Now that’s ideology! In “Just a Kiss” Lady Antebellum
convinces the listener that a kiss goodnight is a more powerful and satisfying
affirmation of love than having sex. Is this objectively true? I guess it all
depends on one’s personal history, but I'm not so sure. Nonetheless, the song is so
persuasive, it’s romantic sensibility so strong that I imagine more than a few
people will be drawn in by it. This song is a perfect example of how ideology
works when it’s convincing: its argument is successful not because it denies
you something or because it demonizes something but because it presents its
position as the most natural and appealing.
The song begins by inverting the usual gender narrative of
sexual desire. The female singer in the first verse sings: “it’s hard to fight
these feelings when it feels so hard to breathe.” The male singer in the second
verse reassures her: “We don’t need to rush this/Let’s just take it slow.” Then
together in the chorus they both agree: “No, I don’t want to mess this thing
up/ No, I don’t want to push too far.” Finally they realize the beauty of what
they actually have, that this might be the relationship that they have been
waiting for their whole lives and so they realize that they are “alright/ With
just a kiss goodnight.” And what a kiss! “Just a kiss on your lips in the
moonlight/Just a touch of the fire burning so bright.” Who wouldn’t want such a
kiss?
Sex would ruin what they are building up. The scene, the
kiss, the desire, they are all so ideally right that sex would only desecrate the
perfection of the moment. The kiss, the kiss, that’s what you want! There is no
need to lecture young people about what God and your family expects from
you. There is no need to scare them about sexual diseases and unplanned
pregnancies, no need for holier-than-thou preaching about saving yourself for
the right person, under the right conditions, and after you are married.
Abstinence is not a sermon here.
Abstinence in this song is the most perfect medium through
which one can express love and desire. In other words, abstinence is the result
of true love and if you really love someone then that love would motivate you
to NOT want to have sex with that person. It’s a funny refiguring of the commonplace that love leads to sex. In this song, love leads to abstinence. Will
this song keep teenagers from having sex? Who knows, but I’ll probably try to
get my kids to listen to it a lot when they're teenagers.
"This song is a perfect example of how ideology works when it’s convincing: its argument is successful not because it denies you something or because it demonizes something but because it presents its position as the most natural and appealing." Nice. I'm going to steal that and I'm not going to give you credit.
ReplyDeleteHow dare you?
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