An Analysis Of Jamie Foxx's Blame It

INTRODUCTION “Approximately half of all sexual assaults are associated with either the perpetrator 's alcohol consumption, the victim 's alcohol consumption, or both” (Abbey, Zawacki, Buck, Clinton, & McAuslan, 2004, p. 1). As such, the emphasis of this paper is on the link between alcohol and sexual assault. This paper will focus on Jamie Foxx’s (2008) disregard for consent and use of alcohol as a tool of coercion in pursuing ‘sex’ in the song Blame It. I plan to discuss the legal framework by which the use of alcohol to seduce – rather incapacitate – women can classify the sexual acts that follow as assault (or not). I will also discuss Foxx’s apparent disregard for consent in his pursuit of ‘sex’ with the woman about whom the song is

Furthermore, context-based evaluations of sexual assault scenarios create loopholes through which clarity of refusals for sex can be blurred. That is, a woman’s refusal for sex – implicit or explicit – can be made ambiguous. Foxx’s (2008) Blame It provides a pronounced example of this. At the beginning of the song, Foxx acknowledges the woman’s refusal to sex in saying, “I hear you saying what you won 't do”; however, later he insinuates that she, in fact, initiated sexual advancement since, “She put her body on [Foxx]…she keeps staring me right [Foxx] my eyes…now she got her hand on [Foxx’s] leg”. A content-based analysis of this scenario would suggest that any sexual activity that followed is assault, since consent is not given and Foxx is fully aware of this. Conversely, a context-based assessment of this scenario might result in the conclusion that implicit consent is given through the non-verbal communication between Foxx and the woman. It is important to note here that at the point in the song where the woman puts forth the above sexual cues, she is already drunk; therefore, incapable of consenting (implicitly and

This is often done through the use of language to direct focus away from the perpetrator of assault; in addition to accrediting rape to the victim, attributions of rape blame may be related to variables such as alcohol consumption, verbal and non-verbal miscommunication of sexual signals, and resistance (or lack thereof) used at the time of a sexual assault. This has the effect of complicating sexual assault analyses and blurring issues surrounding assault. For example, alcohol complicates discussions of consent and censure in rape trials; alcohol consumption by the perpetrator has a pardoning effect. Intoxicated perpetrators are held less responsible for their actions than sober perpetrators (Abbey et al., 2004). In this sense, perpetrators of sexual assault are able to “blame [their assault] on the a-a-alcohol”. Conversely, women who are sexually assaulted after having consumed alcohol are assessed from a victim-blaming perspective – a perspective that suggests that the woman caused her rape by suggesting her consent through her alcohol consumption (leading the man on). In