New Music: Kate Nash – GERM

This is the first Pride Month since I immigrated to the UK where I’ve felt that women’s and LGBTQ+ rights are going backwards – and rapidly.

It’s something that BRIT-award winner Kate Nash looks at on GERM, a staggeringly forthright indie-electro banger with lyrics that made me cry as it details the real risks to women from men.

Whether it’s rape, sex, FGM, or toxic masculinity, Nash lays bare how we are all exposed and degraded by a view of women that a few men – and the odd cigar-chomping woman – are imposing on us all.

Says her label, “GERM takes direct aim at TERFs (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists) with equal parts sass and snark, exposing their ideology as a violent force—one that harms women, trans people, and anyone caught in the machinery of patriarchal oppression. When Kate declares, “You are not defending or protecting me,” she isn’t inviting debate—she’s calling out the hypocrisy of exclusionary, regressive misogynists.”

“No one hiding behind faux-feminist rhetoric is spared. And neither are the usual suspects.”

“The name-checks are deliberate and devastating: misogyny, transphobia: and some very specific culprits: Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk, Donald Trump. Each callout lands like a punch to the throat, shattering the myth of toxic male invincibility and exposing the rot at the core of modern power.”

Listen to the song. Read the lyrics. Get the message. Spread the message. Btw the video has been age-restricted by YouTube.

GERM is out now via Kill Rock Stars and can be downloaded on Bandcamp, where you can also find Nash’s most recent album, 9 Sad Symphonies. Check out Nash on Instagram and TikTok, or support her on Patreon, to find out more about this amazing artist.