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the one where ross says a slur (infosec.pub)

submitted 1 day ago by Deceptichum@quokk.au to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world

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[–] Goatboy@lemmy.today 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The quintessential example. Rocky Horror is another.

I'd also include the controversy around "Baby It's Cold Outside".

[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

I’d also include the controversy around “Baby It’s Cold Outside”.

The irony is that in fully understanding the song and the culture of the time it was written in, the song is literally the opposite of what the outrage junkies made of it. They think it's a song about a guy keeping a woman at his place against her will (the notion that he actually drugged her drink (and in such a way that she could tell by tasting it) is especially hilarious) through subtle intimidation, and that rape is apparently imminent.

But in fact, it's a very empowering (especially for its time, ~80 years ago) song about a woman who defies social/cultural norms/rules to do what she wants and go ahead and spend the night at this guy's place:

All of her 'protests' have to do with her reputation specifically, she talks about how she "should"/"must"/"ought to" leave, but never once says "I want to leave"
"What's in this drink" was a blame-shifting/plausible deniability tactic, not too different from how people blame their actions on alcohol even today. Although the song is very progressive, she doesn't completely abandon the social rules, so she adds this bit as an 'excuse' for the fact that she is absolutely and willfully spending the night with this guy. For the same reason, she 'can't' simply straight-up 'say yes' to him; it'd be unladylike to accept such an offer, after all. So she does the stuff in the first bullet point instead.

More detail here.

P.S. Also, the original songwriter wrote the song specifically for him and his wife to perform together for friends at a housewarming party. It wasn't even considered to be released commercially until it became a huge hit at parties that they were invited to specifically to perform it. The idea that it's a predatory date rape song is extra ridiculous with that context, aside from everything else.

[–] Goatboy@lemmy.today 1 points 11 hours ago

Yes, that's all true.

But its no different from the other examples I gave. All three of those are empowering art that modern listeners take out of context and get offended by.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If I stay people will think we had sex!

OMG! He's pressuring her into sex!

[–] null@lemmy.org -1 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

The song has a line where the girl asks what's in her drink. You can interpret that however you want.

[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You can interpret that however you want.

Not if you want to be accurate:

“Hey what’s in this drink” was a stock joke at the time, and the punchline was invariably that there’s actually pretty much nothing in the drink, not even a significant amount of alcohol.

See, this woman is staying late, unchaperoned, at a dude’s house. In the 1940’s, that’s the kind of thing Good Girls aren’t supposed to do — and she wants people to think she’s a good girl. The woman in the song says outright, multiple times, that what other people will think of her staying is what she’s really concerned about: “the neighbors might think,” “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious,” “there’s bound to be talk tomorrow.” But she’s having a really good time, and she wants to stay, and so she is excusing her uncharacteristically bold behavior (either to the guy or to herself) by blaming it on the drink — unaware that the drink is actually really weak, maybe not even alcoholic at all. That’s the joke. That is the standard joke that’s going on when a woman in media from the early-to-mid 20th century says “hey, what’s in this drink?” It is not a joke about how she’s drunk and about to be raped. It’s a joke about how she’s perfectly sober and about to have awesome consensual sex and use the drink for plausible deniability because she’s living in a society where women aren’t supposed to have sexual agency.

[–] null@lemmy.org -2 points 10 hours ago

I'm not debating that at all. I'm merely pointing out that we live in a post-Cosby society.

[–] Goatboy@lemmy.today 3 points 15 hours ago

She knows exactly what's in the drink.

The context is that she doesn't want to leave.