As you can probably tell from that super-duper high-larious title, I never liked the guy that much. (See what I did there? it's his song title! but with his name in it!) But I didn't know he was this bad.
Ok so ever since he put out that terrible song about daughters (the title, creatively, is "Daughters") I've just disliked John Mayer. And then, recalling how much I hated that song, I stupidly looked it up on songmeanings.net (one of the biggest ways I waste my time online, though not the worst) and found, to me eternal dismay, some of the most disturbing comments I've ever seen on the internet.
Apparently most of the commenters are in complete denial about the sexism inherent in the song. I'll spare you having to read the whole thing and just summarize the different kinds of comments you'll find there. Firstly there are the ones that give me hope for America, wherein people explain exactly how sexist Mayer is not just in his lyrics, but in his personal life. There are a series in which girls discuss how caring Mayer is for writing about taking care of women, and that he must be a really sweet guy. Then there are of course the ones that, in various stages of rage, exclaim "Stop calling this song sexist! You only see misogyny if you look for it! Stop listening to what he's saying! You're ruining the song!"
Um, yeah. So lemme just quote my favorite bit of the song for you here and then we'll delve into a little more about the man, the myth, the Mayer (as pictured above in all his glory).
On behalf of every man,
Who's looking out for every girl,
You are the god and you are the weight of her world.
Yes. This is not made up. This is a song that people still fervently call beautiful and moving and other delightful, blind things like that. The argument is made several times on songmeanings.net that Mayer's intentions are good, honest, and true.
Shocking as it may seem, I'm not impressed with little ol' John Mayer. I find sanity alongside fellow Mayer-Naysayers. When asked by The Rolling Stone what song would be playing in hell, Brandon Flowers of "The Killers" replied "I think "Daughters," by John Mayer, would be a good candidate. I don't know why he bugs me so bad."
I also agree with Amy Keyishian over at nerve.com, who wrote quite colorfully,
"The song itself is the very epitome of fake-feminist, ersatz-sensitive-man, phony-baloney-pretending-to-care-about-the-plight-of-women, wanna-get-laid-the-nice-guy-way bullhockey. That's right, I called it bullhockey. I don't buy this crap for a minute: "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." In other words, everyone, everywhere, should strive to be better parents, so it'll be easier for John Mayer to get laid twenty-three years in the future. "
I couldn't put it better if had a month to think and a personal writing coach at my constant call.
So now you're thinking "But that's just one song. Maybe it's just a one-time incident of bad word choice. Cut him some slack." And I'm thinking, well, that's valid. We've all written a bad song or two, so maybe Mayer just knows not what he croons.
But then I stumbled upon the thing that really set off this post and started this whole terror-process of delving back into archived comments praising John Mayer.
That's right. If you've followed the link above (or stopped by bitch magazine or feministe, as everyone should) you know it's an interview Mayer gave about two weeks ago with a reporter from New York Entertainment. In the interview Mayer is in great form when asked by a female reporter about Obama's Nobel prize, answering with the good, honest, and true "If you don't know who else should have gotten it instead of Obama, I love you, you're beautiful, but shut your fucking mouth."
He loves you. You're beautiful. He sang about how much of a wonderland your body is. He thinks your father should be good to you. Now "shut your fucking mouth."
The interview only gets worse from there, and devolves down to the point where, after calling the editor of the magazine a "moron," he says "I'm going to forcefully sodomize your editor."
Yep. That one's not a typo.
If you watch the instant replay you can see the little slip up he made there. I do believe, if I'm not mistaken, that it was somewhere around "forcefully sodomize" that he fumbled this one. Had he substituted almost any other English words (e.g. "complement," "send a fruit basket to," "congratulate with a hefty handshake") for "forcefully sodomize" Mayer would have been in the clear. But no. No, he's just not that kind of guy.
Oh, John Mayer. I emphatically shake my head at you and your general worldview. Also that photo above.
(image from theinsider.com)
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