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Dear Breakup Girl,

I don't know if you'll answer this, but I was just wondering what was up with Britney Spears' song lyric, "Hit me, baby, one more time." Does that mean that the song equates violence with love? You quote the Backstreet Boys a lot, so I figure that you've heard her song before. I think that the song is off heavy rotation on most radio stations where I live; I don't have a TV so I can't watch MTV to listen to it (but did catch it on TV a few times when I was at a relative's house); and I don't know any 13 year old girls. So, I was hoping that you could shed light on whatever her song means.

--V

Dear V,

Make no mistake: BG takes perhaps nothing more seriously than the equation of violence and "love."

So while you're right to be concerned, I dare say, that this song is not one of those equations. Surely you know that while certain subspecies of pop lyrics might be pernicious, others may as well have been written by random word generators. And I'm pretty sure that this reference is meant about as literally as "You are my fire."

Just for the record, though, I also quote, like, Jane Austen and Epictetus.

Love,
Breakup Girl

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