Right, to get one thing straight – I’m not saying, or assuming, or even meaning to imply the song I’m about to talk about excuses or condones rape. (What a way to start the first entry in a while, hey?) I’m not saying Katy Perry is on a one-woman conspiracy to persuade all the teenage girls and boys of the world that the best way to be sexual is to offer themselves up passively to the stronger party. I’m just… mildly perturbed. Maybe it’s just good old feminist wolf-crying again. Or maybe there is something slightly creepy about the lyrics to her soon-to-be-released-in-the-UK song ‘E.T.’…
Have a look at the lyrics:
“Take Me/Ta-Ta-Take Me/Wanna Be Your Victim/Ready For Abduction”
Right. So I get that the point of the song is that she’s imagining her hot new lover is an alien, so his/her/non-gender-specific its (it’s an alien, it could be anything. It might not even have gender, after all) ways of lovin’ are straaaaange. Still. Anyone else find the line “wanna be your victim” just a bit too passive to sit comfortably?
It gets better:
The delightful Kanye West gets a little moment to rap by himself, and politely tells his/her/its (again, he’s playing the Alien in this scenario) human lover (here played by Katy Perry) that:
“I’ma disrobe you/Then I’ma probe you/See I abducted you/So I tell you what to do”
Okay. I don’t want to read too much into this, but seriously? I don’t give a damn which way round the genders are singing it, I don’t like this message. Yeah, so S&M is fun, and being bossed around is fun and can be/is a turn on. Implied consent (or given consent) is important, and a song like this, which will have/has an audience of millions worries me.
No, I’m not going to suggest, and I’m not trying to say that it’s either condoning or implying rape, but it’s got a pretty dodgy, unpleasant undertone however you look at it. But maybe that’s what Alien Sex is like? Maybe it’s all about the power and the lack of consent, and all that is sexy now and no-one told me? I guess I’m a feminist, so maybe I missed that memo…
Oh, and one more thing, which maybe struck shadows at me for more personal reasons and is probably totally harmless:
“They Say/Be Afraid/You’re Not Like The Others/Futuristic Lover/Diff’rent DNA/They Don’t Understand You”
Right. So this probably is me reading too much into this. But warning bells start screaming in my head the minute anyone starts claiming that either they or someone they’re besotted with is somehow magically different from everyone else and horribly, horribly misunderstood. (Earlier in that part of the song, Human Katy asks Alien Kanye if he’s the Devil or an Angel…) Usually, in my experience, when someone starts claiming that they’re somehow supernaturally bad or good, and totally misunderstood, there’s something more sinister going on.
It’s a prime tactic of manipulative people everywhere (see also: whatsisface Vampire-guy in Twilight). Telling the person you’re isolating that the reason their friends all hate you is because you’re special and they don’t understand you is a brilliant way to cut them off from people who would otherwise be able to protect them.
But maybe that’s speaking too much from experience and Katy just means that her new Alien lover is just really weird…
Not a fan of either of the people you mentioned, but:
“Take Me/Ta-Ta-Take Me/Wanna Be Your Victim/Ready For Abduction”
Sounds clearly like an instruction to me. You seem to imply that you think there’s an element of non-consensual-ness to it. How on earth do you reach that conclusion?
“So this probably is me reading too much into this”
Yes. Yes, it probably is.
Unlike Dickie, I do think it’s a bit of a weird song. Peculiar in its choice of words… but I also agree with Dickie, that perhaps the song is open to interpretation…
Interesting regardless.