Of course, it’s always been very dubious just how “straight” a straight man in the upper echelons of society really is. For his preference for very, very young girls tends to signal an odd fascination with, ultimately, a boyish body. But anyway. They’ll just tell you that “bagging” an underage girl is merely affirmation of their unstoppable power. That they can attain anything they want, whether consensually or not. Kesha would certainly know all about that, having been Svengali’d by Dr. Luke when she was still in her teen years. Sure, she was “legal,” but there’s no denying that she was taken advantage of when she agreed to sign a six-album contract with Dr. Luke, effectively shackling her hits to his recording and publishing companies, Kasz Money and Prescription Songs (these names, oy vey).
After being signed in September of ’05, it only took a month for Dr. Luke to really go in for the kill. Or rather, rape. It was at a party at Nicky Hilton’s house because, again, this was 2005. Dr. Luke offered Kesha what he called “sober pills.” But na, turned out to be GHB. When she woke up the next morning in his hotel room, she had no memory of what happened after the pills took effect. Blackout being the perfect means to conduct whatever “business” Dr. Luke wanted. After all, Kesha was “his” “product” now. He “owned” her, as far as he was concerned.
Despite knowing that something very wrong had occurred, for various reasons (mainly the fact that Kesha didn’t want to try starting a career under this “pall”), she brushed it aside. As so many women have been expected to—to merely accept sexual assault as part and parcel of the entertainment industry. As time has gone on, the similarities between the silencing of Kesha and Britney have become more noticeable. And, like Britney, there were so many hints from Kesha about Dr. Luke’s inappropriate behavior, with especial regard to how Kesha suddenly seemed to have little control over the direction of her career. Then there are the fans’ speculations about the judges involved in the Kesha vs. Dr. Luke case being in someone’s back pocket, as Brenda Penny seemed to be. For an additional eerie Britney connection, at one point in her early days, Dr. Luke was even trying to direct Kesha into Larry Rudolph’s tentacles.
With regard to an online petition circulating around the time when 2012’s Warrior was released, an interviewer for Rolling Stone asked, “[The fans’] argument is that Dr. Luke, and I’m quoting them here, is ‘controlling Ke$ha like a puppet.’ Is this a petition you support?” Pulling a Britney during her conservatorship era, Kesha deflects with, “I feel like my fans are really protective of me. They just want to see me grow as an artist, which I agree with. Hopefully in the future, I’ll be in a position where I can put out a ballad or a more vulnerable song.”
The interviewer probes, “You don’t have any creative control now?” Negating her “everything’s fine” statement from before, she confirms, “Not really. What’s been put out as singles have just perpetuated a particular image that may or may not be entirely accurate. I’d like to show the world other sides of my personality. I don’t want to just continue putting out the same song and becoming a parody myself. I have so much more to offer than that and I can’t wait till the world really gets to hear that on the radio.” And she did have so much more to offer. Particularly in a 2019 song called “Rich, White, Straight, Men” that served as her first bona fide new music since the release of 2017’s Rainbow. And no, RCA didn’t exactly jump up to help her release it in a more official capacity.
In any case, who knew that we would look back upon 2019 as a far more innocent time. Pre-corona, pre-overturning of Roe v. Wade. The “subtle” anger of “Rich, White, Straight Men” speaking to what hath been wrought more than ever in the U.S. And while Kesha offered a looped “video” of her flipping the bird along to the song before, she has now seen fit to put on a full production for a proper music video—in glorious puppetry form. Being no stranger to the DIY aesthetic (see also: “Little Bit of Love”), Kesha is aware that a ghoulish, cartoonish approach to the visuals is best for matching a song that reflects our horror-show carnival of a country. Where subjugating women’s rights has been a tale as old as the Constitution.
It is a country that allows a victim like Kesha to be told, in 2015, by her own record label, that her “claims” of abuse were merely a “transparent and misguided attempt to renegotiate her contracts.” Because women should simply learn to accept abuse with a smile and never talk back to whatever “Daddy” is in charge, right?
As we’ve seen small glimmers of the lawsuit unfold (though it hasn’t gained nearly as much grassroots traction or publicity as the #FreeBritney movement), there was one moment when it appeared Dr. Luke was willing to drop it a.k.a. release her from her contract—on a condition that Kesha would, once again, deny everything (as she felt obliged to in a 2011 deposition). On her Instagram in 2016, Kesha described the “deal” as: “So. I got offered my freedom IF I were to lie. I would have to APOLOGIZE publicly and say that I never got raped. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS behind closed doors. I will not take back the TRUTH. I would rather let the truth ruin my career than lie for a monster ever again.”
Dr. Luke’s own tactics of harassment have extended into the realm of fans who support Kesha. Just as it was the case for Britney fans to be targeted and harassed by Jamie Spears, so, too, were Kesha fans for speaking out about her treatment through online petitions. Particularly Michael Eisele, also subpoenaed by Dr. Luke for “conspiring with Kesha” to defame him.
So yes, the depth of the ways in which Kesha’s truth (the truth) can be suppressed are manifold, all because of the patriarchal institutions that seek to protect and keep that patriarchy in place. The Supreme Court has emerged at the forefront of this ongoing “phenomenon” (read: barbarity). Clarence Thomas, the lone defier of the convenient stereotype in that he’s not white, still oughn’t be excluded from the song’s lambasting of those rich men in power who think they have ownership over everything, including women’s bodies (Kesha addressed that ahead of her time, too, via the sardonic lyric, “If you were a lady then you own your lady parts just like a man goes to a dealership and then he owns a car”). They do not. And they never will, no matter what laws they implement.
A woman cannot be contained, try as the patriarchy might (for centuries) to do just that. And men seem utterly terrified by this, for there’s a reason someone with a penis once wrote, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Which is precisely what the entire U.S. government has invoked. And Kesha’s “Rich, White, Straight Men” is the ideal anthem to soundtrack that summoned vitriol. Undeniably, Kesha is an important voice for conveying that vitriol, and weighing in on the newfound relevance of this single with the description that can be seen beneath the video: “Abortion is healthcare and healthcare is a human right. I am proud of who I am. I am a woman who should have the right to my own bodily autonomy. I should feel safe. I don’t. We won’t rest until we all are protected.”
