What people (particularly feminists) don’t understand is that these songs are often very good art. Great art does not encourage violence, it explores it. Male anger and jealousy at faithless women is a timeless theme and should be studied and taken seriously. And then, of course, these songs ROCK.
I still think Sting’s song is haunting, scary and wonderful. I just read that people are so dumb they misread it and have it sung at their weddings!
My band played a wedding once where the groom requested it. I stopped dead in my tracks and asked, "Really?!" He was pretty insistent on it so we played it. My singer couldn't help but camp it up a bit to emphasize the lyrics ;')