Music is known as the window to the soul. It can inspire you, comfort you, and make you feel terribly sad or overcome with joy. So why does so much of it show hatred or disdain for women and portray them as objects made solely for men’s pleasure? It should be building people up, not tearing them down.

There is misogynistic music in nearly every genre. Rap, pop, country, you name it. A few of the many offensive songs that I’m going to focus on are “U.O.E.N.O.” by Rocko ft Future Rick Ross, “Literally I Can’t,’ by Play-N-Skillz, and “God Made Girls,” by RaeLynn.

“U.O.E.N.O.” is a disgustingly popular, rape-culture promoting song. This is repulsive because it’s literally about rape. Some of the lyrics contain parts like, “put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it/I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” How on earth can a song like this be popular?

“Literally I Can’t” is just as bad, if not worse. The entire song and music video is about frat guys going to a party and telling the girls at the party to shut up and do what the guys say. Some of the lyrics include “you got a big ol’butt/ I can tell by the way you’re walkin’/ But you annoyin’ me’ cause you’re talkin’(Shut the [expletive removed] Up).” This song is downright disturbing. It is not okay to talk to women like that. It’s disrespectful and completely degrading.

“God Made Girls,” by RaeLynn, is not nearly as in your face as the other two songs. It may seem innocent, but when someone stops to consider the lyrics, they are misogynistic. In short, the song basically says that God made girls to take care of men. It displays sexism towards both men and women.

At this point, you might be wondering why sexist music is so terrible. It’s just music, right? Wrong. According to “The Influence of Rap and Hip Hop Music: An Analysis on Audience Perceptions of Misogynistic Music,” by thestudentpulse.com with studies conducted by undergraduates, young adults who consume misogynistic music, like rap and hip-hop, become desensitized to the negative lyrics about relationship violence and sexual aggression. This teaches people that aggression and violence are closely linked to cultural masculinity.

This all contributes to rape-culture. It gives men the impression that females are objects made for their pleasure. It dehumanizes women and makes men think that rape is acceptable. In reality, rape is never acceptable.

Sexist music may never go away for good, but people have the power to make it less popular by not listening to it or purchasing it.

Rachel Amrhein is an Opinion Columnist for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.