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It 's Not Rape If You Sing It

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Joel Johnson
It’s Not Rape if You Sing It:
Animals The Music Video a refreshing portrayal of American culture. The pop rock band Maroon 5’s new hit single Animals from their fifth studio album V is their 10th song to reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. At first glance it appears to be just another unoriginal pop rock song; melodic, repetitive. But as we look at the press that surrounds both the song and its music video we find a controversy surrounding sexual violence and objectification. There can be no question of a need of such discussion in regards to the themes that Animals the music video brings to light. That being said, the question in this discussion should not be whether it promotes these topics but rather if it does a good enough job of making the audience critically aware that these problems exist. This will be done by looking at the video and its song from a radical Feminist perspective. Bell Hooks defines Feminism as, “ a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." And the first step of ending these things is showing how they are a part of our culture which this video does brillintly. The music video is clearly, rather than promoting rape culture, is not only a sardonic view of the song lyrics themselves and the meaning behind them but also critiquing the hegemony of the sexually violent culture we live in today. In this paper I would like to analyze the music video Animals by Maroon 5 from two different angles. The first

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