“Korean Music Lyrics Are Causing Women’s Mental Health Problems” | Douglas Murray
Watch on YouTubeVideo summary
Douglas Murray argues that misogynistic lyrics in popular music, particularly within K-pop and hip-hop, are contributing to women's mental health issues by normalizing objectification and sexual violence against women. He cites a specific shift in BTS lead singer Jungkook's solo career as an example of this disturbing trend, noting how his earlier stance against the industry norm of sexualizing women has been replaced with imagery that identifies women negatively or depicts explicit fantasies about infidelity. Murray highlights lyrics where female partners are described derogatorily and male rappers boast about masturbating before sex to last longer, suggesting these messages create a toxic environment for young listeners who internalize such attitudes as acceptable behavior. The speaker contends that while popular culture undeniably shapes how people perceive themselves and the world, its influence is often overstated by those unable or unwilling to step outside of it. He illustrates this point with an anecdote about requesting gym staff turn off rap music containing repeated uses of racial slurs because he did not want such language in his mental background, emphasizing that individuals can choose to avoid content they find harmful rather than being passive victims of societal trends. Murray suggests that complaining about minor cultural grievances while ignoring more pressing global issues is a form of weak excuse-making for unhappiness, urging people to take responsibility for curating their own media consumption instead of blaming the culture entirely. Murray expands his critique by contrasting trivial complaints with the brutal realities lurking at society's edges, using the tragic events near Gaza as a stark example of how slogans and attitudes toward peace are insufficient against real-world violence. He recounts attending or hearing about a "Peace Rave" where young people gathered to dance in hopes of harmony before being attacked by Hamas forces who killed hundreds, an event that haunts him because it demonstrates the limits of cultural optimism when faced with existential threats. This incident serves as his argument that while one can critique air conditioning temperatures set for male bodies or gender pronouns, these are minor irritations compared to the fundamental dangers and horrors that exist globally which often go unacknowledged by those focused on cancel culture wars over rap lyrics. Throughout the discussion, Murray maintains a skeptical view of "cancel culture," questioning why society aggressively polices misogynistic song lyrics while simultaneously ignoring other forms of systemic misogyny like workplace temperature settings or geopolitical atrocities. He acknowledges that popular media has a massive impact but insists it is not an inescapable force; individuals have agency to reject content they dislike, such as the specific rap he encountered at the gym where even mouthing along could lead to social cancellation on platforms like TikTok. His conclusion reinforces the idea that while culture influences us, we must actively resist becoming its creatures by avoiding harmful narratives rather than expecting society to fix them for us, especially when doing so distracts from more serious existential challenges facing humanity today.
Read the full video transcript
one uh potentially unfortunate situation
is that women's mental health is in part
down to misogynistic songs when BTS lead
singer Yung cook changed to a more
misogynistic music a disturbing Trend
followed a psychiatrists point of view
on bts's young cook and the the messages
of pop music early in their teen career
BTS took a deliberate stance to refrain
from objectifying or sexualizing women
despite going against a music industry
Norm they achieved huge success now as
part of his solo launch different
imagery has surfaced in Jung cook songs
they include a woman telling of her man
that she will be your fantasy and
swallow your pride to make him never
think about cheating lyrics that identy
what why you said swallow your pride in
a particularly suggestive way not at all
I've got I've got more to go here uh
lycs that identify women as those hoes
over there and a male rapper telling his
female partner I wank before you came so
that I can [ __ ] you longer of course in
reality Yung Cook's songs are part of
the course or even tame does that work
by the way what you just described
you've You' never increased your stamina
by having a warm up I have thought the
lyric more likely I did that before you
G and I I just let to get a
better that kind like a lie down I did
that before you came that's why I texted
saying I'm not so first yeah don't I
have a quick dinner now I'll go to bed
one of my friends had a uh had a a
rubric for this that was masturbate
before you
evaluate oh well that's true yeah that's
that can be sensible advice I'm not sure
if I liked you or I was just horny horny
yeah yeah but no girls mental health you
were reading out these Charming lyrics
those hoes over there I wanked before
you came so that I can [ __ ] you
longer well where to start Downstream
from K-pop is a Litany of female mental
health problems that's what I'm
saying there's a the problem here isn't
there because on the one hand popular
culture does have a massive impact on
the way we see the
world uh I was at a gym recently where I
actually asked the gym staff to to turn
off the music because it was a load of
rap very unpleasant rap with a repeated
use of the n-word in it obviously it was
a black rapper or so I was assuming
right um You didn't find yourself
mouthing along to the lyrics worried
about no but actually I know that's
right what what problem could possibly
EMG from singing along just to interject
there someone got canceled on Tik Tok
for mouthing the nword along to a song
right so it's it's no possible it's no
longer the sound of the word it's the
mouth shape that that word
engenders um well we know that it's a
magical word in our time which even the
speaking of suddenly summons up the
Demons of the past Lord Voldemort yeah
very very strange but no I just said to
this I said to the gy I I said I just
don't want to hear it cuz I don't want I
just don't want it in the background of
my life you know um is it that gym that
we trained
at we can discuss this another time but
anyway um no I just don't like there are
certain things I don't want in my ears
and that's one actually I have no
interest in hearing the word because
it's a banned word so why would I want
it in my mental background yeah um but
so but anyway the point is is of course
popular culture has a huge impact on
people it has a huge impact on the way
in which people see themselves it does
it does
at the same time you can overstate it
you know somebody is not generally
unhappy just because of the popular
culture apart from anything else because
you can easily step out of it as I try
to do um and you know be a part of your
time but not be its creature as Shila
says um and so no I I think it's a sort
of weak excuse for unhappiness the
popular culture happens not to be to
your taste or avoid it get out look up
from the screen when is cancel culture
going to come for rap lyrics because it
seems to me that you know as we're
fighting against the misogyny of air
conditioning temperatures in offices
that are conditioned to the male body
temperature as opposed to the female
body temperature or I mean the
the the levity of the era is just
astonishing to me you know lots of
people attribute to me this quote that
is not quite right I don't think it's
quite for me but that um that we'll be
talking about gender pronouns when the
barbarians break in but I've said
something like it quite a few times but
I
mean you know gender norms and air
conditioning it's a sort of thing that
you would be discussing just before you
will get you know
macheted I'm totally serious about this
it's sometimes it's
like one of the things that actually
genuinely shocked me in recent weeks
particular after the Hamas massacre in
Israel was you know and then something
which I do think at some point when when
it's all died down a bit might there
might be a moment of of
of H what youve I've got to say this
carefully but a moment of um seriousness
which is you know take the music first
of all within a few miles of the Gaza
border that hamad's attacked all the
young people there were at this sort of
Peace
Rave and um this isn't in any way to
victim blame these are people just
wanting to dance and um dance into the
early morning and I think it was called
the peace Rave the peace and love Rave
something like that um and then this
hideous other world broke into to them
to their lives and ended the lives of
hundreds of them there's something
there's something haunting about this I
find because it's especially haunting
because it sort of demonstrates that
your slogans and your attitude
only go so far and they can't keep out
some of the things that are lurking at
the
edges and I think that when I hear
people whining about minor
things you have any idea of the world
out there if you had any idea of the
things that was lurking You couldn't
possibly be complaining about this in
other news this episode is brought to
you by Maui newie
venison Nei venison brings the
healthiest red meat on the planet direct
to your door not only is it the most
nutrient-dense meat on the planet
they're the only 100% stress-free wild
harvested venison that you can get
here's my super secret hack if you are
sick of buying meat that always goes off
put it in the freezer from Frozen salt
both sides of it put it in an air fryer
for 10 to 12 minutes each side and you
have a perfectly cooked steak from
Frozen that will never go off because
it's going from freezer to mouth in the
space of 25 minutes it's a complete Game
Changer all of their cuts are
spectacular and you can get them Frozen
delivered to your door but their venison
sticks are my favorite while I've been
on the road you can get the healthiest
red meat on the planet delivered
directly to your door and get 20% off by
going to the link in the description
below or heading to mauw venison
docomond wisdom and using the code
modern wisdom check out that's M nuui
venison tocom wisdom and modern wisdom
at checkout thank you very much for
tuning in if you enjoyed that clip with
Douglas you will love the 2hour long
podcast episode which you can watch
right
here go
on