"Take It Like a Man" is a pop-dance track written by
Cher
Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...
,
Tim Powell, Tebey Ottoh and Mary Leay. Originally planned as the sophomore single from Cher's twenty-fifth studio album ''
Closer to the Truth'', it was ultimately released as the third one. "Take It Like a Man" was released on digital platforms on November 8, 2013
and as a
12" vinyl single on December 16, 2013.
An
EP featuring eight remixes with a total length of 1:00:33, was released on January 28, 2014.
Outside of the US, "Take It Like a Man" debuted and peaked at number 48 on the UK Physical Singles chart, staying in the chart for one week.
Promotion and performances
On December 9, 2013, in order to promote "Take It Like a Man", Cher confirmed on her official
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
account that the single would be featured on the setlist of her 2014
Dressed to Kill Tour, set to start on March 22, 2014 in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...
.
Music video
A music video for the 7th Heaven remix was released on November 20, 2013. It garnered media attention for featuring
Andrew Christian underwear models as well as several
porn
Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...
actors. Models are first shown washing cars with each other's bodies and partying then on a catamaran in the middle of the ocean; they shipwreck and thus get saved by a crew of muscular life guards. The music video ends with a
twerk-off between the ''Tasty & Yummy'' crew and the ''Hot Bottoms'' in an empty storehouse. Footage for the clip was provided by an Andrew Christian underwear commercial.
Cher shared a link to the
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
video on her official
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
and
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
accounts. British
LGBT
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
website
OUT
Out or OUT may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
*Out (1957 film), ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
*Out (1982 film), ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander
*O ...
praised the effort, stating that Cher "truly out-gayed herself with this one". Marc Felion from ''
Feast of Fun'' sympathetically commented that "this could possibly be the gayest video ever". The music video has created some controversy, being labeled by YouTube with a warning recommending viewing only by those 18 or over. As of September 25 2017, "Take It Like a Man" reached over 1.4 million views.
Critical reception
''
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
'' highlighted the song. ''
Montreal Gazette
''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
It is the only English-language daily newspape ...
'' called ''Take It Like a Man'' a "coy double-entendre" and " shimmering dancefloor swooner".
LGBT
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
website ''So So Gay'' was positive: "The vocoder is still very much in play (...). It's so preposterously Hi-NRG with Eurodance beats that it's like going ten rounds with
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1985 and 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson i ...
whilst high on
poppers
Poppers are recreational drugs belonging to the alkyl nitrite family of chemical compounds. When fumes from these substances are inhaled, they act as potent vasodilators, producing mild euphoria, warmth, and dizziness. Most effects have a r ...
."
[Review by So So Gay](_blank)
Retrieved 9 December 2013 ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' deemed the song "essential" and called it a "fiery, heavenly heave". ''
Duke Chronicle
''The Chronicle'' is a daily student newspaper at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. It was first published as ''The Trinity Chronicle'' on December 19, 1905. Its name was changed to ''The Chronicle'' when Trinity College was renamed ...
'' was less favorable: "catchy, heavily auto-tuned piece perfectly suited for a dance floor or a girls' night out. The lyrical meaning is relatively arbitrary; to some extent, it's simply words set to a beat." About.com went back in time " "Take It Like a Man" features Believe-era auto-tune effects."
''Philly'' magazine was mixed by calling it "grooving" and "an overt wink to the gay boys who have kept Cher afloat for decades, even if the whole song sounds like she's trapped in that plexiglass booth she stood in for the "Believe" video".
Track listings

*''Take It Like a Man'' – 12" single / digital single:
#"Take It Like a Man" – 4:10
#"Take It Like a Man" (Over-The-Top Mix) – 6:55
#"Take It Like a Man" (Over-The-Top Edit) – 3:38
#"Take It Like a Man" (7th Heaven Mix) – 7:52
#"Take It Like a Man" (7th Heaven Edit) – 4:41
#"Take It Like a Man" (Over-The-Top Instrumental) – 6:54
*''Take It Like a Man – The Remixes'' – digital EP:
Take It Like a Man (Remixes) iTunes
Retrieved 17 February 2014
#"Take It Like A Man" ( Tony Moran Destination Club Remix) – 9:20
#"Take It Like A Man" (JRMX Club Remix) – 7:16
#"Take It Like A Man" (Paulo & Jackinsky Club Remix) – 7:54
#"Take It Like A Man" (Dany Cohiba Remix) – 6:17
#"Take It Like A Man" (Nikno Club Remix) – 6:29
#"Take It Like A Man" (DJ Laszlo Club Remix) – 8:40
#"Take It Like A Man" (Myke Rossi Club Remix) – 7:02
#"Take It Like A Man" (Tony Moran Dub Remix) – 7:35
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Release history
References
{{Cher singles
2013 singles
2013 songs
Cher songs
Hi-NRG songs
Warner Records singles
Songs written by Cher
Songs written by Tim Powell (producer)
Song recordings produced by Mark Taylor (record producer)