The mat removes the friends and the hall dances. How Polish rap treats women

I listen to Mata’s song, read what he writes about it, watch more videos on YouTube (, ) and think about the subject of discussion: is Mata a misogynist? Are his lyrics sexist? The whole thing seems paradoxical to me, because the rapper is accused of something that permeates the whole genre. Hasn’t anyone “deleted” their pieces before? Some say it’s just a rap convention. It doesn’t convince me. If the objectification of women is present in the lyrics of the most popular music genre among young people, then something has gone very wrong. And for now, it doesn’t look like it’s going to change, because it’s not noticed.

I remember a big party where I played as a substitute for a DJ set. I collected – in my opinion – quite pop songs, but it turned out that everyone (including girls) loved the songs that my friend played the most. Rap songs where “her f*ck is pounding like a drum”. You can dance well. And recently, I asked an 18-year-old who was at a big rap concert if those bitch lines bothered her. She replied that it was just talk, that it wasn’t serious, that she didn’t take it personally. Can words that treat women contemptuously, which are sung by several thousand throats at a concert, really flow down anyone? Perhaps the whole banality of evil lies precisely in the fact that violence repeated so many times, in so many different ways, eventually becomes invisible, transparent, subconscious. But isn’t she?

I often go to Siksy concerts. I remember one in particular when Alex walked into the crowd in front of the stage and started repeating: “a woman is a whore, a woman is a whore, and a woman is a whore” and so many, many more times . I felt a throbbing pain and sadness in my chest, as if something primal, painful was coming to light, triggered by this terrible mantra. So banal, ubiquitous and invisible at the same time. I cried over the whole history of women then.

An article on Noizz.pl about misogyny in Polish rap drew attention to something that is clear as day for me and my friends. I am surprised and worried by the reactions of young youtubers criticizing this text. HOP and Dominik Bos, wielding the tools of literary analysis in their hands, somehow try to place all these female dogs in a different context. In my opinion, the very attempt to defend the interpretation of these lines is disturbing. I watch this justification gymnastics for 30 minutes and after it’s done, my neural networks in the brain are broken. I felt really enlightened, thank you! Now I know that I can be interpretively biased and I shouldn’t take all these rags and bitches so negatively. There is a way to do it, just separate the lyrical subject from the author and boom! I put female dogs in a different context… and how? Oh, it doesn’t hurt anymore. And honestly? “I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit.”

Once, during cultural studies classes, the teacher explained to us various ways of cultural analysis, using the example of the presidential election in Italy. According to one of them, Silvio Berlusconi’s victory can be perceived as the result of manipulation and propaganda – when you have all the media in the country in your hand, it’s hard not to win. But using a different method, you can look at his victory and ask yourself what function it has in Italian society. Italian citizens could choose Berlusconi because they consciously or subconsciously want to have just such an imperfect, slightly shady president – to look at themselves with a kinder eye.

Instead of judging whether he’s or is misogynistic or whether he’s just sticking to convention or playing with us, instead of interpreting his biography and comparing individual lines, I wonder what that says about us? What function does the popularity of sexist lyrics play in society? Is Mata unkind or is society unkind? After all, the whole thing is not about Mata at all. Focusing on him and judging him is like being in a cesspool wondering if you stepped in shit. The key question is: why does Poland love misogynistic lyrics? Why is violence transparent? Why does nothing prevent her from selling so well? How deeply is the contempt for women ingrained in our society that one can treat calling them “sluts” and “fucks” as material for literary analysis?

I am not writing this text from the perspective of a rap expert. Although I love “Polish Tango”, I cry to “I am God” by Paktofonika, during the concert, when he sang “My mother had a vision, mother Ayahuasca”, I thought to myself “this is simply genius!”. Hewra’s lyrics about portions of drugs “as for wróbelka” amuse me sincerely. I believe that rap can be unusual, and I know that not all representatives of this style have a terrible approach to girls. However, I could never be a specialist in this genre, because I simply cannot pass by indifferent to the objectification of women But rappers didn’t invent misogyny, I’m afraid that not only among rap fans – as in Mata’s text – subconsciously everyone is a whore. Rap drank this misogyny with father’s milk. And the father is a cultural system that contains violence against women so obvious that it is invisible.

Some things are acceptable at one time and not at another. There are plenty of fatphobic, cruel comments on the show Friends that used to be laughed at, but which today would surely be banned immediately. Perhaps in twenty years, sexist lyrics will simply be cringe, the audience will feel shivers of shame at them, and rappers will not even think of writing them down in a notebook. But that will happen when something in society as a whole changes. It’s not just about rap.

Iwona Skwarek aka Iwona Skv (REBEKA / SHYNESS!) – singer, songwriter, music producer and DJ moving in the circle of electronic music. As one half of the duo, Rebeka released three albums and played over four hundred concerts in Poland and abroad. She made guest appearances with artists such as: Fisz Emade Tworzywo, Moullinex, Catz’n’Dogz, Wczasy, Daniel Bloom and Mirror People. She is a graduate of cultural studies at UAM.

Iwona Skwarek photo. Nata Moszyńska