How Did The Beatles Overt Objectification Of Women?

The way The Beatles wrote and sang about women experienced a noticeable shift throughout their time as a band, yet this shift is not as unprecedented as some might suggest. While it is true that The Beatles’ pre-1966 music was primarily concerned with boy-girl romance (Campbell 116), their lyrics do express an undertone of the type of more overt objectification of women found in their later music. Though The Beatles’ music began with lyrics that idealized women and romance, they weren’t immune from the “male narcissism” Colin Campbell identifies as common to other rock artists of the period (116). Their early lyrics show the seeds of what transitions into more apparent misogyny; as The Beatles gained more widespread popularity, their lyrics

Once again, these lyrics show the entitlement to control and possession of women that the speaker feels, as he both tracks down his romantic interest and spies on her in her own home, and speaks about their relationship as if she is obligated to give him his rightful “place” next to her (15). Stalking and Possession also feature on the album Help! in the tenth track, “You Like Me Too Much.” The song is a somewhat condescending recounting of a back-and-forth relationship where the woman has left and returned to the speaker multiple times—enough that he feels she will “be back again” even after she has said that there’ll be “no next time” if he doesn’t “treat [her] right” (lines 1-4). The speaker’s dismissive attitude toward his lover’s convictions and wishes seeps into the next verse where he claims that his lover doesn’t have “the nerve to walk out” on him, even though it is what he self-admittedly “deserve[s]” (8-10). Tauntingly, he says to his lover and the audience that “You'll never leave me and you know it's true,” a sentiment common to abusers attempting to manipulate their partners into staying with

Their rise to fame was supported by millions of teenage girls who absolutely adored them and the music they produced. The Beatles’ mythology contributes to a scholarly conversation that desperately looks for a spectacular explanation for their seemingly magical origins. To many, The Beatles must be special—they must have a distinctness from other artists to have reached the astronomical level of fame and influence they have even into the modern day. This longing for the fantastic or extraordinary has halted frank conversations about The Beatles’ music, and has significantly limited discussion about objectification and misogyny in The Beatles’ lyrics. Instead, scholars have treated the overt misogyny as a fluke or anomaly, and ignored the more subtle sexism altogether. Part of demythologizing The Beatles is being willing to analyze their songs for what they are. The Beatles are not immune to the ‘isms’ of their musical peers, just because of their unprecedented