When I first heard it on the car radio, I nearly hit a bus. “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but whips and chains excite me”. “S&M”, by the Barbadian popstar, Rihanna, is a celebration of sexual sadism, in which she invites here lover to “give it to me strong”. Her video depicts life in a fetish bar where everyone is dressed in bondage gear and where the chanteuse whips the customers. She ends up literally hogtied and half naked saying how much she loves “sex in the air”.
Now, I’ve been around the block a few times, and I’m all for sexual openness, but I was astonished to learn that this was freely played, even on on BBC radio. Changed days - I remember when Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s single “Relax” was banned by the BBC for a reference to coitus interruptus which was so oblique I hadn’t even noticed it. I’m even more astonished that parents haven’t been talking more about this supposedly playful invasion of sadistic bondage into the lives of young girls who learn these lyrics by heart. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to hear pre-teens inviting men to whip them, even if itis 'ironic'..
