My Antifmeinist Childhood: "Sex Type Thing" Edition

Stone Temple Pilots released their album "Core" in 1992, when I was in the sixth grade and just discovering and beginning to love rock music. Its singles were overplayed on every hard rock radio station. There was "Creep" and "Plush"... and then there was the song "Sex Type Thing". Does anyone else remember this song? I think I had heard it a few times without noticing the lyrics until one day when I was riding in the car somewhere with my older brother, and I remember feeling so stunned by its rape-themed lyrics:

I am, I am, I am
I said I wanna get next to you
I said I gonna get close to you
You wouldn't want me have to hurt you too, hurt you too?

I ain't, I ain't, I ain't
A buyin' into your apathy
I'm gonna learn ya my philosophy
You wanna know about atrocity, atrocity?

I know you want what's on my mind
I know you like what's on my mind
I know it eats you up inside
I know, you know, you know, you know

I am a man, a man
I'll give ya somethin' that ya won't forget
I said ya shouldn't have worn that dress
I said ya shouldn't have worn that dress

I know you want what's on my mind
I know you like what's on my mind
I know it eats you up inside
I know, you know, you know, you know

Here I come, I come, I come

I am, I am, I am
I said I wanna get next to you
I said I gonna get close to you
You wouldn't want me have to hurt you too, hurt you too?

I know you want what's on my mind
I know you like what's on my mind
I know it eats you up inside
I know, you know, you know, you know
I know you want what's on my mind
I know you like what's on my mind
I know it eats you up inside
I know, you know, you know, you know

Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come

Charming, huh?

I would later (much later) read that singer Scott Weiland claimed to write this song as an anti-rape statement, saying, “This song is really not about sex at all. It’s about control, violence and abuse of power.” Which sounds feminist-friendly and all, only I, as a young female listener, didn't interpret this song as an anti-violence statement at all. Because it's sung in such a creepy ominous way, and in first person from the point of view of the rapist, I interpreted this song as a frightening lesson in women's inherent vulnerability to male violence. And the repeated line, "you shouldn't have worn that dress"? An early lesson in victim-blaming.

The song is still played on rock radio stations everywhere, and I whenever I hear it, I cringe. If Weiland was trying to make some sort of positive political statement about rape with this song, I think he failed miserably.