I've never really listened to the lyrics of "Shots" by LMFAO (yes, that is their actual name) until recently when I was once again hitting up the classy bars of West Chester, PA. In particular, these lines disturbed me.
The ladies love us
when we pour shots
they need an excuse
to suck our cocks
The women come around everytime I'm pourin' shots
Their panties hit the ground everytime I give em shots
The music video was also being broadcast on a huge, wall-size projection screen, putting the bodies of svelte, tiny women in bikinis (all of whom had more or less the same skin tone, despite being different ethnicities) being sprayed with super soakers and doing shots and fawning all over these heinously ugly men with no lyrical content.
What bothers me especially about these lines is the fact that it completely nullifies the fact that these women might have desires of their own. Hell, maybe they actually WANT to suck your cocks or to drop their panties. But attributing these actions solely to their consumption of shots makes the sexual wants and needs of these women arbitrary. It takes away their agency and replaces it with drunken mistakes as the only source of sexual experience.
On a similar topic of being in totally un-Smith places, I went to Point Pleasant Beach, NJ yesterday. I have some weird affinity for the Jersey Shore that developed long before the reality show; I grew up going to Wildwood every summer, and despite the fact that it's crowded and dirty and full of screaming kids, I love it. It also provides blog fodder!
The shore in particular showcases extreme ends of hetero-normative appearance and behavior. The majority of the women were super-tan, super-thin, scantily-clad with their hair did (huge and Jersey), nails on, and a full face of makeup despite the nigh-90 degree weather. They wore high gladiator style heels and extraordinarily tight pants, displaying an almost grotesque version of femininity with no regard to the discomfort they must've felt. And even as I somewhat pitied them, I felt severely under-dressed, with my bare face and cut offs and flip flops, which indicates only how strong the desire to blend in with the norm on display really is.
I can't speak to how the male appearance of how it makes one feel, being female bodied myself, but the (young) men were all jacked, tanned, and possibly juiced (Snooki, it is a land of plenty for you). Nearly all wore wife beaters or popped collars, had deep tans, and walked with the weight-room-jock swagger that screams "my arms are so large and buff I can't put them down by my sides."
One thing I can say to Point Pleasant's benefit was its multicultural air: white people were close to the minority, and I saw women in hijabi and saris, families speaking Spanish and Portuguese and Hindi. It was a nice contrast to the white-washed, only Irish atmosphere of, say, Sea Isle City.
Sorry if this post is a little scattered. My brain is fried from the Jersey.
Much love,
The Albright Sheriff
I also had an interesting experience with this (lovely) song. I was at a bar in Philly a few months ago. When the DJ played this song, two girls got up on the bar and started pouring the mixed drink "shots" into people mouths (mostly guys). After a little "encouragement " (peer pressure is great right!), I opened up my mouth, and let one of them pour something sugary and not very alcoholic into my mouth.
ReplyDeleteI just sat there thinking "is this what the college social scene has turned into?" (which is a question I have asked myself frequently this semester). These girls were probably students at UPenn and yet they were standing on a bar pouring shots. It just amazes me the contradictions that we have to navigate everyday. (Although generally I like it b/c it gives us the opportunity to change things.)
I was similarly creeped out by the lyrics to Blame It (On the Alcohol). Especially:
ReplyDeleteAy she say she usually don't
But I know that she front
Cause shawty know what she want
But she dont wanna seem like she easyyy
Although it may be true that women sometimes don't want to say yes to sex because they are worried about their reputation, the idea that some guy in a bar just psychically knows that is the motive rather than that she ACTUALLY doesn't want do whatever you want her to do with you really bothers me. Especially when combined with the message that you should just get such a woman really really drunk in order to obtain consent: "Couple more shots you open up like a book"
Which of course is not to say that women can't drink and have sex, but I do really really believe that there is a limit. And when a woman is dizzy and spilling her drink all over the place like the one in the song, and she was not interested in sex with you in a sober state, get her a glass of water - not naked in a strange room.