An anthem to the Rabbit

July 28, 2015 1:25 PM

Macy Gray sings about her dear friend, Bob. He comes in all kinds of colors, but he had me at yellow. (SLYT, NSFW)
posted by Anonymous (22 comments total)

You know I heard Nutmeg Phantasy out in the wild a while back and wondered what Macy Gray was up to these days and now I know , catchy songs about vibrators!
posted by The Whelk at 1:34 PM on July 28, 2015

Huh.
posted by ColdChef at 2:16 PM on July 28, 2015

Looks like it was animated by the Dumb Ways To Die people.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:17 PM on July 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

That was amazing.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:42 PM on July 28, 2015

A nice little toe-tapping ditty, that one.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:52 PM on July 28, 2015

Steady like a caterpillar?

Lolwut?

(Please Macy Gray, you don't mean a Human Caterpillar...)
posted by chavenet at 3:27 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

You ever watch a caterpillar go from point a to point b? They don't hurry, but they get there. That was my reading, at least.
posted by idiopath at 3:31 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm guessing that animator has never seen a record player before.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 3:45 PM on July 28, 2015

I saw the title "An anthem to the Rabbit" and immediately assumed somebody had double-posted my Bugs Bunny Anniversary post. Never been so relieved to see a dildo.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:05 PM on July 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

I liked the song, but the cartoon seemed kind of phoned in. Lots of cycled animation of the little vibrator guy slooowly marching around. An ode to a vibrator deserves a little more oomph.

It was funny and empower-y and stuff, and it's nice to hear Gray's rasp again. The song reminded me of Coin Operated Boy, although I think that song was funnier and more complicated than Gray's (and much sadder at heart). I know Amanda Palmer is a not exactly a fan fave here on Metafilter, but she really can be amazing now and again. (Although for their official music video, the resolution on that Youtube clip is crap!)

Not to get all MRA, but it occurs to me that we hear plenty about how sexy and awesome and empowering it is for women to masturbate but nobody is ever, like, Hooray for men jerking off. If a guy recorded a song about his awesome sex toy it'd probably be seen as a gross joke at best, regardless of the intention. And that kind of sucks.

So, if nobody else is gonna say it: Hooray for men jerking off.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:25 PM on July 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

Not to get all MRA, but it occurs to me that we hear plenty about how sexy and awesome and empowering it is for women to masturbate but nobody is ever, like, Hooray for men jerking off..

female sexuality has been demonized and degraded for, like, thousands of years so maybe that's why

nah, gotta be those SJWs
posted by Anonymous at 5:33 PM on July 28, 2015

Please don't do that strawman sjw stuff. It's possible to believe women jerking off should be celebrated while ALSO believing men jerking off shouldn't be demonized and ridiculed, as it currently is.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:02 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Celebrations of female masturbation in pop culture go way back. Celebrations of male masturbation simply don’t happen, outside of gay porn. I wasn't calling for an instead-of, I was calling for a yes-and.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:22 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Celebrations of male masturbation simply don’t happen, outside of gay porn.

Or do we just not notice them as much? I knew "Pictures of Lily", "Rosie", "Turning Japanese", and "Dancing with Myself", and then I found some lists (male and female, but there are plenty of both).
posted by dilettante at 6:42 PM on July 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

If by "way back" you mean "She-Bop", then you are correct. Celebrations of the male sex organ and male sexual behavior exist from the beginning of recorded history and are nigh-universal across cultures.
posted by Anonymous at 6:44 PM on July 28, 2015

I am not arguing for or against a celebration of male masturbation. I'm pointing out that male sexuality has never lacked for celebration, and complaining men don't get enough pats on the back for jerking off in a post that highlights a novelty song about vibrators is hilariously "but what about the menz".
posted by Anonymous at 6:47 PM on July 28, 2015

That was the cutest thing I've seen all day!
posted by bunderful at 6:55 PM on July 28, 2015

You're being insulting and I've already asked you politely to knock it off already. I don't want to get into a flamewar here.

We are talking about different things. Boastful male celebrations of dicks and fucking, as in "I sure can have sex with lots of ladies," or "I am hung like a humpback whale," THOSE go way back. Celebrations of male masturbation, those are all but unheard of. When they do exist, they are ironic. When male masturbation is mentioned in pop culture, it is usually as a gross or pitiful thing.

Celebrations of female masturbation are all over the place. She Bop was probably the first hit song that was explicitly about it, but songs like that go back to the jazz age at least. I was half-joking when I said Hooray for men jerking off, but the more pushback I get on this the more I think it actually needs saying. Yes, in fact, what about the "menz"?

For goodness' sake, if it wasn't seen as a shameful, silly thing for men to do, if they felt OK doing it, that would only benefit women too. The more time guys spend jerking off, the less time they'll spend building bombs and bayoneting people.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:58 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

See, all I've done is pointed out that women have suffered far worse for their sexuality than men have: kept as chattel to control their sexual behavior, labeled whores if they leave their hair uncovered, choosing between having their labia freakin sawed off and their vaginas sewn together and total social ostracization, and getting their sexuality blamed for the fall of humanity. Somehow I don't think a few songs put out in the US in the past few decades makes up for that, especially when we still live in an era where women will get blamed for being raped if they happen to have voluntarily been in the same room as the man who raped them. But I guess in your world "facts" count as "rank misandry", because every time Macy Gray puts out a song about vibrators without mentioning spanking the monkey it's a direct attack against the whole of male sexuality and the fact I don't agree with you is deep insult. OK then.
posted by Anonymous at 7:46 PM on July 28, 2015

Not to get all MRA, but it occurs to me that we hear plenty about how sexy and awesome and empowering it is for women to masturbate but nobody is ever, like, Hooray for men jerking off.

Are . . . are you joking? You don't seem to be joking, but the idea that male masturbation is hidden and shamed while female masturbation is celebrated is so diametrically opposed to everything I've ever known it's like . . . are you joking? Make a list of slang terms for masturbation. Now tally how many are male-specific. 99% of the ones I've heard are not relevant to people who do not have penises. Men joke about rubbing one out. Women don't. Masturbation is considered a totally normal thing for men to do because dudes gotta get off, right? But women masturbating is more loaded with judgment about female purity and female sexual desire. Songs about female masturbation are empowering and defiant because they explicitly acknowledge that women's sexual desire can exist separate and apart from the service of men. A song about men jerking off would be a big yawn because of course.
posted by Mavri at 8:19 PM on July 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

Well there might be an interesting discussion thread comparing gendered perceptions of masturbation, this probably isn't the right thread for it.

Can we at least agree that vibrators are fun and happy for people with all sorts of bits?
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:34 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

but the idea that male masturbation is hidden and shamed while female masturbation is celebrated is so diametrically opposed to everything I've ever known

Yeah. Sample size of 1 guy here, but I've never felt an ounce of shame or social oppression regarding this. Maybe older guys who came of age without the internet around to assure them that literally everyone else was up to the exact same thing. The whole internet is a buffet/celebration of jerking off.

It's like celebrating bacon or having bacon awareness, everyone knows bacon is great.
posted by French Fry at 12:16 PM on July 30, 2015