Top Five Musical Theater Songs About Misandry

Intern Grace —
Jul 20, 2015
COMMENT

Man-hating songs have fallen out of style now, but back in the golden age of Broadway, they were a common comedy trope.

Two quick notes:

A) In order to make the final five, the song has to be an indictment of all men, not just one, although a number of those songs can be found in this playlist, which also includes a few “women are better than men” songs.

B) Some of the musicals on this list have some fucked up social commentary going on, particularly with regard to race. Calamity Jane is a good example. Kiss Me Kate is very misogynistic. These singular misandrist songs do not excuse that, but they are still enjoyably misandrist.

5. “One Hundred Easy Ways (To Lose A Man)” – Wonderful Town

Lyrical highlight: Just throw your knowledge in his face / He’ll never try for second base

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4. “Forget About The Boy” – Thoroughly Modern Millie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GVVpzTNEpA

Lyrical highlight: And in the moonlight, don’t you think about him / Sister, you’re much better off without him / You can blow the blues a kiss goodbye / And put the sun back in the sky / For when he comes crawlin’ / I’m not fallin’

3a. “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair” – South Pacific

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=030YgzGQ34o

Lyrical highlight: If you laugh at different comics / If you root for different teams / Waste no time, weep no more / Show him what the door is for!

3b. “Many A New Day” – Oklahoma!

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Lyrical highlight: Why should a woman who is healthy and strong,
blubber like a baby if her man goes away? / A-weepin’ and a-wailin’ how he done her wrong. / That’s one thing you’ll never hear me say!

I’m combining these into one number because I’m a cheater, but also these were written by the same guys! Rogers and Hammerstein!

2. “Men! (Horrible Men!)” – Calamity Jane

This doesn’t have a recording on Youtube, but you can listen to it here.

Lyrical highlight: Men men, horrible men / I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again / What I think of men you can’t print in a book / Lucky the girl who has never been took.

1. “I Hate Men” – Kiss Me Kate

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Intern Grace

Grace Ellis has been writing and making hack-job graphics for Autostraddle since 2011 and is a co-creator and co-writer of the comic book series Lumberjanes. She is mostly an intern in name only. (Mostly.) She lives in Columbus, Ohio because why anything. Also, she wants to write the Black Widow movie and feels like if she just keeps telling people, eventually she will be allowed to do it.

Intern Grace has written 89 articles for us.

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