"Gender appropriation" when individuals or groups adopt elements of a gender's expression or identity that was not originally their own. This can be similar to cultural appropriation, but specifically focuses on gender.
Angelos Agathangelou: Which is the original, spooky little girl, or spooky little boy, which gender appropriated this groovy track from the other?
"Spooky" is in fact originally an instrumental performed by
saxophonist Mike Sharpe (Shapiro - a man), written by Shapiro and Harry
Middlebrooks Jr (also a man), which first charted in 1967 hitting No. 57 on the US
pop charts and No. 55 on the Canadian charts.
Its best-known version was then created by James Cobb and producer Buddy Buie (more Men) for Classics IV (a group of men) when they added lyrics about a "spooky little girl".
The vocalist was Dennis Yost. The song is noted for its eerie whistling sound effect depicting the spooky woman. It has become a Halloween favorite. In 1968, the original male vocal version reached No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 in Canada and No. 46 in the UK.
Gender-appropriated Versions:
Dusty
Springfield recorded her feminist version later in 1968, Lydia Lunch in 1980, and
then Martha Reeves in 1986, the first two of which are gender-appropriated versions,
now focusing on a "spooky little boy" and the last version being a gender-appropriation reversed version "spooky old lady."
Confused Gender-Appropriated Version
Spooky Little Boy
In the original Classics IV version the man complains about his spooky indecisive girlfriend, a reality confronted by many a man.
In Dusty Springfield's gender-appropriated feminist remake version, she admits her own indecisiveness (aka spookiness), but blames it all on her boyfriend anyway and claims he's the spooky (read toxic male) one for some inexplicable reason.
Lydia Lunch goes full gender appropriation retard playing the man's traditional role in full and claiming her boyfriend is the spooky indecisive one, then proposes to him.
Finally in Martha Reeves' version she freely admits that we men were right all along and she's purposefully being her man's spooky old lady.
There's the gender war condensed for you through the medium of men's music gender-appropriated by women.
Art clearly does imitate life. We men said our piece and were done with it, but clearly it got under our opposite gender's skin, because The ladies just can't seem to stop gender-appropriating our groove too much, in protest, methinks.
The premise of the men's song is proven to be correct. Men decisively said their piece that women act like spooky little girls. Women on the other hand through their gender appropriation since men held up a mirror to their behaviour only serve to reinforce our point by their subsequent indecisiveness. One woman admits her indecisiveness and blames us anyway, the next wants to completely appropriate man's gender role and then blames us for the confusion she causes by doing that, the third admits that some women are just purposefully toxic.
Full Gender-Appropriation Retard Version
Spooky Little Boy
Gender-Appropriation Confession Version
Spooky Old Lady
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