Most sexist songs of the '60s

The 6 Sexistiest Songs of the ’60s — #4

Wishin’ and Hopin’” – Dusty Springfield (1964)

 

Wish­ing and hop­ing and think­ing and praying

Plan­ning and dream­ing each night of his charms

That won’t get you into his arms

So if you’re look­ing to find love you can share

All you got to do is hold him and kiss him and love him

And show him that you care

 

Show him that you care just for him

Do the things he likes to do

Wear your hair just for him, ’cause

You won’t get him

Think­ing and a‑praying, wish­ing and a‑hoping

 

Cause wish­ing and hop­ing and think­ing and praying

Plan­ning and dream­ing his kiss­es will start

That won’t get you into his heart

So if you’re think­ing of how great true love is

 

All you got to do is hold him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him

Yeah, just do it

And after you do, you will be his

 

You got to show him that you care just for him

Do the things he likes to do

Wear your hair just for him, ’cause

You won’t get him

Think­ing and a‑praying, wish­ing and a‑hoping

 

Cause wish­ing and hop­ing and think­ing and praying

Plan­ning and dream­ing his kiss­es will start

That won’t get you into his heart

So if you’re think­ing of how great true love is

 

All you got to do is hold him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him

Yeah, just do it

And after you do, you will be his

You will be his

You will be his

****

In “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” Dusty Spring­field (one of the very greats) offers some advice on how to land a man. She starts by explain­ing that “wish­ing and hop­ing and think­ing and pray­ing” won’t get you any­where. You need to be proac­tive. Sure. I think we can all agree that this isn’t bad advice. But then she goes into details… “Do the things he likes to do.” “Wear your hair just for him.” Most impor­tant­ly, “hold him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him/yeah, just do it.” So, remem­ber, ladies, if you want to get your hooks into a man, look the way he wants you to look, copy his inter­ests like an automa­ton, and (for the love of god) put out. After you do, you will be his…

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7 thoughts on “The 6 Sexistiest Songs of the ’60s — #4

    1. I agree. Leslie Gore, who was also gay (and also sad­ly deceased) has a song on this list as well. I don’t think that their sex­u­al­i­ty has much, if any­thing, to do with their place on this list, or what they were asked to sing. I think it’s more a prod­uct of the time (specif­i­cal­ly, men writ­ing for women to sing). This song, for instance, was writ­ten by Burt Bacharach and Hal David — who hap­pened to write the #1 song on this list as well…

      Thanks for writing!

      Reply

  1. I can’t imag­ine that she would be suc­cess­ful in achiev­ing her goal by doing things oppositely.

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  2. It’s debat­able whether this is a very sex­ist song, except for the last line. Both sex­es will do what is nec­es­sary to attract the per­son their attract­ed to. We do it sub­con­scious­ly any­way, it’s just ver­bal­ized here. How­ev­er, the line “You will be his” means man pos­sess­es woman. Why not “He will be yours”?

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  3. This could only be con­sid­ered sex­ist if there were no sim­i­lar songs by men. Per­haps that is the prob­lem — I can’t think of any songs rec­om­mend­ing that men should make them­selves more attrac­tive to the girl they are chas­ing. Would such a song have been impos­si­ble in the 60s? It’s hypo­thet­i­cal — I real­ly don’t know.

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  4. Dusty Spring­field was a les­bian, I won­der what she thought of the lyrics of primp­ing your­self up to kow­tow to a man! There will be a movie com­ing out about her, should be a treat for fans, I hope.

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  5. You want to keep a man? Drop your fan­tasies and hopes and step up to show your love by ACTION. Seems fair­ly sim­ple and straight­for­ward; you make an effort for the peo­ple you care for.

    I guess men are just sup­posed to love you arbi­trar­i­ly when you do noth­ing in turn and read your mind.

    Tru­ly, fem­i­nism is set­ting women up for success…

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