Making Light of Rape?

I am sure, by now, you've seen (or at least read about) Antoine Dodson's rant threatening the man who broke into Dodson's sister's room and attempted to rape her.

His rant, captured on video (below), instantly went viral.



This raises an interesting debate, entirely unique to the digital age.

On the one hand, an anti-rape message (although in rant form!) is a top youtube video, was posted on numerous blogs (and even MSM sites) and forwarded to countless inboxes.

On the other, the message is quickly overlooked because of, and this is arguably the only reason the video went viral in the first place, Dodson's humorous delivery.

It didn't take long before his message was "autotuned", which has resulted in a second top youtube video, a top track on itunes (which has in turn inspired two covers and another remix, also top itune hits).

The fact that people are now making money off of this is pretty tasteless.



However, I can't help but get the remix out of my head, humming it often. Especially now that the North Caroline A&T Blue and Gold Marching Band have adapted the remix into a pretty spectacular rendition.



The song is catchy, you can't deny it, and that has the potential of keeping the anti-rape message in the minds of the public.

But is that really happening? Are the kids of NC A&T aware of the original message? Are they being taught about gender equity and ant-domestic violence at the same time they're being taught amberture and keys?

Do the above examples dilute the original message (such as it was) or is it simply another distraction?

I'd like to believe it is the former, but I suspect it is the latter.

The Ravonettes: Boys Who Rape

Some very powerful and extreme sentiments from Danish music duo The Raveonettes.

Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed) off their latest record In And Out Of Control is song about, well, destroying boys who rape. It's a hard emotion not to agree with, specially after looking at the verse lyrics:

Three to one girl
How can you win
One horrid night
You hope that it's a bad dream

They rip you to shreds
Make you feel useless
You'll never forget
Those f*ckers stay in your head

Albeit a bit extreme. I guess it depends on your definition of 'destroyed' and whether or not you've been a victim of rape.

Personally, my version would go "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Punished Via The Judicial System Then Must Attend Educational Seminars On Gender Violence, Equity And Male Privilege, While Incarcerated)"

Regardless, the song is infectious and you can't help but be awed by the doo-wop outro of the title lyrics.

Warning! Graphic content below!



Maybe they mean destroyed by love?



Check out their myspace page here.

Rachel Brown - Learn To Love Me

I wouldn't normally post music that has a domestic violence message since they are almost always, even with the best of intentions, far too saccharine and emotive for my personal taste. Let's face it, I am a music snob.

And it was with this unfortunate bias that I clicked on a link in someone's twitter feed to Rachel Brown's video Learn To Love Me (I could not find it on youtube and failed to figure out how to embed it otherwise, but you can see it here) which is inspired by Brown's feelings that people should "place a higher priority on learning to love and value who you are over the love you give someone else."

I dig the old soul vibe and it immediately reminded me of one of my favorite songs, One Mo' Gin by D'Angelo; a song about longing for a past love but having the strength and courage to live your own life and let them live theirs (and no it's not "One Mo' Gin" by Chris Brown - which is song about being pushy and basically demanding a girl to get with him - stay classy CB!)