Today in “you did your best,” a new story in The Hollywood Reporter reveals that country singer Keith Urban is doing his bit to promote healing in the emotionally shattering wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations—by releasing a song called “Female.” Yes, much like a toddler who drops a bag of flour on the floor in an attempt to “help” bake cookies, Urban is set to perform the song, by BMI Country Songwriter of the Year Ross Copperman, at tonight’s CMA Awards ceremony. You can also listen to it now on your various streaming services, if you’re so inclined:
Of the track, Copperman says, “It’s from the Weinstein announcement. We’re in a room and we’re like, ‘What can we do about this?’ And that’s the one thing we can do is write songs.” Urban, who is married to actress Nicole Kidman, tells Billboard, “As a husband and a father of two young girls, it affects me in a lot of ways. And as a son—my mother is alive. It just speaks to all of the females in my life, particularly.”
He echoes the same sentiment in THR, saying, “I am surrounded by females in my life. I grew up in a house with boys, no sisters. Now I am in a house that’s all girls. So this song speaks to me on a lot of levels.” Not quite on the level of understanding that referring to human women as “females” is belittling as well as grammatically incorrect, implying contempt and otherness by reducing women to their biological sex in terms akin to what one would use to refer to a farm animal. But hey, he’s—trying?