As I ponder the fall/winter concert lineups and decide where and when I’m going to “get down,” I feel called to set some boundaries with myself this year. In the past when I’ve attended live shows, you probably heard me wooing indiscriminately, when a new performer entered the stage, left the stage, started a song I’d heard before, ended a song I hadn’t.
I thought woos were just for fun. But I was wrong.
Woos are a show of support and lend strength to things. If we woo at any and everything, our woos lose meaning. If we woo when Beyoncé sings a song about the heartbreak of cheating, but then we also woo when Jay-Z enters, what are we even saying?
That’s why, from now on, I’m only wooing if “this one is for the ladies.” It’s hard in a live concert environment, while often under the influence, to tell which performers truly support women, and which songs respect us. So from now on I’m rationing my woos with one simple rule – if the singer says, “This one is for the ladies,” I’m in the clear. I can feel comfortable getting behind that.
And for me, that’s feminism.
I wish we didn’t live in a world where the unspoken message was that most songs were made for men, but that’s our reality. So unless someone tells me a song is for the ladies, they’re not getting my full woo of support.
No longer will I respond to a singer’s between song banter about enjoying a joint on the tour bus, with “wooooo drugs!” No longer will I react to a “did y’all come here to party” with “woooo, yeah!” If the breakdown of the song fades into a long, extended lightshow while the performers just sway on stage, I will not be wooing my head off the whole time. In the #Metoo era, it’s worth being more discriminatory.
Until we live in a world where all songs are for women, I’m not wooing unless “this one is for the ladies.”
