

TRAMP STAMPS - I'd Rather Die (Official Music Video) If "Sex With Me" and "I'd Rather Die" are any indication, the brand of feminism that Tramp Stamps attempt to sell is sexual liberation among cisgender women who sleep with cisgender men. However, when she sings "I can't recall a memory of someone driving me home and not asking for a blowjob," I have to ask: is this really the most pertinent aspect of the patriarchy? Is literally encouraging your fans to sleep with men who don't respect them doing any good? Though Maino is openly queer, she sings of her attraction to men as if it were a curse. The chorus proudly proclaims that Tramp Stamps would "rather die than hook up with another straight white guy." Aside from an allusion to assault - "You can't get it up / I'm sick of hearing 'it's the alcohol,'" go the song's most incriminating lines - "I'd Rather Die" is a blatant display of heteropessimism, or " performative disaffiliations with heterosexuality." And when Tramp Stamps - whose members are all white - were confronted about issues of racial fetishization, Maino responded with a brief TikTok to explain that the song was intended to encourage "men to be better in bed." The band's most recent song, "I'd Rather Die," has drawn the most criticism.

The song is a heavy-handed complaint about sleeping with immature men, loaded with an empty chorus that seems to rely on shock value: "Calling you daddy, you didn't complain / When you werе having sex with me," Maino hollers in-between verses about how terribly this guy treats her outside of the bedroom. Tramp Stamps' first original song, "Sex With Me," came out in January. But what I find dangerous about Tramp Stamps is their clumsy, flawed demonstration of "feminism," and the fact that whoever is behind the band thinks this is what Gen Z needs - or even wants. I'm not going to pretend that I immediately shun artists who found success thanks to their connections, and I'm not so bothered by the fact that three women with songwriting credits and roots in the music world are now marketing themselves as a band. Personally, I don't care if Tramp Stamps are "industry plants" or not. Frankly, it's a pretty inconsequential term to use especially now, when K-Pop acts are increasingly popular worldwide despite literally being assembled with potential profit in mind. The term "industry plant" has been thrown around to shame young artists like Clairo and Billie Eilish, whose parents are in the entertainment industry, or bands like Greta Van Fleet, whose similarities to Led Zeppelin often feel a little too on the nose.
