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I’ve been writing a lot about date rape in popular culture lately, particularly in music. Most of my treatment has involved parsing the lyrics of popular songs with rape-scenario undertones: Asher Roth’s soft indictment of college date rape; A Tribe Called Quest’s anti-date rape, menstruation-joke opus; Slick Rick’s anal-themed rape song. But do the songs at least sound good? And does that make them worse?

Read More “A Hierarchy of Date-Rape Jams” »

Take It With a Grain of Assault: Palmer finds humor in her rape.

Hint: Frat boys, check; Victims, no.

Amanda Palmer’s new single, “Oasis,” is a sunny tune about a tumultuous time in a teenager’s life. After enduring rape, abortion, and a schoolwide slut-shaming, the girl receives an autographed headshot of her favorite band—Oasis—in the mail, and everything is again peachy. On her blog, Palmer posted a note from her British record label, Roadrunner, saying the video—which features a brief comic rape scene—had met with “fierce opposition” from the U.K.’s major music networks:

Meanwhile, back home, Jamie Foxx’s latest single, “Blame it (On the Alcohol),” is currently No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its video, featuring Ron Howard, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Samuel L. Jackson, enjoys a heavy rotation on U.S. MTV—despite an equally frothy date-rape theme. The song details Foxx’s pursuit of an increasingly drunk lady. The track also features T. Pain, who chimes through his hallmark vocoder: “Couple more shots you open up like a book.” The song is, essentially, an attempted date rape by a movie star and a dude who sounds like a robot:

Who is allowed to make light of rape?

Read More “Who Can Make A Rape Joke?” »