Ex Yugoslav vinyl records at Skopje antique shop, including a Lepa Brena single. Photo by Meta.mk. This story was originally published by Meta.mk. An edited version is republished here under a content-sharing agreement between Global Voices and Metamorphosis Foundation. Content notice: This article contains discussions of gender-based violence and sexist language. Ana Ninković, a student at the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade stirred social media controversy in the region of former Yugoslavia with her documentary film “Violence against women in domestic songs” (Nasilje nad ženama u domaćim pesmama) that she produced for her exam in “Pop Culture: From digital to trans-media,” where she examines violence against women portrayed through turbo-folk, pop, rap, and hip-hop songs. She produced her exam project as a sequence of Serbian and regional songs that have motives of physical, sexual, and/or psychological violence against women. Her film is divided into two parts: women’s and men’s perspectives. The video starts with a quote from the feminist collective Ženska solidarnost's (Female solidarity) article by Nataša Elenikov “Who is responsible because I didn't report?”: Svako fizičko nasilje praćeno je psihičkim, kada se žena ubeđuje da je zaslužila, izazvala; nasilnik radi na tome da žena postane zavisna od njega i da se njeno samopouzdanje uništi. All physical violence is accompanied with mental violence, by persuading the woman that she deserved it. The violator attempts to make the woman dependent on him and to ruin her self confidence. Ninković selected 36 songs by various Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Slovenian performers, published from 1981 to 2020. These songs romanticize the idea that a woman’s humiliation is the ultimate proof of her love for a man and focus on narratives of gender-based violence. Rano moja, rano ljuta Rani mene jos sto puta Prevari me bol mi stvaraj Al me nikad ne ostavljaj [You are] my festering sore wound, Wound me hundred more times Cheat on me, make me feel pain But please never leave me (Rano moja, Ana Bekuta, 1989) Explaining her research in an accompanying paper, Ninković wrote that the initial idea behind the project was to collect, systematize, and overview popular music songs from the region with calls for violence against women — physical, sexual, psychological, or verbal. Robinja sam tvoja, ubij me! Robinja sam tvoja, volim te! I am your slave, kill me! I am your slave, I love you! (Robinja, Lepa Brena, 1989) Working with the members of the Facebook group Ženska posla (Women’s Affairs), Ninković managed to gather over 100 songs. Pre nego za milost Zamolim svuci me Po svakoj suzi tuci me Ko dete kazni me Ko zenu spasi me Before I beg for mercy/Undress me After every tear I shed/Beat me Punish me as if I am a child Save me like a woman (Gore od ljubavi, Ceca, 2004) Ninković explains that after she divided the selected songs into four thematic subgroups: sexual violence, physical violence, women's humiliation, and a combination of women's humiliation and physical and/or sexual violence. she decided to divide the film into 2 blocks – female and male perspectives. She explained: The conclusion is that in the so-called “women songs” i.e. the songs where the lyrical subject is female, the motif of unconditional love toward the partner is dominating, even at the cost of suffering, humiliation, abuse and violence. Also, it is interesting to note that most “women” songs belong to the turbo-folk genre (14) while the only other genre is pop (3 songs). The songs where the lyrical subject is a man are characterized by the “re-education” of a disobedient woman by use of force, sexual (or physical) violence which is caused by the rejection, then revenge with a physical molesting of the “unfaithful” woman. The male songs can be divided into much more genres: hard rock (8), pop (4), rap (4), country (1), folk-rock (1), and it is interesting that, unlike the first group, this one includes only one turbo-folk song. She stresses that the contrast in the musical background is also noteworthy. “The songs where the female lyrical subject is bearing humiliation is mostly accompanied by ballad tones, music and a lamenting voice, while in the songs from male perspective we often come across jolly musical background that makes you dance,” says Ninković. Her research has shown that such narratives have been dominating for almost 40 years in regional popular music, regardless of the genres and the cultural background that is addressed by the performer. The conclusion is that the first group of songs, which she designated as “feminine,” romanticizes woman’s subordination and refers to voluntarily accepting physical and sexual violence.