LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, has defended his lyrics after he was called out for his propensity for overt misogyny in his music, saying that he is presenting a "character" in his songs, not necessarily himself. The singer-songwriter has been criticized before for his inability to stop calling women "b*tches" and objectifying them in his songs.
After Rolling Stone magazine called out HBO's 'The Idol' as glorified 'torture porn', many have started paying attention to the musician's alleged sexist behavior. This has made it challenging for some fans to support him any longer even though The Weeknd ranks among this generation's most popular musicians. The Toronto native, like many greats, has battled several controversies, from his own singing career to his character in the contentious HBO series 'The Idol', most recently.
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The Weeknd's unabashedly sexual lyrics are frequently thought to be misogynistic. The Weeknd often refers to women as "b*tches" and his lyrics often characterize them as disposable sexual playthings. For instance, in the 2015 song 'The Hills', he says, “I just f**ked two b*tches ‘fore I saw you”. The singer admitted in an interview with Esquire that he was portraying "a character" in his songs. He explained, "When you hear some of the drastic stuff, you can tell. I mean, that’s why it’s tricky, because it is me singing the words; it is my writing. It’s like you want people to feel a certain way. You want them to feel angry. You want them to feel sad. You want them to feel. It’s never, like, my intent to offend anybody."
However, it raises questions about the artist's motives to spread such harmful beliefs about what it means to be a man and why he encourages toxic male stereotypes through his lyrics. The idea of reducing women to sexual props and caricatures should offend a man who is so obsessed with maintaining his brand and a carefully cultivated mystique tied to his identity as an artist.
It is also not a one-off case with The Weeknd's lyrics. Here are some more as a sample — "Girl I’m just peakin’, I’m just tryna be on top of you" from 'All I Know'; "Who’s gonna love you like me, like me? Who’s gonna touch you like me? Who’s gonna f— you like me?" from 'Shameless'; "I’m used to b*tches comin’ right ‘way'" from 'Acquainted'; "I hope you know this d— is still an option" from 'Wasted Times'; "I’ve been running through the p—--, need a dog pound / Hundred models getting faded in the compound" and "Never need a bitch, I’m what a bitch need" from 'Heartless'. The list goes on.
Besides lyrics, other problematic instances have cropped up. The Weeknd had revealed a prosthetic new face in the music video for 'Save Your Tears' in 2020, which many perceived as a critique of women's preference for plastic surgery and other cosmetic modifications. Some perceived this as a underhanded dig at his ex-girlfriend Bella Hadid, who is rumored to have undergone cosmetic surgery. Although The Weeknd has never directly linked the two, it does seem that the video shames women for altering their bodies as they like.
Homophobic 'Lost in the Fire' lyrics
According to the Independent, The Weeknd once also received social media backlash for the lyrics of the new song, "Lost in the Fire," which the artist co-wrote with French DJ Gesaffelstein. In the song, the singer alludes to a woman's attraction to another person of the same sex as "a phase" and vows to "f**k you straight."
"Well done to @theweeknd for managing to deride, fetishize and dismiss lesbianism all in one verse," wrote queer musician Marika Hackman on Twitter. On Twitter, several women denounced the misogyny, homophobia, and biphobia in The Weeknd's song 'Lost in the Fire.' The lyrics also fetishizes bi women by emphasizing that they are just there to have threesomes with males.
Some people even believed The Weeknd was outing his ex-girlfriend Bella Hadid, which is quite troubling if true. However, Hadid has never spoken out about her sexuality, and The Weeknd has never 'hinted' that the song was about her.
Reportedly, the media is still piecing together the ways in which Tedros, played by The Weeknd, in 'The Idol' on HBO, reflects the musician in real life. The Weeknd said of his character, "Tedros is that superego that we as men wanna stay away from as much as possible, that’s inside of us and we just gotta kill that."
The Weeknd's music has established a unique universe, with a sound that he described as having a "cult-y" vibe that he now wants to 'leave behind'. The parallels between Tedros and Tesfaye, however, only serve to fuel the rumors that maybe the art and the artist are not so separate at all.
