Helen Keller Did Not, In Fact, "Talk With Her Hips"

I was recently listening to the song "Don't Trust Me" by 3OH!3.

I really enjoy this song--it has a catchy chorus and it's upbeat. There was one lyric, however, that gave me pause--"Shush girl/shut your lips/do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips."

I wasn't given pause because the lyric was inappropriate because it makes fun of Helen Keller per se; I, for whatever reason, find Helen Keller jokes to be funny. No, I was more bothered by the gross inaccuracy of the image the lyric invokes--do the Helen Keller . . . .and talk with your . . . hips.

Did I miss something?

I am admittedly no history buff, but I'm pretty sure that Hel (I would have called her Hel if I had known her personally. I think that she wouldn't have minded because she wouldn't really have heard me say it--you know, cause she was deaf) did not in fact "talk with her hips". From what I recall learning about Helen Keller in 2nd grade, she mostly communicated with American Sign Language, angry incoherent grunts, and, later in life, really loud and somewhat distorted spoken English. I don't remember ever hearing that she ever tried to communicate with her hips in any way.

And for good reason. I mean, can a person really effectively communicate solely using his or her hips? It seems like doing so constrains a person to a very limited range of motion--jerks to the left or right, the more fluid rolling seen in Hula and Middle-Eastern belly-dancing, and of course the more straightforward thrusting motion (which, we can all agree, really only communicates one thing--I'll give you a hint--it rhymes with shmexshmual shmintercourse).

But really, given the range of human expression, I don't think Anne Sullivan (Hel's interpreter and teacher), or anyone else for that matter, would have advised that she try to "talk with her hips". I mean, she would have only been able to say a few things, and most of them would have been erotic in nature. And I don't think I am entirely out of line when I say that Hel engaging in naughty dances makes us all throw up a little in our mouths.

So why did 3OH!3 allude to Hel talking with her hips when they really meant "shut your mouth, biddy, and dance?"

I was only able to come up with a couple of reasons.

1) They are telling the "girl" in the song to "shush" and "shut your lips". I guess when Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte were writing the song, the first person they could think of who "shushed their lips" was Hel. And then they needed a "high class rhyme" (as they self-describe in their official website) to go along with the word "lips," and they thought of "hips". Thus, the lyric was born. I think it is a fairly common artistic move to take the first thing that works and just run with it--they probably never thought that anyone would pay that much attention to it.

I personally think that if they had dug a little deeper into their minds, they could have come up with something besides a well respected historic figure like Hel to discuss "talking with your hips." The hokey-pokey comes to mind and actually makes more sense--that whole dance revolves around "turn[ing] it all aroud" with one's hips.

2) They knew exactly what they were doing and wanted to put the image of Helen Keller, a blind-deaf chick, dancing provocatively with her hips in order to be "edgy." If this was the case, that's fine by me, but again, it's just so inaccurate that it borders on making little-to-no sense.

I am not trying to rip on 3OH!3--like I said, I love the song, and I'm from the 3-0-3 myself, Colorado, what-what! I find it actually to be part of a bigger trend in modern music--equating dancing with physical or mental disabilities, or other nonsensical yet catchy images.

3 band/artists come to mind that have done this as well--The Black-Eyed Peas in their song "Let's Get Retarded" Busta Rhymes in his song "Break Ya Neck" and Outkast in their song "Hey Ya!" The images invoked in each of these songs shares the same inaccuracy as "doing the Helen Keller and talking with your hips."

"Let's Get Retarded" does this around the middle of the song, when the Fergie and the gang advise the listener to "bob your head like epilepsy". I know a little bit more about epilepsy than I do about the life of my good friend Hel, but not much. I don't have it, and I don't know anyone personally that suffers from this disorder. However, I am fairly confident that the "bobbing" that one's head goes through during an epileptic seizure is in no way graceful and/or consistent so as to constitute a dance move that anyone would want to emulate. It seems more like a frantic jerking and shaking motion that occurs, and the seize-ee, from what I understand, typically falls to the ground convulsing violently. Why would the Black Eyed Peas advice their listeners to engage in a move like that? Can you imagine if the entire dance floor took this advice and began shaking their body uncontrollably and all fell to the ground? It just seems dangerous.

Busta Rhyme's lyric is even more dangerous and inaccurate. He raps in the chourus, "break ya neck ni***/break ya neck ni***/break ya neck ni***/bang your head until you start to break ya neck ni*** . . . " etc. Here, the problem with this dance move should be obvious right away. Bang your head until you start to break ya neck. Again, I acknowledge my shortcomings as a physician, but I think that breaking one's neck is a singular and discreet action--I don't think that you start to break it.

Unless Busta is suggesting that the listener only bang his/her head hard and long enough so as to create a small hairline fracture instead of a clean break. If this is the case, then it seems really inadvisable that the listener keep banging their head and risk spinal severence and possible paralysis. And of course, it stands to reason that a dance-floor full of people who all bang their heads so hard as to create a full vertebrae fracture would result in mass injury, and lose a lot of business for the club playing the song--all of the dancers would be quadripalegic or dead, and there would probably be a lot of lawsuits filed.

Finally, Outkast suggests in the song "Hey Ya!" that the listeners "shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture." I have heard mixed accounts on this, but I think the convententional wisdom is that you are not supposed to shake your polaroid picutres as it can actually damage the image and, thus, ruin your picture; rather, you are supposed to let them sit until they fully develop. So if you take the literal meaning of the lyric, Outkast, when telling you to "shake it like a polaroid picutre" is in fact telling you to sit still and do nothing until you fully develop. All philosophical interpretations aside, I do not think that this is what Andre and Big Boi had in mind, and again would lead to some awkward movements on the dance floor--it would be a room full of silent meditators.

Even if the listeners were ill-informed and did "shake it" in the manner that they aren't supposed to shake polaroids, it leads to a very limited and decidedly unimpressive result. The dance would consist of shaking only one of one's hands at the wrist, back and forth, for about 3 minutes. This would resemble the "dice" dance, a-la the movie "Knocked Up", and could have painful inadvertent consequences for the dancer, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

I guess what I am saying with this, is that song-writers should take a minute to consider the images and potential dance moves that their lyrics might invoke. And it goes without saying that, as dancers and listeners, we should really be careful in not taking these lyrics literally and attempting to follow their instructions.

I think Hel said it best with her famous call for caution when analyzing the subtleties inherent in musical lyrics, and really, all forms of art, "Hmmfrrrrrpp; Ggggg, NNNNHHHRRRRRRRR!"

Be careful on the dance floor out there, everyone.

Mikee P

3OH!3's official website: http://3oh3music.com/news. The song "Don't Trust Me": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlTE5j7aEf0.

Check them out--they are actually a really good band and I enjoy their music thoroughly.

Black-Eyed Peas "Let's Get Retarded": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c1L2Y8D8Zs.

Busta Rhymes "Break Ya Neck": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrghtXWfVYM.

Outkast "Hey Ya!": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvIw5ZqC1ms.

I actually love all of these artists and these songs, but I just happened to find the lyrics in question interesting.