrote about a year ago on how choosing motherhood IS being a Strong Woman and whoever says otherwise is completely nuts or at least comes from a very sad family....

[alicornmoon.livejournal.com]

Thank you :3. It's nice not to be called crazy for once :D

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, the thing with the song is that it doesn't offer any choice at all. It says to be protective of daughters, and treat sons however the hell you want. What's so terrible about treating both genders equally, and then letting them make their own decisions about their life paths?

[alicornmoon.livejournal.com]

And as far as individualism goes, he's not forcing anyone to do anything :P. I mean songs have always not had much individualism as a rule it seems, if you don't agree with something (or the people being sung about isn't like you) chances are it just won't be your favorite song and you'll have to put up with it (like me and most rap songs, which I'm sure have a message in there...somewhere). Every song you love someone else will hate and every message you feel is important someone else will feel just as forced upon to hear as you do with this song...it's just the nature of them

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, there are a lot of songs I don't like that don't actually offend me. "Daughters" is just a double-whammy for me because I think it's boring AND offensive. But really, it's the boring part that bothers me more.

[loz]

My brother Nick is in love with John Mayer, which has been a constant source of 'wtf?' for me, since Nick is also straight. But, as a consequence, I know a fair amount of crap about him and it comes down to this --- you cannot take anything Mayer says seriously because he is constantly trying to stir shit and controversy. He's one of the intellectual jocks who uses his intelligence to be a gigantic jackass; in the name of 'pushing at the boundaries' and 'making people question what's acceptable', but really for the fun of it. He steps over the line and says something too disgusting? "It was irony. Don't people get irony any more?" Or "Now that you're so offended, think about why." Ugh. I kind of hate him on that level. There is a fine, fine line between being brave enough to say something controversial in order to get a message across, and doing it for the sport and attention. And I would agree that it's indicative of a depressive personality.

On the other hand, he really is a very good guitarist. It's a shame that such talent comes with the cost of a shitty personality.

[alicornmoon.livejournal.com]

*random* Maybe it is his skin? He looks like he has very nice skin. I don't find his eyes off putting but maybe depressive personalities are drawn to one another? I know I have one...

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Eh, I have a pretty depressive personality, and I don't like Mayer. Then again, I'm a straight guy, so maybe that has something to do with it. I don't know.

As for his saying things to push the envelope, I can definitely buy that. I've always thought it ridiculous that our society constantly gives people like that exactly what they want, i.e., attention. I mean, I hate Ann Coulter about as much as I could hate anyone, but I don't get there still being controversy over things she says. The media haven't learned by now that that's just what she does?

[loz]

I read the article after I commented and it was fascinating, because everything I said came into effect --- from Mayer's own lips. But there were also levels of self-delusion there that --- well, I couldn't tell if they were real or not. He contradicted himself around ninety times.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I just really can't stand his music, but I haven't really given any thought on WHY. Probably because I can't stand it too much to listen to it hard enough to decide.