Love At First Listen : Hate Me Harder [Songs for Survivors]

Kesha is back and perhaps better than ever in this powerful anthem. There's a euphoric catharsis living in Hate Me Harder, that's reminiscent of her single Praying. And perhaps this explains its pointed resonance, particularly for women who've been victims of harm, abuse, sexual and other kinds of assault. Kesha all throughout this album is taking us on spiritual journey, emerging empowered, contemplative, and emerging from victimhood and from the messy agony that she endured during her sexual assault case with Dr Luke. In Hate Me Harder, she switches the power dynamic of the victim and abuser, finding strength by telling her abusers to continue their diatribes against her, she is no longer able to be phased by the abuse. Kesha here is calling on her abusers to "Hate Her Harder", a battle cry asking the other side to amp up their hate, continue attacking her, because she can take it and is unphased.

As her album title Gag Order implies, after years of being silenced, shamed for speaking her truth, she won't allow herself to be silenced by the backlash. She will continue to speak her truth and be true to who she is, flawed , messy, imperfect "You say I look like I just crawled out of a trash can. You say I'm obnoxious, nobody was askin" and authentic. She makes the point to use the phrase "You can say. You Say" because the claims people make about her are not aligned with what she knows of herself. And even if they were true, she doesn't care anymore. To these claims, she says I can take it, so make it hurt. It doesn't matter to her what people think of what she looks like or if people don't believe her or if people continue to shame her. And people can continue to hate her if that's what makes them feel better, perhaps a very pointed message to Dr. Luke, who can continue to hate her despite being the one who made her victim in the first place.

A wise woman in one of my support groups once said, if you want a man to hate you, tell the truth. And I can't help but think how apt this is in her case, watching Dr. Luke bend over backwards to discredit her despite knowing the harm he caused. Weird. But Kesha knows the truth and she's standing in it. She isn't afraid of it, no matter how ugly or uncouth. So for all the women out there who've been victimized, whose names have been targets of smear campaigns by harmful people,Praying that one day in your journey we'll be able to take a page out of Kesha's playbook.

Keeping Tabs