Friday, April 29, 2016

Hunter or hunted?

Now, I am convinced that one of the best places to study human socio-sexuality is the arts, music in particular. You can learn a lot from the various ways men think about their approach to women as it is unintentionally revealed in their art. Are they reverential, are they contemptuous, are they masterful, or are they fearful?

Consider the case of Joe Jonas. A Disney child star, handsome, but not particularly masculine, he is rich and famous, but has been regarded as somewhat of a joke musically. But he doesn't exactly lack confidence.



Hugely catchy song, obviously. After Prince's death, I talked to one of the members of Psykosonik and we both commented on how it was recognizable as an instahit even before it got to the big chorus. As for Jonas, he's obviously accustomed to attention and unlike a Robert Smith (Gamma) or Ricky Martin (Lambda), he's neither uncomfortable nor distracted when surrounded by pretty women in bikinis. (Watch a Ricky Martin video sometime, given his Latin background, it's remarkable that women ever thought he was on the market, so to speak.)

Now consider the lyrics.

See you walking 'round like it's a funeral
Not so serious, girl; why those feet cold?
We just getting started; don't you tip toe, tip toe


He's not waiting for the girl to notice him, he's approaching her, challenging her, and negging her.

Waste time with a masterpiece, don't waste time with a masterpiece (huh!)
You should be rolling with me, you should be rolling with me (ah)
You're a real life fantasy, you're a real life fantasy (huh!)
But you're moving so carefully; let's start living dangerously

He's still challenging her, and while he's complimentary, he's pushing her and daring her to go beyond her boundaries. Women love to be pushed and hate to be considered sticks-in-the-mud, so the juxstaposition of carefully with dangerously is masterful.

Talk to me, baby
I'm going blind from this sweet, sweet craving, whoa
Let's lose our minds and go fucking crazy
Ah ya ya ya ya I keep on hoping we'll eat cake by the ocean

Here he's giving her the excuse to cut loose and abandon her anti-slut defenses. Notice that he doesn't hide his attaction to her or play it cool. This is a straight-up frontal assault.

Walk for me, baby
I'll be Diddy, you'll be Naomi, whoa
Let's lose our minds and go fucking crazy
Ah ya ya ya ya I keep on hoping we'll eat cake by the ocean

Walk for, not walk with. He then presents an analogy in which he is in charge and she is submissive to him. 

God damn
See you licking frosting from your own hands
Want another taste, I'm begging, "Yes, ma'am."
I'm tired of all this candy on the dry land, dry land

More compliments, but they're crass and implicitly sexual. He claims to be begging, but really, he's demanding and implying that she's offering it to him, and contrasting her to all the women he's had before, so many that he's tired of them. Furthermore, the dry land contrast suggests that she is more than a little bit eager to pursue "cake by the ocean", which of course means sex on the beach.

This song is so successfully psychosexually provocative that it should be no surprise that two women were involved in writing and recording it. And as a thought experiment, now compare it to the way in which men engage with women in the average science fiction novel, in which a man furiously respects a woman until, appropos of nothing, she abruptly decides to force her way past his respect and announce her true love for him.

13 comments:

deti said...

Look at little Joe Jonas, all grown up and sexing it up and cursing in his songs.

So edgy.

Unknown said...

Ladies Love Outlaws, by Waylon Jennings:

Bessie was a lovely child from west Tennessee
Leroy was an outlaw wild as a mink
One day she saw him starin' and it chilled her to the bone
And she knew she had to see that look on a child of her own.

Chorus:
'Cause ladies love outlaws like babies love stray dogs
Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold
And outlaws touch the ladies
Somewhere deep down in their soul.

Linda was a lady blonde and built to last
Benny was a no good guitar picker runnin' from his past
She heard all of his songs tellin' nothin' but bad news
But she made her mind up to try to get him win or lose.

[chorus]

Jessi like the Cadillacs and diamonds on her hands
Waymore had a reputation as a ladie's man
Late one night a light of love finally gave a sign
Jessi parked her Cadillac and took her place in line.

[Chorus]

I love that last stanza: Jessi parked her Cadillac and took her place in line. Is there another song that so openly acknowledges female hypergamy?

Mr.MantraMan said...

I'd be more entertained by Lovely Jesemin telling us explicitly why John Scalzi is The Ravisher

MichaelJMaier said...

How does anyone endure such banal fare?

Aeoli Pera said...

OT:

"One of the most reliable, albeit sexist, generalizations I've noticed over the years is that women tend to laugh at stories involving bad things happening to people, such as an attractive girl taking a face-plant into a mud puddle on the way to the prom. Guys like that sort of humor too, but my observation is that men are far more likely to enjoy jokelike stories that are more engineered than organic."

-Scott Adams
How to Fail at Almost Everything And Still Win Big (pg. 151, Kindle edition)

S. Thermite said...

Nice lyrical analysis. The style isn't my cup of tea, but it's much better than his younger brother Nick's hit "Jealous" that started oozing like a discharge from the orifices of pop radio a year or so ago.

frenchy said...

This song reminds me of Las Ketchup for some reason.

CostelloM said...

Let them eat cake.... perfect end of America song :)

ScottC said...

Catchy song.

Dark Herald said...

“From the moment I wake to the moment I sleep / I’ll be there by your side / Just you try and stop me, I’ll be waiting in line / Just to see if you can / Oh, did you want me to change? / Well, I’ll change for good.”

Does it surprise anyone that Coldplay has a friendzone song?

Dark Herald said...


It's like a bad movie
She is lookin' through me
If you were me, then you'd be
Screamin' "Someone shoot me!"
As I fail miserably,
Tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want.
She's the girl all the bad guys want!

She likes the Godsmack and I like Agent Orange
Her cd changer's full of singers that are mad at their dad
She says she'd like to score some reefer and a forty
She'll never know that I'm the best that she'll never have


Bowling for Soup's; Girl All the Bad Guy's Want

Although they may as well have titled this one, A Walk Through Gamma Wonderland.

CarpeOro said...

Michael Maier said...

How does anyone endure such banal fare?
April 29, 2016 at 3:32 PM

You kid of course. Target audience being women, little surprise this is a hit with the target audience. My wife included. Expecting otherwise is to fail to recognize the nature of women.

slarrow said...

You know, I've been thinking for some time that it would be interesting to have a running feature on Alpha Game that analyzes particular pop songs in terms of the sociosexual hierarchy and assorted red-pill wisdom. I didn't fully realize how relevant a lot of this was until I got satellite radio and started listening to older songs again. Good grief, they're saturated with these kinds of things. "You're So Vain" -- Alpha Widow. "Keep Me Hanging On" by Kim Wilde -- Harem. Any number of pining country love songs ("Rose-Colored Glasses" by John Conlee was my trigger): Oneitis. "Bust a Move" -- Hypergamy. It's interesting hearing all this stuff now that I've got the secret decoder ring.

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