that may be, but when it came out i was (i think) a junior in high school, and we didn’t really take it as skeevy on the same level people do today. sure, it was creepy, but people’s reaction to it now is MUCH more taut than we were to it back then. we were more like, “jeez, chill OUT, man!”
but now i view it as clear warning signs that the person Sting’s portraying needs some serious help.
And to be fair, it’s a theme he goes into a lot. Don’t Stand So Close to Me, Wrapped Around Your Finger, Fortress Around Your Heart all explore similar ideas.
but in Don’t Stand So Close To Me, he was singing a bit from his own experience as a teacher, and that song also sings from both sides.
I prefer the alternative version Sting did for Spitting Image.
That is one of two songs that ever gave me nightmares, so I definitely believe it was meant to be creepy, and Sting probably did the best job he could. It was meant to highlight the bad behaviour, not accept or romanticise it.
Unfortunately, as @gadgetgirl points out, people did romanticise it. Very scary, indeed.
I’ve heard him talk about that song and have heard the same comments that he is like, “You made that your wedding song? Are you nuts???” but I think a lot people did not see the true message and then that it was so popular for the message it was mocking was really disturbing.
Bono says the same thing about “One”. I was at a wedding where that was the first dance song, and I think it was the first time most people had listened to the words.
Indeed; it’s not Sting’s fault that most of the masses just weren’t paying enough attention to the actual lyrics of the song.
I always grokked how sinister the meaning was, even as a kid. Not to mention that stark black & white vid focusing mostly on Sting’s face really helped amplify how ominous the song is.
Indeed. How many people have also completely misunderstood “Born In The USA”, “Fortunate Son”, “Keep On Rockin In The Free World”, etc, because of the uptempo beat and lyrics that have something vaguely to do with patriotism?
I remember in the late 90s, when “Pink Moon” was used in a Volkswagen commercial 
When nobody cares about song lyrics and their meanings, this shit happens.
The patriots usually remove the verse about private property, which suggests that some of them are aware.
Every time I listen to Cats, Growltiger’s Last Stand bothers me with how it portrays “Siamese,” “Mongolian,” and “Chinese” as interchangable.
The use of the word “Chinks” doesn’t help matters.
I understand that it was from TS Eliot’s original poem, but really, Webber could have taken a bit more artistic license to fix it.
When I was a kid I really loved the “We Are Siamese” Disney song.
How about playing Hey Ya by Outkast as a wedding dance song or Pumped Up Kicks for a back to school sale commercial. 
More subtly problematic:
One of the first bits of mainstream Australian pop culture to raise the issue of Aboriginal genocide. However: it’s an all-white band. And they had to fight their label to get it released, and the word “genocide” is almost hidden in the song. One quick mutter was all they could get away with.
An anti-racist song using language that was generally accepted at the time. Although the history of “blackfella” is very dissimilar to the n-word, it’s not quite as acceptable today as it was then. The song also leans towards a race-blind reconciliation approach that is seen as a bit problematic these days.
Original:
Cover:
How problematic is it when a white artist covers an indigenous song, and the white version is much more popular than the original?
Original:
Dance remix:
How about when an Indigenous political song is stripped of much of its content to make it better suited to middle-class white dance parties?
I still like this one:
Despite the now-unaccepted term, it also mentions:
and he wore a hat
and he had a job
and he brought home the bacon
so that no-one knew
It reminds me of an older relative of mine who had Down’s (he’s passed away now). He had a job and was successful enough he could afford to buy his own house, and I’ve never heard a single relative say anything but good things about him.
It’s one of the few pro-Down’s songs out there that’s a hit and doesn’t hand-wring, even if it’s not PC (and racist because of the particular term it uses).
I’ve never thought that this was a pro-Down’s syndrome song. My take is that it is a mockery of all of the normal types who hold jobs, wear hats, etc., but which are all Mongoloids deep down.
Interesting. Mongoloid was the term for someone with Down’s when the song came out.
Oh, yes, and I’m sure Devo knew that. But I think the song is not pro Down’s, but rather anti - “normal.”
I would say that it was already on its way out then.
And I’d agree, but since I heard a special ed teacher say it nearly ten years after the song’s release… you know. Usage changes can take a while to truly sink in.
(The same person was still using “confined to a wheelchair” about ten years after that.)