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April 11, 2007

Greeks, Sex and Alanis

Posted by aaron at 08:33 PM ET

Some things have been bugging me a lot lately. I worked a sorority ball the other night and it was by far the most embarassing thing I've ever witnessed. My university didn't allow greek associations and so until now I never quite understood what my friends meant when they admitted to hating these people.

I'm not one to rail against debauchery, I have no problems with people doing silly things and getting wasted, partying, having meaningless sex or whatever, but these people, the "sisters" and their fratboy dates, really bothered me. On the way in, girls already had to be helped into the washrooms to puke, they could barely stand up. The conversation ranged from meaningless to insecure. "There's this brand, kinda edgier than American Eagle, but not, like Abercrombie or anything like that..."

The drunk organizer couldn't understand how to speak into the microphone and even the seniors were basically illiterate. Their "roasts" of the graduating class were the saddest excuses for rhyming couplets I've ever heard, and, even in this hyper-sexual day and age, genuinely shocking, but more for the sheer magnitude of mainstream sex acts described rather than anything subversive.

On the other hand, I saw Alanis Morissette's parody of The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" video which everyone is talking about. It's brilliant, but wasn't the original song satire to begin with? That's the only way I can explain lyrics that bad. My question, if the original song is a commentary on the commodifying nature of mainstream culture then what is Alanis' version?

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Reader comments:

Ironic. Don't you think?

Posted by: mason at April 11, 2007 10:36 PM

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A little too ironic ...

Posted by: Ariel at April 12, 2007 10:26 AM

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Is it too far-fetched to see this as a clever feminist, anti-consumerist critique, despite all the tongue-in-cheek aspects?

I've been resisting even watching this clip till now because it was so overexposed on the Net (I avoided Kelly's "Shoes" [http://youtube.com/results?search_query=kelly+shoes&search=Search] for weeks for the same reason).

I found Alanis's vocal take and the piano delivery to be more melancholy than anything. I guess it's a case of being funny and serious at the same time. I did love it when she headbutts a guy, and since I'm attracted to big men, I loved the part where one of her thugs raises his hands in the air and exposes his big belly!

Posted by: shawnsyms at April 12, 2007 10:55 AM

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My household is obsessed with that Shoes video. OBSESSED.

Posted by: Ariel at April 12, 2007 02:56 PM

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