Dierks Bentley is one of my favorite artists; I've seen him in concert twice and "Drunk on a Plane" is my ultimate jam. I thought he could do no wrong until his latest single came out with Elle King, "Different For Girls".
She don't throw any t-shirt on and walk to a bar
She don't text her friends and say, I gotta get laid tonight
She don't say, it's okay, I never loved him anyway
She don't scroll through her phone just looking for a Band-Aid1
It's different for girls when their hearts get broke
They can't tape it back together with a whiskey and Coke
They don't take someone home and act like it's nothing
They can't just switch it off every time they feel something
A guy gets drunk with his friends and he might hook up
Fast forward through the pain, pushing back when the tears come on
But it's different for girls
She don't sleep all day and leave the house a wreck
She don't have the luxury to let herself go
She won't call just to curse from a wall, she can push
When the going gets tough, yeah, the guys they can just act tough
It's different for girls when their hearts get broke
They can't tape it back together with a whiskey and Coke
They don't take someone home and act like it's nothing
They can't just switch it off every time they feel something
A guy gets drunk with his friends and he might hook up
Fast forward through the pain, pushing back when the tears come on
But it's different for girls
It's different for girls
Nobody said it was fair
When love disappears, they can't pretend it was never there
A guy gets drunk with his friends and he might hook up
Fast forward through the pain, pushing back when the tears come on
When the going gets tough, yeah, the guys they can just act tough
So tough
It's different for girls
It's different for girls
This song is about how society views both males and females after a breakup. Bentley and King are saying that guys are able to push their feelings aside and mess around with other girls; while women are going to be emotional messes. This bothers me to no end, because of the stereotypical assumptions that are sang about throughout the song. It is widely accepted that guys can sleep around and party their troubles away, while girls are expected to be a wreck over the end of their relationship. This plays into the 1950's "gender roles" and songs glorifying that era needs to come to an end. Women can very easily be the ones going out to a bar to find a rebound, while the guys are at home being emotional. While Bentley and King do argue that men are upset over a breakup, they generalize by saying they hide emotions. I know many guys who wear their hearts on their sleeve, and knows girls who live by the saying, "the best way to get over somebody, is to get under somebody knew". The stereotyping that is exploited in the media, is the reason why these outdated views are still received by the public. So hey Dierks, next time you write a song, talk about girls driving the pickup truck with their boyfriends in the back.
