Friday, November 28, 2008

Shut your lips and talk with your hips

I live in Colorado and split my in-car radio time listening to NPR and 93.3, which is an alternative/pop station. Since I listen to the latter, I am frequently subjected to a popular local hit by the Boulder band 3OH!3. The song is called "Don't Trust Me" and the first few times I heard it my mouth fell open every time it reached the breakdown and these lovely lyrics flooded my car:
Shush girl, shut your lips
Do the Helen Keller
And talk with your hips
Oh. Yeah.



Most of the lyrics aren't that surprising, really. Calling a woman a ho in popular music isn't exactly rare, but this song pisses me off so much I don't even know what to say. WTF? "Girls" should not only shut up, but be deaf and blind as well, left only with their sexuality as a means of communication?

Maybe it's a joke, but it's not a very funny one, and I really could do without hearing it on the radio day in and day out.

Here are the full lyrics:
Black dress with the tights underneath
I've got the breath of a last cigarette on my teeth
And she's an actress but she ain't got no need
She's got money from her parents in a trust fund back east

T-t-t-tongues always pressed to your checks, while my tongue
is on the inside of some other girl's teeth
tell your boyfriend
If he says hes got beef that I'm a vegetarian
And I ain't fucking scared of him

CHORUS:
She wants to touch me, whoa oh
She wants to love me, whoa oh
She'll never leave me, whoa oh whoa oh oh oh
Don't trust a ho
Never trust a ho
Won't trust a ho, cuz a ho won't trust me
She wants to touch me, whoa oh
She wants to love me, whoa oh
She'll never leave me, whoa oh, whoa oh oh oh
Don't trust a ho
Never trust a ho
Won't trust a ho, cuz a ho won't trust me

X's on the back on your hand
Wash them in the bathroom to drink like the bands
And the set list
You stole off the stage
Has red and purple lipstick all over the page

B-b-b-bruises cover your arms shaking in the
Fingers with the bottle in your palm
And the best is
No one knows who you are
Just another girl, alone at the bar

[CHORUS]

Shush girl, shut your lips
Do the hellen keller
And talk with your hips

I said shush girl, shut your lips
Do the hellen keller
And talk with your hips
I said shush girl, shut your lips
Do the hellen keller
And talk with your hips

8 comments:

Dr. Jay SW said...

Aviva...listen...I realize you're still new to Colorado, but there are a few things you should've figured out by now, such as: the words "Boulder band" have never been attached to anything good...though, admittedly, this is worse than the standard lame and painfully inocuous hippie crap usually associated with that descriptor. Colorado has many things to recommend it, and a few things--Tancredo, the megachurches of Colorado Springs, and every musical ensemble ever formed there--that balance those things out....

vast.tv said...

Jay, you're totally right. I shouldn't expect too much, huh? It was just so startling and beyond the pale, I couldn't quite fathom the wackiness of it all.

Anonymous said...

good grief woman...its just a song..and pretty darn good one in my opinion...dont get so uppity about some lyrics...there are far worse songs out there on the radio....calm yourself and quit dissin a song just because it aint ur style..obviously its not that bad or they wouldnt play it on the radio... :>

Aviva DV said...

I find this song particularly offensive (as I do your use of the word 'uppity' actually, but that's another matter), and I'm pretty easy-going when it comes to popular music. It's well within my right to get worked up about it if I choose. Just as it's well within your right to disagree with me. But please don't tell me to calm down. How patronizing. I mean, really...

Anonymous said...

Hi, there, I stumbled across your blog by accident. I too have heard this song multiple times on the radio, and just recently watched the video. It really appeared to me to be kind of a parody, as though they were attempting to poke fun at popular music in general. As for the blatantly offensive Hellen Keller line? In today's world, where the need to be politically correct is approaching paranoia, a blatantly offensive line garners a lot of attention. What a perfect attention grabber... seems like a schtick for attention to me. I mean, who would bother looking up anything more about them if all they heard were the instrumentals? And apparently it worked. -Kristen

Unknown said...

You uppity baby makers need to quit whining and find somewhere to make yourselves useful, like maybe in the kitchen.

Evan said...

This is a silly thing to get angry about. I'm a progressive feminist but this is just a funny, tongue in cheek (literally if you peruse the lyrics) song.

Besides, the song doesn't suggest that women NEVER speak and ONLY communicate via sexuality. It does indicate that at one moment in time the artists want one particular lady to hush and focus on dancing. That's neither inappropriate nor sexist, and frankly it's a catchy song

Aviva DV said...

@Evan: The song still drives me absolutely up the wall, but I've heard it enough now (since they keep playing it on the freakin' radio) that I've long since gotten over my initial shock. I still find it obnoxious, but I'd hardly say I'm angry about it anymore.