Enrique Iglesias – Dirty Dancer – Empty Plate
I feel like this rating should go without saying, but since I’ve heard it on the radio, in a public square, and in a classroom, I guess it must be said. One out of five cupcakes. An empty plate.
Oh, what a lovely plate…but it will break your teeth if you try to eat it!
I feel like I barely have to comment on these lyrics. They speak for themselves.
This is for the dirty girls
All around the world
Here we go
Dirty, dirty dancer
This song is set up as an ode to a “dirty girl,” thus we’re led to believe that the description that will follow are things that the singer is praising.
‘Nother day, ‘nother night
And she acting like she don’t sleep
She’s a five when she drinks
But she’s a ten when she’s on top of me
There are so many things wrong with this verse, I can hardly believe it. First we’re idealizing being “dirty.” Next, we’re adding alcohol, which never makes things better. And now we’re adding an alarming disrespect to women by rating this one.
She don’t wanna love, she just wanna touch
She’s a greedy girl to never get enough
She don’t wanna love, she just wanna touch
She’s got all the moves that make you get it up
Not only is this inappropriate, it’s idealizing all the wrong traits. The first three lines of this verse are describing traits that are generally not desirable, yet the last line makes it sound like these are admirable things.
This verse also brings up mixing up love and lust, which is a real problem and could be a completely valid song topic if dealt with responsibly. However, it is not dealt with responsibly here, and in fact is validating sexual behavior driven by lust and not love.
She’s a dirty, dirty dancer, dirty, dirty dancer
Never ever lonely
She’s a dirty, dirty dancer, dirty, dirty dancer
You’ll never be her only
And now we’re idealizing having multiple sexual partners. Have we learned nothing from health class? STDs anyone?
It’s a game that she plays
She can win with her eyes closed
It’s insane how she tames
She can turn you to an animal
Now we’re idealizing treating love as a game, and adding suggestive imagery to reinforce the message.
And that is the song. Being played in public places as if the lyrics aren’t flagrantly inappropriate and harmful.
A popular defense of inappropriate songs is that people don’t really listen to the lyrics, or aren’t influenced by the lyrics. While this may be true for a small percentage of people who have trouble hearing lyrics, it is not true for most people. And, as with this song, the inappropriate parts are often in the chorus. How could you not be influenced if a song is titled Dirty Dancer? If you have “She’s a dirty, dirty dancer” stuck in your head throughout the day? This kind of naive thinking is what gets us in trouble.
Note: While trying to find the right lyrics for this song, I found several different versions of the song featuring various people. While many of these extra lyrics are equally if not more objectionable, I don’t know which versions are official, or which are for the radio, etc. so I only reviewed the main Enrique Iglesias lyrics.
Gluten-Free Cupcakes 