Today in Rape Culture on the Radio

[Content Note: Rape culture.]

I spend most of my life not paying a damn bit of attention to what Justin Bieber is doing, which has been working out very well for me! But the teen sensation, who may be 30 years old now for all I know (just kidding he's 21; thanks Wikipedia!) just released the first single off his upcoming album and performed it at the VMAs, and it is SO GROSS.

These are the actual fucking lyrics of this actual fucking song:

What Do You Mean

What do you mean? Oh, oh / When you nod your head yes / But you wanna say no
What do you mean? Hey-ey / When you don't want me to move / But you tell me to go
What do you mean? / Oh, what do you mean?
Said we're running out of time, what do you mean?
Oh, oh, oh, what do you mean? / Better make up your mind / What do you mean?

You're so indecisive of what I'm saying / Tryna catch the beat, make up your heart
Don't know if you're happy or complaining / Don't want for us to end, where do I start?

First you wanna go to the left then you wanna turn right
Wanna argue all day, making love all night
First you're up then you're down and in between
Oh, I really want to know…

What do you mean? Oh, oh / When you nod your head yes / But you wanna say no
What do you mean? Hey-ey / When you don't want me to move / But you tell me to go
What do you mean? / Oh, what do you mean?
Said we're running out of time, what do you mean?
Oh, oh, oh, what do you mean? / Better make up your mind / What do you mean?

You're overprotective when I'm leaving / Trying to compromise but I can't win
You wanna make a point but you keep preaching / You had me from the start, won't let this end

First you wanna go to the left then you wanna turn right
Wanna argue all day, making love all night
First you're up then you're down and in between
Oh, I really want to know…

[Repeat chorus etc.]

Ladies, amirite? Always saying one thing when they really mean another. Who can even be certain what they want? Better just "make love" to them all night, just to be on the safe side!

Rage. Seethe. Boil.

As far as pop songs go, this is yet another in a long pantheon of creepy, consent-hostile bullshit masquerading as a love song. But it's particularly odious to me that this message is being delivered to Bieber's audience disproportionately comprised of girls and young women on the precipice of sexuality, or early in their sexual lives. They will be encountering men who deliberately misconstrue their signals, and their explicitly stated "no"s, and then blame them for being unclear, and you know how women are.

What do they even mean?

This is so profoundly objectionable. I can only imagine it will be as massive a hit as "Blurred Lines," because why the fuck wouldn't it be.