So I’m driving along in my car, no kids in the back, tapping the steering wheel and happily nodding along while I sing about misandry (the opposite side of the misogyny coin).

You’ve probably done the same thing. Sung about it in the shower, at the bus-stop, on your way to work, in the playground, at the breakfast table with your family without realising what you were singing about.

Or maybe it was during the BET Awards. Maybe you hummed along with Nicki Minaj as she performed – along with Ciara – the hit single, I’m Out, to a live audience of millions.

Clearly I’m not the only one who wasn’t paying attention to the questionable lyrics of this catchy tune.

Congratulations Nicki Minaj. You have officially plunged the music industry’s treatment of men, and the depiction of them as sex-crazed neanderthals, below the gutter and into the foulests depths of the sewer.

You can watch the video below.

Now lets take a calm stroll through the lyrics of this song – because you may be surprised when you read what they are.

Ladies, it’s your song

So as soon as this come on

You should get out on the floor

Gon’ and get your sexy on

If you know that you better

Then the new girl that he on

Go ‘head and tell him now

“You gon’ miss me when I’m gone”

Ok – I can deal with that. Pretty standard pop nonsense.

Aye yo, Ci Ci

Let me show you how to do a singin’ bitch, greasy

You was by Lennox, yeah the one on Peachtree

I was with Demetri, seen you on your Love & Hip Hop, Mendecees

“F-f-f-f**k these petty n***as” is a bitch motto

If I say it on wax, every bitch follow

If I’m sippin’ in the club, Myx Moscato

Not enamored with the way racially vilifies the men in question. But this is merely a warm up.

I just went through a break up (Ooh yay-yay-yay)

But it’s okay, I got my cake up (Ooh yay-yay-yay)

Do my hair, put on some makeup (Ooh yay-yay-yay)

Tryna see where tonight gon’ take us (Ooh yay-yay-yay)

I put some pics up lookin’ sexy (Ooh yay-yay-yay)

Now this n***a wanna text me (Ooh yay-yay-yay)

How much you wanna bet me? (Ooh yay-yay-yay)

He gon’ regret the day he left me

This is where it starts to get disturbing. This is where the name of the song becomes disturbingly clear. I’m Out refers to women openly seeking to use overt sexuality to torment former lovers, who are nothing more than sex-fuelled fiends.

I got a big fat ass, big dicks follow

Hit him with the back shots

Hit him with the ass shots

Take him to the bank then I hit him with cash shots

I do it big, I hit him with the CAPS LOCK

I’m gonna ball, I hit him with the mascot

No, I never been there, but I like to Bangkok

Big fat titties when they hangin’ out my tanktop

You gon’ play me, on Instagram niggas tryna shade me

But your bitch at home tryna play me

I’m Nicki M Weezy F, baby

Man, f**k you and your lady

Gon’ butt you, cause you shady

Now which bitch want it?

Cause that bitch get it

I gave him to you bitch

Don’t f**king forget it

I don’t know what half of that means. But I do know this: “I got a big fat ass, big dicks follow” is a sentence about the manner in which men are simply insatiable sexual beasts, unable to show any sort of restraint.

I’m speechless. Except I’m not because I’m disguisted, depressed, shocked, distressed, furious and indignant that these kind of lyrics are considered appropriate to play on our commercial radio stations, and to be broadcast across the globe in a high-profile awards show.

https://twitter.com/NMinajInfo/status/351548939427799040

Can rap and pop music demean, degrade and debase men any further than this?

What was Nicki Minaj thinking when she decided to record this song and make the video to go with it?

This is how she explains her lyrics:

“Everything I do, I do with business in my head. If you’re not savvy, this business will eat you alive. A lot of people see it as a big party. And when that party is up, what are you going to do? – I want to show little girls that the possibilities are endless. That’s my goal – to not only do it for myself, but to show them I can do whatever I put my mind to. I don’t give a damn if I was born poor, I can come out of this shit with something to offer my children and grandchildren.”

Sorry Nicki, I’m calling bullshit on that. Don’t pretend it’s ironic. Don’t say you’re doing this for little girls out there. What this song and video represent is pure exploitation and misandry wrapped in fizzy pop and a catchy hook.

And to those who roll their eyes and say, “Oh, it’s a music video. What do you expect?” well let me tell you.

I expect a civilized society that respects men to push back. To say no, we won’t play your song. No, we won’t let you on our TV show. No, we won’t interview you in Rolling Stone.

Because when we just shrug our shoulders and do nothing, we say it’s OK. And that’s how this culture is allowed to flourish, through “funny cartoons” and catchy pop songs that casually normalize the exploitation of men as deviants, unable to resist a woman with “a fat ass.”

In this way much of the music industry has already plunged into the sewer, let’s not follow them.

MamaMia struck a chord today, with the inspiration for the preceding article published on Tuesday drawing hundreds of comments on the site – so, perhaps they were on the right track.

But rather than feigning faux outrage at a clearly commercially motivated, controversial pop song, we could leave behind such petty discussions and instead focus on the actual issues of gender equality – you know, like legislating the closure of abortion clinics in Texas, an act far more harmful to women than a few pesky song lyrics.

Further still, this men vs. women steelcage death match approach to sexism is getting us nowhere; this shouldn’t be a war waged on chromosomes, but rather right and wrong behaviour.

The sooner we take the “gender” out of “gender wars”, the better. Equality is something we all need to strive for, meaning we have to stop getting collectively distracted by the unnecessary.

Instead of losing our collective shit over pop songs, lets focus on the real issues.

Liam Quinn is a third-year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University, and the editor of upstart. You can follow him on Twitter: @Quinn_LP

Photo: Twitter – NMinajInfo