lyrics offensiveness

[clauclauclaudia]

Everything below the cut is a query about how offensive some song lyrics are. Click or no, it's up to you.

Just try to see it, and you will soon agree, señors
Why invite regret, when you can get the sort of rape you'll never ever forget?

You can get the rape emphatic, you can get the rape polite
You can get the rape with Indians (a very charming sight)
You can get the rape on horseback, they all say it's new and gay!
So you see the sort of rape depends on what you pay,
It Depends On What You Pay

[Poll #892088]

Just try to see it, and you will soon agree, señors
Why invite regret, when you can order an abduction you will never forget?

An abduction that's emphatic, an abduction that's polite
An abduction done with Indians (a truly charming sight)
An abduction done on horseback, they all say it's new and gay!
So you see the sort of rape depends on what you pay,
It Depends On What You Pay

---

Okay, next question:

There were...
Hottentots with rotten tots and baskets on each mother's head
And Zulus, they concluded, never understood a thing they said
Effendis[okay, this word is wrong, anyone know what it is?] who were ganging up on natives who were being fed
And Swazi who were goosing all the Bushmen in the line ahead

It was dreadful!

The Pygmies had their noses stuck in everybody's business
While Watusis had their business stuck in everybody's nose
But the truth of the matter, if you really want to know
Was that everybody's business was about to decompose

[Poll #892089]

---

Last question...

Tell you about them sobbin' women who lived in the Roman days
It seems that they all went swimming while their men was off to graze
Well, a Roman troop was riding by and saw them in their me-oh-my
So they took them all back home to dry, least that's what Plutarch says

Oh, yes, them a-women was sobbin', sobbin', sobbin' fit to be tied
Every muscle was throbbin', throbbin' from that riotious ride
Seems they cried and kissed and kissed and cried
All over that Roman countryside
So don't forget that when you're taking a bride
Sobbin' fit to be tied, from that riotious ride

...

When their men folk went to fetch them the women would not be fetched
It seems when the Romans catch them their lady friends stay catched
Now, let this be, because it's true, a lesson to the likes of you
Rough them up like them there Romans do, or else they'll think you're tetched

[Poll #892090]


EDIT: Want context? Check my initial comment.

A friend found this modern re-enactment of the third song on youtube. It's notable for being an actual family of men, and for a slavish devotion to the original blocking and camera angles. Also, Cheryl explained the story context for it better than I did.

... this leads me to hunt youtube versions of the other songs: It Depends on What You Pay, A Difficult Transition

Comments

for those who are curious...

[clauclauclaudia]

The first song, It Depends on What You Pay, is from The Fantasticks. Two fathers think setting up the daughter of one to be be rescued by the son of the other from an "attempted rape--I know you prefer abduction, but the proper term is rape!" perpetrated by El Gallo, also the narrator of the show. The fathers are shown to be fairly foolish throughout the show.

The second song, A Difficult Transition, is from Nunsense, a musical put on by--the conceit is--a bunch of nuns who sing and dance and make fun of themselves for singing and dancing. The show is gently satirical of Catholic school upbringings, and perhaps there is some irony to this song I can't detect, to do with the charities of Catholic Americans several decades ago and my mom being taught to pray for all the Communists who were bound for hell. But I can't detect it.

But I'm going to hell anyway because any time I've seen the show, the choreography for "Watusis had their business stuck in everybody's nose" has cracked me up.

The third song, Sobbin' Women, is from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The manly man who is the lead singer has successfully "abducted" himself a loving wife and figures this is the best advice to give his younger brothers, who are snowed in up in a pass with the women in question. But the men are shown to be idiots--the women successfully fend the men off and treat them like, well, misbehaving boys until they learn their lesson and court the women properly.

So, hm. I have no point, but I wonder if context changes anyone's opinions.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I'm largely with feste_sylvain. With the first one, I thought it depended on context, though I don't find it very appealing.

I didn't find the second one quaint, but as a repository of ethnic stereotype goes, it's not awfully redolent.

And the third one was repellent.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I only know the context for the last one, and actually, the context makes the song worse, because good lord was that movie a heaping bundle of clap trap and stupid people. (I first saw it in adulthood-- I imagine I would have loved it as a kid.)

[skreeky]

My thoughts on context:

The context does not make any of these less offensive, so it doesn't change my mind.

What it does is explain why the author was being offensive. If the object is to make a character disliked, or set up a feeling of extreme danger, then this is exactly what the author needs to do.

It is precisely BECAUSE the song is offensive that it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

There is a difference between thinking something is offensive and thinking that it cannot serve any purpose and should not exist. It is offensive? Of course. Is it appropriate? Different question. For the purpose of establishing which characters are "bad," yes. That's the point.

icon lust!

[last-plane-out.livejournal.com]

You have no idea who I am. I really don't know who you are, either.

nonetheless!

I FREAKED when I saw the Rosencrantz/Guildenstern icon. OMFG!

Then as I go to leave a comment I discover you have SiP and Sandman and Much ado icons! gaaaah!

::thud::