Ahh, 2009. I don’t know where you were, but I was sporting a My Chemical Romance t-shirt under my Les Mis hoodie, while wearing eye makeup that, truthfully, made me look like a raccoon. Like most obviously trendy teenagers, I was no stranger to the hit pop anthem, “Don’t Trust Me,” by the band 3OH!3. And while it was endemically catchy then, I’ve done a lot of growing up in the past 6 years (the raccoon makeup was thankfully just a phase), and now, when I hear that 3OH!3 is coming to headline SocComm’s Big Show, instead of being excited, I am instead, quite frankly, disenchanted.
3OH!3, most widely known for their aforementioned one-hit-wonder as well as the edgy and artfully misspelled “Starstrukk,” featuring Katy Perry, is a washed-up, misogynistic male fantasy band, complete with date-rapey lyrics. Though it needs be said that SocComm likely meant no offense to anyone in their selection of these “artists”, and that whoever their advisor is is perhaps even more to blame, it cannot as easily be said that all students appreciate, or even understand, their call. “I think it was a poor choice,” said Krishna Dylan Mahalingam, Class of 2017 and Audiophiles a cappella member. “Their lyrics are often offensive and degrading to women, and encourage violence and a general sense that rape culture is okay. If the main lyric in one of their songs is ‘Don’t trust a hoe,’ I think that speaks for itself.” It certainly does.
“I have never heard a respectable song by them,” said one female student who wished to remain anonymous, “3OH!3 is known for crude, inappropriate, and offensive songs, and I don’t think that they are the type of band that should be promoted by WPI.” Other students are in agreement as well. “I feel that 3OH!3 was a terrible choice,” said Rayce Stipanovich, Class of 2016 and LNL member, both “in terms of appealing to our campus demographic as well as from a content standpoint.”
Apparently I am not alone in questioning the decision to host any band whose repertoire includes lyrics like the infamous “shush girl, shush your lips, do the Helen Keller, and talk with your hips,” as well as “I think I should know how to make love to something innocent without leaving my fingerprints,” not to mention the classic street harassment style of whistling and lyrical cat calls. Bryce Dumas, Class of 2015 described some of 3OH!3’s lyrics as “horrifying and predatory,” a sentiment echoed by Mahalingam’s fellow Audiophile, Maeve McCluskey, Class of 2016. “I am sickened by the fact that Social Committee would choose to bring a band like 3OH!3 to our campus. A college campus is a place where everyone should be able to feel safe, and bringing such a transparently misogynistic, rape-apologetic band into our midst makes me, as a woman, feel the opposite of safe.”
It’s certainly clear, then, that lyrically, 3OH!3 is not an accurate representation of what many WPI students feel like our values espouse, especially on the heels of SPARC’s powerful annual event “Take Back the Night.” SPARC advisor Matthew Barry, MA, LMHC and Assistant Director for Community Development at the SDCC, questioned this conflict, saying, “I think it’s important for people to develop a critical eye and ear about what’s coming in—what am I actually listening to? What am I actually watching? What’s being communicated explicitly, implicitly, unconsciously?” When asked whether he supported SocComm’s decision to bring 3OH!3 to campus, he was constructive in his criticism, “[We need to be] mindful and aware of all that might be communicated by choices we make on behalf of an entire community, and whether those choices are consistent with each other.” Consistency is something that is important on any college campus, and WPI is sending conflicting messages. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and encouraging such a musical act as 3OH!3 just seems incomprehensible at best.
In addition to moral outrage over the decision to hire this band, Charles “Chuck” Wentzell, Class of 2016 questioned the musical prowess of the act as a whole. “They’re just bad,” he said. “Aggressively mediocre. I don’t know what I’m doing that night, but I definitely know what I’m not.” If I may offer a personal suggestion, a good idea might be asking for a statement from SocComm and their advisor, and continuing the dialogue about rape-culture, and how we can help end it in our own WPI community.
If you decide to get out there and “do the Helen Keller,” don’t worry, half of your proceeds go to cancer research, so maybe your karma will get a bye. Even if I were on campus, however, I would choose to use my time more constructively, by staying away from this heinous band and their reprehensible ideology, and by sending a message both to WPI and the Social Committee that the student body does not support a culture of rape and misogyny on our campus. I implore you to do the same.
Full disclosure, haha, someone pointed out that I was missing a "t," so it has been since added. You can't win 'em all, and dyslexia runs in the family <3
**UPDATE**
Want something super fun to do April 25 that isn't Big Show? Apparently at the EXACT SAME TIME, 7PM, is the Student Comedy Productions comedy festival! Come on down to UPPER FLAUD and support your friends and fellow students :)
**UPDATE**
Want something super fun to do April 25 that isn't Big Show? Apparently at the EXACT SAME TIME, 7PM, is the Student Comedy Productions comedy festival! Come on down to UPPER FLAUD and support your friends and fellow students :)
