Cheat sheet

To: Jimmy chooglindude@hotmail.com

From: Matt 420 smoker69@yahoo.com

RE: Human Sexuality Final

Hey bro, what’s up man? OMG, finals are killing me. When I signed up for Sexuality, I figured the professor was going to have us read some Freud or whatever, but then we get the syllabus and the whole class is based on this rapper named Peaches. Did you know Peaches is really some Canadian chick named Merrill Nisker? (I Googled her.) Our prof told us Peaches is a “subversively political pansexual aesthete”—but she used to be a nerd in a folk band! LOL.

Then there was that day we had to watch that slide show of spandexed crotch shots and spent 15 minutes freewriting about the hegemony of pubic hair. This class totally made me not even like sex any more! :(

Anyway, Brody hooked me up with a copy of the final from last semester. He said it’s always the same stuff about gender roles and microphones as phallic symbols. I told him about the assignment where we had to listen to the songs she did with Iggy Pop and Joan Jett (whoever they are). He said they didn’t talk about the Impeach My Bush CD too much in his class ’cause that just came out this summer, but he sent me a bunch of questions from the test. So we can cut our study session, like, in half tonight because Eric invited a bunch of us over to watch the new Girls Gone Wild.

Take it easy, bro.

P.S. Don’t let that chick Kelly see this. She totally ruins the curve.

1) In the song “Tent in Your Pants” when Peaches raps about noting a man’s erection in a club, she is:

a) Reclaiming phallocentric discourse by offering a feminist recontextualization of erections
b) Protesting against misogynist rap by flipping traditional gender roles
c) Unironically singing about how she enjoys seeing erections through mens’ pants
d) All of the above

2) The album title Impeach My Bush is an example of:

a) The inextricable interconnectedness of politics and sexuality
b) Commentary on patriarchal attitudes toward feminist self-expression
c) A throwaway, self-satirical joke about how Peaches has exhausted every sexual pun based on her pseudonym
d) The false binary Peaches proposes on the album’s first track, which implies that liberated sexuality is the only alternative to the Iraq war

3) Which of the following best typifies Peaches’ main message about the sexualization of gender?

a) Women are sex objects, but should not be
b) Women are not sex objects, and should not be
c) Women are sex objects, and should be
d) Men are not sex objects, but should be
e) Men are sex objects, but should not be
f) Men are sex objects, and should be
g) Gender is illusory
h) Gender is the most important factor in human identity
i) A&D
j) B&E
k) C&F
l) All of the above
m) None of the above

Essay Section: Choose two, write 500 words on each.

1) Compare and contrast Peaches’ song “Two Guys (for Every Girl)” with Jan and Dean’s “Surf City” lyric, “Two girls for every boy.” Discuss the cultural implications of “guy-on-guy action.” Extra credit: Explain how guest vocals by Beth Ditto of the Gossip lend Peaches “indie cred.”

2) Write a short history of obscene gestures with sexual connotations, using Peaches’ song “Rock the Shocker” as a model. Extra credit: Create your own sexual hand gesture, name it, and explain its use.

3) Citing examples from Peaches’ persona and music, prove that the brand of “post-feminism” she represents is sexist and racist, and that her bourgeois omnisexuality is a distraction from women’s advocacy groups who do meaningful work in developing countries. Extra credit: Just kidding! Instead, come up with 10 reasons why Peaches is better than the Beatles.

4) Explore the influences of electroclash, ’80s arena rock and crunk on Peaches’ music. Extra credit: “Electroclash” is an anagram of “E-sell a crotch.” Discuss.