Relativism: So What? (Part Five: I kissed a girl)

[koganbot]

How does it stand in light of the biblical message/worldview?

"Because it serves to direct young viewers and listeners, 'I Kissed a Girl' is more than a song kids will listen to. It actually serves as a map to life, guiding impressionable kids into accepting and practicing the values, attitudes, and behaviors that are depicted and promoted in the song. This includes a postmodern ethical relativism, and homosexuality."

"We suggest that after securing parental permission, youth workers view the video and deconstruct its message with their middle school and high school students. The exercise will not only offer opportunities to bring the light of God's Word to bear on the song's faulty messages, but will serve to teach kids how to think Biblically and Christianly about their media choices."

Comments

What Katy Perry sounded like before she became an ethical relativist

[koganbot]

Katy Hudson "Faith Won't Fail"

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

That is exactly the kind of usage I've been highlighting! (I say this without hearing the song. Does it feature lyrics like "Postmodern ethical relativism is where it's at, kids!"?

I've not read any Christianly deconstruction before - I am sort of interested...

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

"i'm in love with bible teaching
read a page and i know that i need to
take my place in the sacred heart
oh, i'm in love"

Ethical Relativism in action

[koganbot]

"I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don't mean I'm in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it"

The video. She's holding a pussy at the start. The song is number one on the Hot 100.

Re: Ethical Relativism in action

[koganbot]

Nine months later, I'm amazed at how innocuous "I Kissed A Girl" feels in comparison to current hits like "I Love College" and "Don't Trust Me" (both of which I like more than "I Kissed A Girl," but that's not a preference that's shared by many in this corner of the Internet).

[koganbot]

I wouldn't say that "exactly" is a viable word in relation to this usage. But no, it isn't the usage you've been highlighting. The guy, Walt Mueller, says:

God's clear plan for celebrating and experiencing our sexuality in all its glorious fullness invites us into exercising that gift in the context of a committed, life-long, heterosexual marriage. Fornication, adultery, and homosexuality are wrong.
• We all make decisions based on some authority. In this case, Perry opts out of making behavioral choices based on God's plan as revealed in His Word, instead choosing a personal, feeling-based ethic. She does what she does based solely on feeling and attraction, thereby justifying any of the choices she makes. The Scriptures call us to make our choices and live our lives according to the revealed will of God and to His glory, not our own satisfaction.

The song doesn't bear out this analysis, by the way. The voice is ugly and the lyrics are stupid and more homophobic than not - and the arrangement is heavy-handed but the whole thing is just catchy enough for me to give this a borderline TICK, unfortunately - but the words and video are actually conflicted as all hell about what she's saying about herself or whether she's committing herself to something. The song most certainly does not fall comfortably into saying that if there are no absolute standards then we can do whatever feels right. There's a whole lot in it that's "I want a taste but I'm scared as fuck you might think this makes me a lesbian." But in any event Mueller's "postmodern ethical relativism" is not the postmodern ethical relativism that you were highlighting. The position you were highlighting, to the extent I understand it (and the confusion isn't necessarily yours, since confusion is built into the position, and "position" isn't really a viable term here either), is a feeling of being morally constrained from imposing one's own moral values on another for fear that one would thereby be privileging oneself and oppressing the other, with a supposed principle (again "principle" is not really a viable term here) that says that all systems are equally valid or that one should refuse to call one true at the expense of the other or something. And whatever that "position" is, it's not "since there's no absolute morality you can do whatever you feel."

Of course, I'd tick the song because I - marginally - like the way it feels. But I'm not claiming that "relativism" underlies or justifies my tick.

[koganbot]

the lyrics are stupid and more homophobic than not

Oh, I was being way too harsh in that assessment (see here for a re-evaluation); the protagonist is merely homo-uncomfortable not homophobic, and the lyrics bring forth an interesting ambivalence. And it's way better than borderline in its tickiness, though I still wish that Max 'n' Luke would stop pumping up the volume on these types of songs.

[koganbot]

with a supposed principle

I should have written

this constraint supposedly based on a supposed principle

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

"Deconstruct" is a fairly common term in media literacy literature that I've been studying a bit recently -- it's really just a jargony way of saying "understand the various elements and how they work together to create meaning." You could just as easily use the word "analyze," "interpret," or "critique," and these words tend to be used interchangeably.

The difference is that media literacy is about giving (young) people the tools to understand a picture, but doesn't really instruct them how to then further judge what they're understanding. You could understand the elements of the song and place it within a Christian worldview, but I think your point about him essentially misreading the song is precisely what makes this...y'know, media illiterate. (As for "postmodern ethical relativism," I have no idea what this person thinks it might actually mean, except maybe "culturally sanctioned views that don't sync up with my own.")