ARCADIA – Twenty songs that refer to women as “hos” and other derogatory names won’t be played at the Arcadia High prom Saturday night.

That’s because senior Madeline Conrique and fellow members of the Women’s Health and Issues Club brokered a deal with school administrators limiting songs with misogynistic themes and lyrics.

“Some of the songs call women `bitches’ and `hos,’ or refer to them as objects and treat them like animals,” Conrique said. “We find that offensive.”

A petition circulated on campus since last week asked students to support banning misogynistic songs from the prom; it garnered 130 signatures. About 1,000 students are expected to attend this weekend’s event.

She said the club wasn’t lobbying for the Jonas Bros., Miley Cyrus or other G-rated tunes – they just wanted songs that denigrate or sexually exploit women removed from the play list.

For them, Lil’ Wayne is out, Beyonce is in. “We are not trying to push for abstinence,” senior Lani Luo,said. “We are just trying to advocate for respect.”

Luo likes all music, including hip-hop, she said, but she never paid attention to the lyrics until recently. Initially, the group hoped to eliminate 300 songs from the prom playlist.

Activities director John Tung said he supports the club’s cause and could guarantee the group that 20 songs from their list won’t be played Saturday. Monitoring 300 different songs was simply too difficult.

“I told them I couldn’t personally guarantee the 300 songs,” Tung said, adding he’s already sent the list of 20 offensive songs to the disc jockey.

The issue first came up a few months ago, when club members viewed two episodes of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in which Winfrey asked members of the hip-hop community if they felt their lyrics were degrading to women.

But educating their peers turned out to be difficult. One classmate launched a text message chain imploring students not to sign the petition, club members said. Some students felt the club was trying to ruin their prom.

“The girls, surprisingly, were turned off,” Conrique said. “They were telling us that we were ruining their prom and that they liked to dance to those songs.”

The club members now hope that the effort they launched this year translates into a “misogyny free” dance next school year.

“I think we definitely made some progress,” said Conrique. “We are not trying to silence anyone. We just want people to listen to the lyrics.”

caroline.an@sgvn.com

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