Yeah like she just says “I *ought* to say no” is pretty clear than she wants to, she’s just afraid of what her parents and neighbors will think.

But there is even lines like, “I really ought to say no, no, no now,” like half way through the song. Which lets us know that she also doesn’t feel that she was saying no. She counters her own resistance and that is true even without his contribution. This is a young couple who want to have sex and are looking for…

I’ve always heard it this way — as consensual.

True, in the ‘40s “no” was slang for “yes”. The modern word “no”, with the meaning it has today, hadn’t been invented yet.

Song itself: Not remotely upsetting to me and never has been.

so where do you draw the line though?
>”I personally would just rather raise my child in a world where they weren’t exposed to.... ”<
could be applied to a lot of things about the past that were a whole hell of a lot more disagreeable than this damned song, but that its CRUCIAL to expose people to so that we can at…

My only real response to that is if what you’re saying is true then we wouldn’t need to update older works of art (movies, books, songs, etc) at all, which I understand is essentially your point of view. I personally would just rather raise my child in a world where they weren’t exposed to cutsey old songs from an era…

Technically, the 1940s are closer chronologically to the 1800s than they are to today.

While we can’t know the author’s intent for sure, “what’s in this drink” most likely, for the time period, meant there was more liquor or an additional liquor that the drinker wasn’t expecting rather than an exclamation of the delicious flavor. Remember, this was a time when drinking scotch before bed nightly was a…

When my son was a teenager, he referred to this as “that date rape song”. He also refers to Frank Sinatra Christmas songs as “songs to kill yourself to! Most depressing Christmas ever!”

The line “I ought to say no no no. At least I’m gonna say that I tried” is really the deciding factor. She knows she should say no to save face, and will basically blame him for it, but she wants to stay so dammit she’s going to.

Well to Jezzies, a man saying hi to a woman in any setting that isn’t a phone app is technically assault, sooooo....

Is there anything in the world funnier than Mac in that scene?

And Lady Gaga + Joseph Gordon-Levitt = fantastic and wonderful.

I think what complicates things is that the norms of dating back them really are against modern sensibilities. What we call rape now back then was seen as boys will be boys. It’s was a woman’s job to say no, and a man’s job to persist. And neither of them labeled it rape, even if it was rape.

I’ve always liked this song so the recent backlash against it saddens me. It’s pretty clear from the perspective of a person in the time and place it was written that the woman isn’t being forced into anything she isn’t into (ie, “staying” and whatever that implies).

Even worse, the song was originally called “Black Pussy.”

The stigma that still applies today in some areas of America that for a single girl to spend the night with someone is scandalous and inappropriate? People were still sleeping in seperate beds in the movies in the 40s — America wasn't exactly a bastion of sexual enlightenment.

Because this is Jezebel. Reasonableness has no place here. :)