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It's Not Just Comedy, Women Can't Do Music Either

By Emily Cutler | Social Media | November 20, 2015 |

By Emily Cutler | Social Media | November 20, 2015 |


On the heels of Vivian’s piece about the lack of female comedians at a Houston comedy fest, we get to wake to the news that women don’t know how to do music either.

Oh good.

In an interview on CBS This Morning, Apple Music head Jimmy Iovine tried to explain Apple’s new streaming service in a way that poor, poor musically deficient women could understand it.

So I always knew that women find it very difficult at times—some women—to find music. And this helps makes it easier with playlists, curated by real people.

Presumably real people with penises.

And it’s not just that women can’t find music, it’s that we desperately need that music. When we can’t find boys to fill the void in our lives.

I just thought of a problem: Girls are sitting around talking about boys, right? Or complaining about boys. When they’re heartbroken or whatever. They need music for that, right? It’s hard to find the right music. Not everyone has, you know, the right list, or knows a DJ.
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Hey, Jimmy Iovine, I know that explaining Apple Music by saying, “Well, we needed a late-to-the-game, sub-par version of Pandora/ Spotify so here it is” isn’t the best marketing campaign. But neither is “Women don’t know what they like to put in their ear holes.”

Aside from the fact that it’s horribly sexist to assume women don’t know how to find music, and completely dismissive of all of the women working in the music industry (including Mary J. Blige who was sitting right fucking next to him), is this even a thing? Like is “women can’t find music they like” a stereotype that I’ve been blessed to be unaware of? We can’t drive and we can’t be funny, but how in the hell do we not know what we like to listen to?

Luckily Iovine’s non- apology apology explains that he in no way meant to insult women.

We created Apple Music to make finding the right music easier for everyone — men and women, young and old. Our new ad focuses on women, which is why I answered the way I did, but of course the same applies equally for men. I could have chosen my words better, and I apologize.

See, nothing sexist here. He wants to help everyone find music. And he knows that that means focusing on helping women find music to. Because without the assistance and motivation of men, women wouldn’t have any music to listen to. And that would be a real shame.