Who would have imagined that the most listened to songs in the world were not taken into account by the Basque Country to enjoy the summer, all to prevent sexist violence.
Neither ‘Slowly’ of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee neither ‘Turn me up the radio’ of Enrique Iglesiasneither ‘I fell in love’ of Shakiraneither ‘come here’ of Ricky Martin. This summer, in the festive spaces of the Basque Country you can hear ‘Who cares’ of Alaska and Denmark, ‘She’ of Baby, ‘fucked up but happy’ of Buika, ‘respect’ of Aretha Franklin, ‘I Will Survive’ of Gloria Gaynor, ‘You now what I mean’ of Amparoniaamong others.
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Those that are being the songs of the summer have no place in the list of 200 songs that the Basque Institute for Women, Emakunde, has selected to promote respect for women and has made available to all bars, entertainment venues and ‘txosnas’ of the Basque Country to sound them this summer in festive spaces with the aim of contributing to promoting attitudes and behaviors based on equality towards women.
The elaboration of this ‘playlist’ is part of the campaign that Emakunde has launched this summer through the Beldur Barik program («without fear») Aimed at preventing sexist violence among youth in festive and leisure settings, it has the support of the three Provincial Councils and the Association of Basque Municipalities Eudel. The topics included in this list have been selected based on the criteria of “make women visible in music” and to make it possible for festive spaces to listen to music with messages of “fearless attitude”as stated by the Basque Women’s Institute.
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With this measure, Emakunde intends Banish those sexist songs and lyrics from parties, considering that these types of topics incite sexual aggression. Avoiding its dissemination constitutes, in his opinion, one more instrument for the prevention of abuse of women at parties. One of the ‘vetoed’ artists would be Malumaa Colombian reggaeton singer accused of being sexist and misogynist who succeeds with his songs in which you can hear: «I’m in love with four ‘babys’, they always give me what I want, they fuck when I tell them, none of them turn me on but…». «There are no reasons for you to be self-conscious, I know you like it, it motivates you, they told me you’re possessive… and you swallow all my vitamins»is another of his ‘verses’ musicals.
“Neither alcohol nor the party itself are excuses so that relationships between women and men are not egalitarian and respectful, so that women are treated as mere sexual objects or feel insecure or intimidated in certain places and after certain hours. ”defends Emakunde, who considers that playing these respectful songs in festive spaces contributes “to prevent sexist attacks”.
Taken from El Confidencial