X Factor host Redfoo in the video clip for his song, ‘Literally, I Can’t’. Source: YouTube

I CAN no longer listen to Play-N-Skillz new tune, Literally I Can’t. Literally.

Not because I don’t like the beat, nor because I dislike Redfoo — who appears on the track. It’s because I can’t support a song that has the lyrics, “I’m trying to see what you got, not hear what you think.”

Yes — that made it out of the recording booth. Lyrics: bad. Music video: worse. It features a group of sorority girls attending a frat party held by Play-N-Skillz, Redfoo and Lil Jon.

At first the girls — clad in conservative cardigans and pearls — aren’t interested in downing shots and wrestling other girls. But as the song progresses, one by one they fall, stripping off and gyrating in a blow-up pool.

In the end, there is one lone sister left; clearly she was in some sort of Redfoo-repelling force field because she resisted temptation — albeit after copping an ear bashing of the song’s main line, “Shut the f*ck up”.

‘Literally, I Can't’ has attracted a raft of criticism. Source: YouTube

Violence against women is a hot topic right now. In September, students at Columbia University laid their mattresses outdoors to protest against the US college’s handling of sexual violence on campus. Frat boys are statistically three times more likely to rape, and 19 per cent of female undergraduates in the US have been sexually assaulted.

So, no, a group of men chastising women for not willingly getting naked and grinding on each other is not OK. Since when has it been?

In 2013 the song Blurred Lines made popular the phrase, “I know you want it” — and singer Robin Thicke copped stick for it. Even though the lyrics allude to consensual actions, Thicke’s life went down the gurgler after the song’s release — his wife left him and his follow-up album, Paula, only sold 158 copies in its first week of release in Australia.

However, compared to the latest ditty in question, Blurred Lines is a children’s rhyme. Although Literally I Can’t wasn’t solely released by Redfoo, he’s at the forefront of Australia’s vitriol.

Robin Thicke in the ‘Blurred Lines’ film clip. Photo: YouTube. Source: Supplied

Perhaps it’s because of his profile as a judge and coach of young women on The X Factor — critics are calling for him to be sacked. Or perhaps it’s because we already associate him with being a controversial near-40-year-old whose primary mode of transport is shuffling and whose animalprinted clothing line is called La Freak.

Let’s not forget the video for his last single, New Thang, showed him filming up girls’ skirts with a GoPro strapped to his head. Because LOL. (Whereas Pharrell Williams followed up Blurred Lines, which he produced and sang on, with a song about being Happy.)

It’s true, rap music has been peddling misogyny for as long as an electronic beat has been produced. But the pop charts have remained relatively free — or at least censored — of sexism so obvious, you wonder how Redfoo and Lil Jon ever thought it was a good idea to work on this song.

Regardless, the tune is likely to sell. Blurred Lines reached No. 1 in Australia and 28 other countries, despite the date-rape connotations — on the whole, we dance to it, we sing it, we tolerate its message. But Literally I Can’t takes it further. It sends the message that you don’t want to be that girl who keeps her clothes on and won’t slam shots.

Eminem sings about raping Iggy Azalea in his new song ‘Vegas’. Photo: Timothy Hiatt. Source: Getty Images

Then there’s the case of the charming, want-to-introduce-him-to-your-parents, Julien Blanc. The 25-year-old American “dating coach” works for a company called Real Social Dynamics, which holds seminars and “bootcamps” on how to pick up chicks. Blanc’s tactics include choking women to get theirattention (he coined the hashtag #ChokingGirlsAroundTheWorld) and shoving their faces into his crotch.

Blanc’s world of teachings began to unravel last month, when one of his how-to videos caught the attention of online activist Jennifer Li. She started the #TakeDownJulienBlanc campaign,

with petitions to block him from hotels and for venues to cancel his appearances.

As a result, Blanc’s Australian visa was cancelled, he was banned from entering the UK and his seminars in the US, Japan and Canada were postponed. The fact he was literally booed out of Australia goes to show the tide of tolerance may be already turning. Before you argue guys like this are justified because Nicki Minaj raps about her Superbass and anacondas in her tossed salad (or something like that), know there is a difference: she’s doing that without violently demeaning men in her lyrics.

Rapper Drake. Photo: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong. Source: AP

Hip-hop artist Drake rapped, “I hate callin’ the women b*tches, but the b*tches love it. I took some sense and made a nickel of it.” On the note of tolerance, I quote Ms Norbury from Mean Girls: “[Girls] have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it OK for guys [to do it].”

In his new song, Vegas, Eminem waxes lyrical about raping fellow artist Iggy Azalea and, in another song, punching pop singer Lana Del Rey. Sure, the 42-year-old rapper is no stranger to lyrical controversy. He’s also not mentoring teenagers on a prime-time talent show like Redfoo is.

In response to Eminem’s song, 24-year-old Azalea tweeted: “I’m bored of the old men threatening young women as entertainment trend and much more interested in the young women getting $ trend. It’s especially awkward because my 14-year-old brother is the biggest Eminem fan and now the artist he admired says he wants to rape me.”

No doubt the industry won’t change overnight and this conversation will continue. But for the moment, in regards to Redfoo’s song, literally, I can’t.

Follow Mel on Twitter @melevans. Download the Sunday Style app here.