It's Time Beastie Boys' "Girls" Got Feminist

For as fun and frivolous a song the Beastie Boys' "Girls" is, it's far and away from being even remotely feminist. I mean, the whole end of the song proclaims "Girls - to do the dishes / Girls - to clean up my room / Girls - to do the laundry / Girls - and in the bathroom / Girls, that's all I really want is girls / Two at a time I want girls / With new wave hairdos I want girls / I ought to whip out my girls, girls, girls, girls, girls!" Which is... about as far away from the feminist agenda as one can get. In fact I'd dare say that's pretty offensive, all things considered! (Don't worry, Beastie Boys — we forgive you.) But in the hands of Sizzy Rocket, a 22-year-old singer out of Las Vegas, the tune has been deconstructed and flipped it on its head. And now it's a radical feminist anthem worth getting excited about.

"Girls - all they really want is girls / ... / They like the way that we walk / But they don't want to hear us talk," she croons, still maintaining the song's melodic essence. Taking influences from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust phase, Iggy Pop, and Joan Jett, Rocket's take on the tune highlights the disembodiment that comes with so much of our culture's fascination with women as objectifiable things rather than human beings. The song both toys with the idea of the male gaze while simultaneously admonishing it for what it really is — a play for control and dominance. Which is, at least to us, a fairly radical (and delightful) way of playing with the original message. It's a perfect summer pop tune with some substance, and ain't that just the best sort of music there is? We certainly think so.