What’s Your Anthem for These #MeToo Times?

So Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill is now a musical headed to Broadway, which sparked a conversation around the Tyee office. If you were making an album of anthems for the Me Too and Time’s Up movements, what would have to be on it? We’d love your suggestions. Here are some of ours:

I sincerely love Kesha's “Praying”, which she wrote in response to the man she says abused her.  Just because some people have been publicly outed doesn't mean we stop encountering them in daily life. I bumped into a friend's alleged abuser at the grocery store and all I could think to blurt out was, "I hope you are being good to people now!" Next time I will just sing this song until he leaves the produce aisle (not that high note though...). — Emma Cooper

Lynzy Lab’s smart retort to Trump’s proclamation that “it's a very scary time for young men in America” landed the day of then nominee Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. The sarcasm of “A Scary Time (for Boys)” sure did resonate – 11.4 million views five days later. “It’s really tough putting your reputation on the line / when someone you’ve assaulted could turn up at any time.” — Bryan Carney

Peaches is the rare female (Canadian) artist who writes and performs songs about sex and female pleasure without shame or embarrassment.  For this one, she invited unauthorized mash-ups from all quarters and got ‘em. The fact that “Fuck the Pain Away” works equally well seemingly performed by Miss Piggy or accompanying The Andy Griffith Show is simply kinky icing on a really strange cake. — Dorothy Woodend

Liz Phair's “Fuck and Run” anticipated the Me Too movement by about 25 years, as she responded to the entrenched sexism in the supposedly hip and enlightened alternate music scene (which eventually drove her in new musical directions). Angry, reflective, a great rock song and also a way women were treated as disposable. — Paul Willcocks

“Man” by Neko Case is about exercising power … like a man! (And probably mocking gender norms.) I often think of the lyrics when I get pitches at the Tyee addressed to "Mr. Smith”: "I'm a man / You'll have to deal with me / My proxy is mine / You'll deal with me directly.”  — Robyn Smith

“Shitlist” by Riot grrrl pioneers L7, who founded Rock for Choice and its women’s rights benefit concerts from 1991 to 2001 featuring Joan Jett, Hole, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine and others. At the Reading music festival in 1992 L7's lead singer Donita Sparks made punk rock history when she extracted her feminine hygiene product and threw it into the unruly crowd yelling "Eat my used tampon, fuckers!" — Mitchell Anderson

Fiona Apple's "Limp" takes on a gaslighting, emotionally abusive partner trying to make her believe her hurt feelings are because she is mentally delicate and irrational, which only he can save her from. This emotional Munchausen by proxy syndrome can figure into intimate partner physical and sexual abuse: "So call me crazy, hold me down / Make me cry; get off now, baby / It won't be long till you'll be / Lying limp in your own hand." — Katie Hyslop

Frazey Ford and her wing women are “Done” and here they come (down some East Van streets). Get with them or get out of their way. “And I'm sorry that you don't like your life / But I fought for my own victories and for the beauty in my life / My joy, my joy, my joy takes nothing from you.” — David Beers

Salt-N-Pepa’s “None of Your Business”: Now who do you think you are / Puttin' your cheap two cents in? / Don't you got nothin' to do / Than worry 'bout my friends? / Check it.” — Jeanette Ageson