Romanticizing Stalking
The whole premise of the song is that if the man did not love the girl so much, he would not be sitting outside her house all night long. It seems almost romantic, that this man is so hurt by the woman's actions that he is driven to stalking, but stalking is not romantic. It is terrifying, causing people to fear for themselves and their loved ones. I don't know about you, but I would definitely be scared if a drunk man was sitting outside my house all night, staring and throwing beer cans at my house. I would not be flattered, and I would not think it was romantic at all.
Victim Blaming
"You know you broke the wrong heart baby, and drove me redneck crazy."
"You know that's just not the kind of man I am. Yeah, I'm the kind that shows up at your house at 3 A.M."
These two lyrics show best the victim blaming that is present in the song. The man blames the woman for him stalking her and being ready to fight her other man because she broke his heart. It is her fault that he is sitting outside of her house all night long. However, the blaming does not stop there. He goes on to say that she knew what would happen if she hurt him like she did. That takes responsibility off of the man and puts it onto the woman because "she knew what she was getting herself into." While yes, she should not have cheated on him, it does not give him the right to stalk her.
The problem with these two things is that it makes the stalker out to be a man so passionately in love who was hurt by an evil woman so she gets what she deserves. If stalking is made to seem romantic and the victim's fault, then men who do commit these crimes will not feel the need to change their ways. Also, it could cause other men to rationalize stalking and do it themselves. Stalking is not romantic and it is no one's fault but the stalker. No matter what this song, that is played very often on country radio, leads you to believe.
I'm actually kind of shocked that this song is played on the radio so often. I mean, I guess if it's popular it should be, but the points you bring up definitely raise alarm and make me wonder why anyone would be supportive of a song glorifying stalking and revenge on a woman the way it is portrayed in this song. Although, it's also hard to say that people shouldn't like the song because Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" was also very popular and while it wasn't about stalking, it clearly was about revenge in a way that damaged personal property, which is wrong despite the circumstances of the song's premise. Both songs portray different ways of handling cheating and I think Carrie Underwood's song comes across as more normal because (and this is just my opinion) it seems people think women are likely to react in a way like she says in the song, such as keying the car and carving her name into the leather seats, so it doesn't seem as wrong to hear a song about this. Whereas, we don't often hear songs about a woman cheating and the consequences or ways to get revenge from a man's perspective like in Tyler Farr's "Redneck Crazy."
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