Contributed by Jess Wakeman.
Broadway revived the musical comedy The Fantastiks recently, the story of young lovers Matt and Luisa and the rogue El Gallo. The original 1960 song version featured a song titled "The Rape Ballet," which is not actually about rape [or ballet], but about El Gallo's abduction of the fair maiden, Luisa.
If you read 18th century poem "The Rape of the Lock" in high school or college English, your professor likely explained to you that Alexander Pope's piece is about a man surreptitiously snipping a lock of his beloved's hair. Etymologically speaking, "rape" also can mean abduction of a female.
But songwriter Tom Jones no longer felt comfortable using the word so glibly and changed the lyrics, so the song is now titled, "The Abduction Song." Last week, he told NPR, "my consciousness was raised."
Here's part of the original lyrics:
"Rape! R-a-a-a-pe! Raa-aa-aa-pe!
A pretty rape! A literary rape!
We've the obvious open schoolboy rape,
With little mandolins and perhaps a cape.
The rape by coach; it's little in request.
The rape by day, but the rape by night is best.
Just try to see it.
And you will soon agree, senors,
Why invite regret,
When you can get the sort of rape
You'll never ever forget.
You can get the rape emphatic.
You can get the rape polite.
You can get the rape with Indians:
A very charming sight.
You can get the rape on horseback;
They'll all say it's new and gay.
So you see the sort of rape
Depends on what you pay.
It depends on what you pay."
Gee, why would anybody have a problem with that?
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I suppose it isn't really defensible, which is unfortunate because it's a great piece of music. The Latin root rapere does mean to abduct or sieze by force and doesn't have any particular sexual connotation but I guess that doesn't really matter since the play isn't in Latin.
We performed The Fantasticks in high school and its themes of reality versus romance were a huge, and to me at least welcome, step up from the brainless 50's musicals we usually did. I don't remember anyone commenting on the lyrics at the time but of course that doesn't mean no one was offended.
What!? Sexist musical theater!?
A couple of lines from Carousel:
Louise: Is it possible for someone to hit you, hit you real loud and hard and for it not to hurt you at all?
Julie [her mom]: It is possible, dear, for someone to hit you, hit you real hard and it not hurt at all.
That's apparently if you love him.
Perhaps Girls Gone Wild Joe Francis could star in it.
That's not sexist theatre, ThePolynomial; that's sadomasochistic theatre! And Carousel has songs titled "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan" and "Blow High, Blow Low"... I think we can leave the subject matter of those songs to speculation. That Rodgers & Hammerstein... always pushing the envelope.
I need to make a habit of not posting silly comments several days after the thread ends.
To defend the Fantastiks (I go way back with that show), right before the song in question are some lines about the Rape of Lucrece, The Rape of the Lock, and the Sabine women. The caharcter who leads the song defines the word by it's Latin root, so it isn't like they just expect you to understand it that way.
It wasn't clear from the post, but the song was changed from "Rape" to "Abductions" in 1990 for the touring production (it remained as rape in NY).
Also, it's a great song.
Perhaps, but the rape of the Sabine women was not only abduction--it was indeed what we would now call rape, with some Stockholm syndrome thrown in for good measure.