February 26, 2001 Opinion Eminem is Evil, Not Elvis By Daniel Wirls Whether the controversial rap star Eminem won anything or everything at last week's Grammy awards is not the issue. That he was even nominated is a disgrace. That many music critics and others defend and even celebrate Eminem is the issue. The issue is that many parents remain ignorant of or rationalize their children's consumption of Eminem. Daniel Wirls UCSC Photo Services Eminem is the moral equivalent of a virulent racist, and should be condemned as such. His women-hating lyrics and his hatred of gays puts his work in the same moral category as the ravings of white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Replace any of Eminem's language about women with "black" or "Jew" and no critic -- including, I would hope, the Santa Cruz Sentinel's Wallace Baine--would dare to praise or defend him. But somehow it is always different with women. It's off-color, but funny. There is, however, not a dime's worth of moral or ethical difference between someone singing "lynch the nigger" or "gas the Jew" and what Eminem sings about women (often "bitches" or "whores") in many of his songs. And yet he has no shortage of defenders. In the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Wallace Baine joined a phalanx of mostly white, male cultural apologists who have invoked three equally specious lines of defense or rationalization. The first is that the guy may be foul but he is also undeniably fearless, funny, and talented. Yeah, he's a real hoot. One song about his wife, lovingly entitled "Kim," ends with the following: NOW BLEED! BITCH BLEED! BLEED! BITCH BLEED! BLEED! Another courageous knee-slapper is Eminem's hyper-violent perspective on sex: "F***** your bitch in the a** with a tire iron." Eminem is nothing without his lyrics, and his lyrics are nothing if not obscene. Critics, therefore, are inescapably defending his hate-filled words. If you don't buy the argument that he is humorous and gifted, then try this one: He is deep. Eminem, according to this second line of defense, is a master of irony. One member of the Grammy organization labeled his music "therapeutic." This argument strikes me as a desperate attempt to intellectualize his music by some and a largely tongue-in-cheek rationalization by others. One can picture Eminem laughing at all the chumps who have bought into that one. How many adolescent boys (his major audience) do you know who can define or discern irony? Instead they are no doubt absorbing the valuable life-lessons taught by their hero, including his description of how he had ten guys gang rape his little sister on her birthday. Ironic? Therapeutic? Finally, his apologists invoke the power of analogy: Eminem is this generation's Elvis. Eminem is only like Elvis was to that generation if one refuses to assess and compare the content of the message these musicians have produced. No lyrics from when boomers were young compare to Eminem's. And who is excusing sexist or racist (but utterly mild by comparison) lyrics from other eras in popular music? I would hope none of us would defend them. Not every exercise of the first amendment is a blow for freedom or liberation; in fact, many are just the opposite. The extent to which we abuse freedom of speech by demeaning it is the extent to which it becomes increasingly worthless. Unless, of course, you take Eminem's musical response to those who don't like him or what he says as a measure of his rhetorical genius: "So you can s*** my d*** if you don't like, my sh**." Part of the problem with this debate over Eminem is that most of the time the lyrics are missing. They are referred to indirectly, and even his proponents often acknowledge their repugnant nature. But the words are not there in most newspapers because they are so vile. It's too bad because I get the impression that many parents are simply unaware of who Eminem really is, what he is saying as he "raps," or that their kids might be listening to him. Eminem outsold the ubiquitous Britney Spears last year. He is not a marginal figure. He is a major influence upon our children. The extent to which we either rationalize or lionize entertainers such as Eminem is the degree to which we have surrendered solid ground upon which to render judgments about what is right and wrong. In a culture such as ours, which all too often celebrates the banal, the puerile, and the utterly contrived, that distinction could get increasingly blurred. If Eminem's lyrics are acceptable or capable of rationalization, what isn't? A chill wind blows for women, girls, and all Americans when, in 2001, we don't shun misogyny; when, instead, we reward it. Daniel Wirls is an associate professor of politics.