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Washington Examiner

University: Adele song "normalizes sexual harassment"

Univ.: Adele song "normalizes sexual harassment"

If you can't get enough of Adele's hit song of 2015, Hello, you're not alone. And, part of the reason why her songs are so popular is because, while she's the one with talent to sing about such raw emotion, people can relate to her music.

That's not all. A Thanksgiving theme parody from Saturday Night Live offers it as your remedy to holiday family fighting.


Well, the University of Oklahoma's "Gender+Equality Center," claims that Hello sends another message. Apparently the line about how "I must have called a thousand times," is about harassment. Seriously, a poster from the center claims that "even great songs can normalize sexual harassment."

If the center wanted to get student attention, it likely got it. Just as more likely though is how students may not take well to such a connection, even if the center admits it's a "great" song.

MRCTV spoke with the Gender+Equality Center which confirmed it was behind the poster, and that it is part of a campaign for Stalking Awareness Month. MRCTV suggests that "perhaps the version of inequality the Gender+Equality Center is challenging is the popular notion that only men can perpetuate sexual harassment."

That may be wishful thinking, as the center is described as dedicated to "social justice by advocating for the rights of women and LGBTQ students, empowering those without a voice, and challenging inequality."

Katherine Timpf, for National Review, noted further:

And, as the Media Research Center points out, even if she was calling her ex literally 1,000 times, it would really just constitute regular harassment and not sexual harassment. (Unless, of course, she was also leaving pornographic voicemails, which I’ve gotta say would be a pretty doggone weird thing for a heartbroken person to do.)


If you ever thought of the song as a way to relate to your own heartbreaks, good luck getting the idea of harassment out of your head.

Oh, and if you're a fan of romantic comedies, like Love Actually, the Center can ruin that for you too. A Facebook post from the group's page dated Jan. 28 shared a piece which can do just that.

Posted by OU Gender + Equality Center on Thursday, January 28, 2016
— https://www.facebook.com/OUGEC/posts/10153364138188457