Jamie Foxx Blame It Analysis

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 written.

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