Last year, a feminine hygiene company found that 50 percent of British women surveyed prefer having sex while drunk. And 6 percent of respondents have exclusively had sex while drunk. The armchair psychoanalysis employed to interpret these results didn't determine whether women actually enjoy drunk sex better than sober sex, or whether getting drunk simply helped to facilitate the sex even happening. Do women get drunk to have better sex or to feel better about having sex? Enter Pop singer Kiely Williams, who is leading the charge in heralding the erotic benefits of blackout intercourse.

A music video has emerged for Williams' ode to extremely memorable sex you won't remember the next day, "Spectacular." (Thanks to commenter KiaJD for the tip). Behold, the eroticization of the drunk girl!

In "Spectacular," Williams sings:

Last I remember I was face down
Ass up, clothes off, broke off, dozed off
Even though I’m not sure of his name
He could get it again if he wanted
Cause the sex was spectacular
The sex was spectacular
The sex was spectacular
The sex was spectacular

In the video, Williams is ass up, clothes off and very much awake as she performs a sexy and fully enthusiastic dance to lyrics about her being asleep while a man she doesn't know has (spectacular) sex with her. In the dance sequence, Williams expresses how being a passed-out recipient of "sex" made her feel—she felt sexy, confident, daring, and in control. Our drunk-sex researchers chalked up a woman's preference for intoxicated sex to body issues. Williams, apparently, just thinks it's hot.

Like it or not, the image of the "drunk girl" occupies an interesting space in popular culture. She's part wild girl, a sexually adventurous young woman in a shy girl's body, who just needs a bit of liquid courage to silence her inhibitions and access her sexual side. She's part Asking For It, an easy target for sexual coercion and rape who deserves to be punished for letting her guard down. Now, she's a fetish, too. The soft-core exhibitionism of Girls Gone Wild has made way for a genre of porn, targeted at heterosexual men, which mines the erotic potential of incoherently drunk women who are alternately sexually aggressive or asleep (Google "drunk sex" to find out what I'm talking about). There is also, of course, the works of Jamie Foxx.

Given Williams' girl power group audience, it looks like the sexiness of passing out is now being sold directly to women, and not to their sex partners. To me, "Spectacular" is the ultimate achievement in projecting a man's desire onto a woman's sexuality. Williams' "spectacular" sex is so centered on her partner's pleasure that she doesn't even inconvenience him by staying awake for it—and when she wakes up, she reassures him that it was the best sex she's ever had. Then again, I suppose Girls Gone Wild set the bar pretty low when it convinced drunk women to provide masturbatory material for thousands of subscribers in exchange for a free hat.

Anti-Rape Anthem: As of late, The Sexist's Date Rape Anthem series has taken a welcome turn for the feel-good. Over the past few weeks, we've examined series of songs about rape that actually take a stand against the crime, instead of reinforcing the "nonconsensual sex in da club" trend. In order to bolster the list of the antis, a reader sent in "Unspoken Request" by Boysetsfire. She also noted that the song is "triggering but amazing."

Relevant Lyrics:

Failed coercion leads to intrusion
and the blood forever runs in her head
into her hand, between her legs
where his mind lies

Power drives him in to murder innocence
on the rack of his devices, vices and designs
she will never scrub the stains from her arms
from her neck, from her legs
dirt will remain as a reminder of his hateful face
reach in rip apart the inner fibers of her soul
boy you'll never know how it feels to fear the shame
feel free to walk down any dark street without fear
without shame no one is going to touch you
and you don't need protection
she shouldn't need protection!

and you can sit there with that stupid smile on your face
and try to convince me that you care
defined by your power, defined by her body
the innocence she feels, everybody else contains
it's lost it's gone, but I guess it doesn't matter anyway

. . . and if he ever cares, maybe he will feel ashamed
for everything he's stolen, for all the trust she gave
possessed and broken, she cries but it's not our problem
pull down your goddamn blinds

he will never think he's wrong
she will never feel quite right
you will never think he's wrong
you will never think you're wrong
she will never feel quite right

About that "Triggering" thing: First of all, it's refreshing to hear guys making music in a male-dominated genre speaking out about a crime that predominantly affects women. This is not simply a political statement. In a scene where artists and fans are predominantly male and sometimes under the influence, sexual assault is a very real possibility (and if you haven't read Jonathan Fischer's CP story about a record label taking a stand against alleged rapists in its ranks, you should). I also love how the song addresses the idea of rape as a larger social concern by directly calling out rape apologists in the audience: "you will never think he's wrong / you will never think you're wrong / she will never feel quite right."

That being said, how do we deal with anti-rape anthems with lyrics—the blood forever runs in her head / into her hand, between her legs / where his mind lies—that are likely to trigger victims of sexual assault? It's not that I require all my anti-rape anthems to be vague, upbeat club tracks—which, it should be noted, can also be disturbing to rape survivors. Several times on this blog, readers have asked me to invoke a "trigger warning" when speaking explicitly about sexual assault, but since rape is a constant topic of discussion on this blog, and every post is a potential trigger to someone, I've decided not to include any explicit warnings. But what about when we exit the world of sexual assault blogs and enter a medium where we don't expect to be bombarded with talk about rape—like, say, the radio? I do think it's worth examining whether some songs written by feminist allies can end up inflicting some unintentional damage on the group for which they're attempting to advocate.

On Nirvana's "Rape Me," commenter Jill wrote, "Cobain, for all of his faults, was very progressive and feminist. That said? I still find the song disturbing and don’t really listen to it, no matter what its intent." Jaded16 wrote, "I somehow never got the whole anti-rape sentiment in this song. Though Curt Cobain was a feminist, this song creeped me out the first (co-incidentally the last) time I heard this song. I intend to keep it that way." And Kripa hypothesized, "It’s kinda like Mad Men, where they showcase all the misogyny of the early 60s and the whole damn point of the show is to let us know how awful things used to be, but still, it creeps me out because I suspect that on a subconscious level, the producers are reveling in all that sexism.
So the song “Rape Me” is good in intent, not so good in execution, I guess?"

I don't think that "Unspoken Request" is reveling in sexism, but it is, to some extent, trading in shock value. Explicit lyrics can help to get the attention of people who don't often think about the problem of sexual assault; they're also likely to reach those people who will never forget their rape.

In the long history of date rape jams, this blog has yet to tackle the many tunes dedicated to statutory rapes. So let's take a look at a couple of odes to sex with minors—one in the pro-underage-sex camp, and another that's anti.

PRO: "Young Girl," by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, (Thanks to Rooster over at if i raise my voice for the suggestion).

Relevant Lyrics:

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl.
You're much too young, girl.

With all the charms of a woman
You've kept the secret of your youth
You led me to believe
You're old enough
To give me Love
And now it hurts to know the truth, Oh,
Beneath your perfume and make-up
You're just a baby in disguise

. . . Get out of here
Before I have the time
To change my mind
'Cause I'm afraid we'll go too far, Oh,
Young girl

[youtube:v=jItz-uNjoZA]

CON: Oingo Boingo's "Little Girls," a cautionary tale about chasing after a girl who is "just to little."

Relevant Lyrics:

I love little girls they make me feel so good
I love little girls they make me feel so bad
When they're around they make me feel
Like I'm the only guy in town
I love little girls they make me feel so good

They don't care if I'm a one way mirror
They're not frightened by my cold exterior

. . . Uh oh take a second take
Uh oh it's a mistake
Uh oh I'm in trouble
Uh oh the little girl was just too little
Too little, too little, too little
Isn't this what life's all about
Isn't this a dream come true
Isn't this a nightmare too...

So, What's It Going to Be?: On the surface, both Gary Puckett and Oingo Boingo express ambivalence about having sex with women who are too young to consent. When Puckett learns that the object of his affections is "too young," and has simply been tricking him into believing she is of age with her "perfume and make-up," he expresses that his continued attraction to the girl is "way out of line." He then cautions her that she "better run, girl" in order to make sure that she doesn't temp him into having sex with her anyway. But though the song is about avoiding statutory rape, Puckett is hardly shy about his true feelings on the subject. "Get out of here," he tells the girl, "before I have the time / to change my mind." Is that a threat? Plus, check the soaring, indulgent tone adopted here—way to romanticize your creepiness, dude.

Oingo Boingo, on the other hand, adopts a disturbing, frantic, totally fucking creepy tone in describing a man who is sexually attracted to little girls. That seems more appropriate, no? Lines like "They don't care if I'm a one way mirror / They're not frightened by my cold exterior" reiterate the idea that Oingo Boingo's narrator is unreliable, not heroic. But even this guy understands that what he's doing is wrong: "Uh oh, I'm in trouble / Uh oh the little girl was just too little."

Hold on to your backwards hats and creatively groomed goatees, ya'll, because anti-rape anthems are about to go rapcore:

Date Rape Anthem: downset.'s "Ritual," an anti-rape song that rages against the machine . . . of gender hatred. Thanks to reader Chris Graffeo for the tip.

Relevant Lyrics:

How can I stand in silence while you are raping my sister?

Ritual!

Throw it in the wind because I ain’t with that.
What have we done with mother, sister, daughter, lover?
Beat them down to submission, into that corner of constant fear.
Humanity reduced to a sexual commodity, objectification, pretty faces.
Molded imagery damn they drop the dirty mack demands.
She’s more than booty to me; bypass her sexuality.

Tradition, your sexism is what you want me to learn.
Surrender gender hatred, fade it to kill it, compassion returns.
1 out of 3, and they say my sisters are free, incarcerated by hatred.
Propagated by sodomy, continual ritual victimizing my sister.
Physical rape is psychological murder.

Ritual! Jenny! Ho! Slut! Trick! Bitch! Buddy!

So, What Do We Do With This: Wikipedia informs me that downset.'s "original moniker was "Social Justice," and this song's message is just about that subtle. These guys hate rape, and they do a pretty good job of explaining exactly why that's the case. Being a rapcore band in the early 90's often meant adopting an aggressively masculine posture, a la Korn and Limp Bizkit, so it's great to hear an aggressive gender-equality message in a genre marketed largely to men. And hey, at least it's not "rapecore."

But does it hold up on the level of the song? I'm specifically not a fan of rapcore, so I can't say with any certainty, but I would be remiss if I did not invoke the Hierarchy of Date Rape Jams here. What is the Heirarchy of Date Rape Jams, you say? Why, it is my unscientific* and poorly designed graph that charts where date-rape songs fall on the "sweetness" and "positivity" axes:

In my view, "Ritual" scores high on the positivity scale and middling on the sweetness scale, situating the song as significantly more anti-rape than Sublime, but a fair bit less aesthetically pleasing than, say, your Tribe Called Quest. What say you?

* Yeah, I like Rod Stewart.

OK. It's about time these Date Rape Anthems got down to serious business:

Date Rape Anthem: 7 Year Bitch's "Dead Men Don't Rape," another in our anti-rape anthem series, obviously. Thanks to commenter Shannon Drury for the tip.

Relevant Lyrics: Oh hell let's just hear all of them!

You ain't got the right tellin' me I'm uptight
And I'm not obligated to give in cause you're frustrated
No, my revenge is death, cause  you deserve the best
And I'm not turned on by your masculinity
Dead men don't rape

I don't have pity, not a single tear
For those who get joy from a woman's fear
I'd rather get a gun and just blow you away
Then you'll learn firsthand
Dead men don't rape

You're getting sucked into society's sickest
Don't go out alone you might get raped
But not by a dead man 'cuz
Dead men don't rape

You ain't got the right tellin' me I'm uptight
Dead men don't rape

So, What Do We Do With This One? "Dead Men Don't Rape" endorses similar anti-rape tactics to one of our previous date rape anthems, the Raveonettes' "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)": death and destruction for the world's rapists. But there are aesthetic differences. While The Raveonettes' dreamy indie pop serenades listeners with the polite suggestion that boys who rape "should" be destroyed, 7 Year Bitch's rapist-elimination plan takes a more aggressive approach. Because vocalist Selene Vigil intends on shooting rapists dead before they can ever feign sexual "frustration" ever again. DEAD MEN DON'T RAPE.

For comparison:

[youtube:v=6DpulDH89IE]

So, which do you think is a more effective anti-rape message:

(a) The Raveonettes' attempt to lull the listener into rape awareness.

(b)  7 Year Bitch scares-the-living-shit-out-of-you punk approach.

(c) Raveonettes until Memorial Day, 7 Year Bitch until Labor Day

(d) Neither. Violence is never the answer, mmkay?

(e) I don't care about rape! Why am I still reading this blog!

Date Rape Anthem: Juelz Santana's "Back to the Crib," featuring the no. 1 guy who really shouldn't be participating in tributes to sexual assault, Chris Brown. [Thanks to Megan Thomas-Melly for the recommendation].

Relevant Lyrics:

Shorty said she wanna roll with me
I said yeah
She don’t know that we going back to the crib
She know that I’m on her
She don’t know that we going back to the crib
Back to the crib, yeah

She wanna roll with me
She wanna go with with me
But she dont know I'm tryin to take her back home with me

. . . Lil mama we can birthday text
Yes I said text
But I know you know what I really meant (sex).

Why It's So Rapey: Here, Santana and Brown are essentially admitting that they are in the business of luring women back to their caves under false pretenses. Are you under the impression that you and Juelz are going to be engaging in some texting this evening, perhaps after rolling out of the club and on to a public second location? Guess again! You will be sexing this evening, in Juelz's crib. You should have known what he really meant.

But Is It Good? According to the hierarchy of date-rape jams,"Back to the Crib" is one of the most dangerous odes to predatory sexual behavior out there, because goddamn if I can't get the sweet melody of "she don't know we goin' back to the crib" out of my head. "The song is so catchy and of course I love it, I am meant to love it," writes Thomas-Melly. "but the lyrics are basically about raping someone."

I'm grateful to commenter DJ Ri-Mix, who offers up another date rape jam for our collection: "Shots" by LMFAO and featuring Lil Jon. This one is a doozy, ladies!

Date Rape Anthem: LMFAO's "Shots," an ode to repeatedly ingesting one-ounce doses of liquor. And cock-sucking!

Relevant Lyrics:

Shots shots shots shots shots shots
Shots shots shots shots shots
Shots shots shots shots shots

Everybody
The ladies love us / When we pour shots
They need an excuse / To suck our cocks
We came to get crunk / How ‘bout you?
Bottles up / Let’s go round two

Why It’s So Rapey: Hold up—that was round one? We're only at round one, and all the ladies who previously had no intention of sucking LMFAO's cocks have already found an excuse to do so? WTF happens in round two?

The women come around everytime I’m pourin’ shots
Their panties hit the ground everytime I give em shots
So cups in the air, everybody lets take shots.

In-da-club vaginal penetration, I'm guessing.

I kind of get LMFAO: They're a couple of hipster hip-hop boys, so when they do shit like name themselves "LMFAO," and appear on the Kardashian sisters' reality television show, and go to Canada, and rap about receiving oral sex from drunk chicks, their tongues are at least a little bit in-cheek. Still: Proudly proclaiming that women "need an excuse to suck our cocks" and trade their panties for liquor isn't exactly LMFAO-out-loud funny—it's actually been done before, guys, and peppering your babe-a-licious video with some hipster sensibilities doesn't magically transform a Lil Jon song into satire.

Have you always wanted to blame your casual sexual encounters on the Goose, but the words just never came out right? Put another way: Do you have a bunch of date-rapey sentiments to unload upon the general public, but don't want to have to use your recognizable, human voice? The "I Am T-Pain" iPhone application is here to help.

According to Pitchfork's review of T-Pain's new democratization of the Auto-Tune, the function "can make anyone's voice sound like that of a sex-addicted robot. I just tried it; it works." T-Pain has plenty of sketchy drunk sex jams to choose from, but the sketchiest is his lasting contribution to Jamie Foxx's Blame It (On the Alcohol). Give your $2.99 to T-Pain, and let's review:

Girl I know you feel good, just like you look
Couple more shots you open up like a book
I ain´t trippin (cause ima read ya)
Shawty I ain´t trippin  (I jus wanna please ya)
I'mma take a shot of Nuvo, shawty then you know
What's goin' down we can go and kick it like judo.

Ya know what I mean:
Shawty got drunk and thought it all was a dream,
So I made her say I, I, I, I!
Now she got her hand on my leg
And got my seats all wet in my ride (all wet in my ride)
All over my ride (all over my ride),
She look me dead in the eye (eye, eye, eye)
Then my pants got bigga and she already knew what to figga
Had her looking at her boyfriend like, fuck that nigga!

That's right, ladies: When T-Pain opens you up like a book in his ride, but you are so drunk you think you are sleeping, don't worry! You are allowed to wake up the next morning and blame it on the Goose (alternately, you may blame it on the 'Tron). What are we not to blame it on? You guessed it: T-Pain.

What says summer like boozy, blacked-out, ambiguously consensual fucking? Boozy, blacked-out, ambiguously consensual fucking that clocks in at 28 minutes and three seconds!

Burning Star Core was so inspired by everyone's favorite date-rape jam, Jamie Foxx's "Blame It (On the Alcohol), that they've compiled the song's many remixes into one epic 30-minute alcohol-soaked sex anthem. Download it here.

The song trades in so many booze and sex references, it's sometimes difficult to know what category of fluid these MCs are busy name-checking. But who caaaaaares: the important thing is that we all drink more until strangers are willing to hook up with us.

And so, after the jump: the ill-advised Blame it (On the Alcohol) Ultimate Remix drinking game:

Cover your beer with a napkin when you hear any of the following Alcohol references:

* drunk
* drank
* Goose
* bottle
* knocked out
* gin and tonic
* shots
* fluid
* designated driver
* vomit

Avoid eye contact with the closest creep when you hear any of the following Sex references:

* pocket rocket
* fucking
* ass
* bikini
* wet
* fluid
* bone
* pimp
* Barack
* Beyonce

* Disclaimer: Nobody ever play this game.

Photo by Shiny Things

Date Rape Anthem: A Tribe Called Quest's "The Infamous Date Rape"

Relevant Lyrics:

I won't cry over spilled milk
If you won't let me take you to the Hilt
I don't wanna bone you that much
That I would go for the unforbidden touch
I'm not the type that would go for that
I'll have to fetch a brand new cat
Baby, baby, baby I don't wanna be rude
I know because of your bloody attitude
I know why you act that way
It usually happens on the 28th day
I respect that crazily
When you're done with the pads can you come check me
This ain't a joint to disrespect you
Because one head ain't better than two
Check it out

Why It's Rapey: Critics have disagreed as to whether this track, off 1991's The Low End Theory, furthers misogyny or simply comments on it. How do we deal with a song that, on the one hand, discourages date rape, but on the other, assumes that the woman only doesn't want to have sex because she's bleeding out of her vagina?

Professor Geoffrey Sirc, in his defense of teaching rap in writing classes, quotes the work of a student named Taika. Taika attributes this disconnect to a "code of the street, that if applied to rap music will explain many of the misunderstood lyrics." Taika writes:

I evaluated the 'Infamous Date Rape' using the code. I looked for a message inside the message and came out with something much stronger that what is on the surface. That is what we as a nation of people need to learn how to do when it come to rap because if you judge rap without the code you are missing a valuable message and sometimes even a warning that is in rap music.

And so, you have the "wrong time of the month" joke layered on top of the warning: "I don't wanna bone you that much / That I would go for the unforbidden touch." But A Tribe Called Quest's ambivalence toward the issue extends beyond period jokes. The song details two "date rape" experiences. First, Q Tip leads with a verse declaring "Listen to the rhyme, it's a black date fact / Percentile rate of date rape is fat," and suggests how men can do their part to prevent it: "If the vibe ain't right, huh, ya leavin." The next verse is less promising: Phife details an enthusiastically consensual sexual encounter which ends with a false reporter: "girly girl cried rape, yo, I didn't really need it."

On the one hand, the song suggests that men can, and should, take responsibility for preventing rape. On the other, it furthers the idea that women only object to rape "when the meow is completed." I think we might be in need of a third, female perspective here—as Q Tip says, "This ain't a joint to disrespect you /
Because one head ain't better than two."