Hymns to Masculinity

Misogyny in the music industry is finally getting the spotlight, prompting Shondra Bowie Riley to write a poem that examines the music she has listened to over the years and the messages they’re giving.

I blindly sang the words

I didn’t see

The misogyny

Or the unrepented harm to me

Shaping a reality

Of sexual complacency

Enclosing heteronomy

Through musical misogyny

I believed the words

That my beauty

My sexuality

Should be the whole sum of me

All in good fun

Believed to be

Just fantasy

These hymns to masculinity

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