Country Song Draws Ire of Feminists : Pop music: Critics argue that Holly Dunn’s ‘Maybe I Mean Yes’ can be seen as an invitation to rape. ‘That lyric sends shivers up my spine,’ says a leader of NOW.

A fast-rising country record by three-time Grammy nominee Holly Dunn has come under fire by feminists and music fans who view the song as an invitation to rape.

Dunn, who co-wrote the song “Maybe I Mean Yes,” which was released three weeks ago by Warner Bros. Records, calls her composition a “cute, lighthearted story about courtship and flirtation.”

But critics--including representatives of some feminist groups and rape crisis centers around the country--say the record perpetuates the myth that women flirtatiously invite men to rape them.

Sample lyrics from the song, which is already in the country Top 40 in Radio & Records magazine:

When I say “no” I mean “maybe”

Baby, don’t you know me yet

Nothin’s worth havin’ if it ain’t hard to get

So let me clarify so you won’t have to try and guess

When I say “no” I mean “maybe”

Or maybe I mean “yes.”

“That lyric sends shivers up my spine,” said Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women. “This kind of entertainment validates the idea that women don’t mean what they say.”

Maria Allen, crisis intervention coordinator at the Rape and Sexual Abuse Center in Nashville, agreed. “One reason I think the song has garnered so much attention is that it is being sung by a woman,” said Allen, who reports receiving complaints about the song. “The problem is that in most cases that is exactly how men justify rape. They say no means yes . But it doesn’t. No means no.”

Dunn--who has had more than six Top 10 country hits since 1987--maintains the message to her song is being misconstrued.

“The couple in the song never even get to the point where they go out,” she said from Nashville. “It’s not about rape. All we’re talking about here is the funny little faux pas that have gone on between men and women since the dawn of time.”

Still, women in Seattle took such offense to the song that Tim Murphy, program director at KMPS-AM/FM, the city’s largest country music station, decided to ban the record after playing it only once.

“I’ve never seen such an immediate negative response before,” Murphy said. “Although I recently talked to Holly about the song and understand where she is coming from, the lyric seemed to cause our listeners so much grief I felt obligated to pull it.”

Despite the controversy, a Warner Bros. spokeswoman said that 134 of 203 radio stations that report to Radio & Records, a national trade journal, continue to play the record regularly.

In Los Angeles, “Maybe I Mean Yes” is not being featured on either major country station KLAC-AM or KZLA-FM. But Gene Bridges, program director at KLAC-AM, attributed the lack of airplay to the song’s low position (No. 58) on the Billboard country chart, not the controversy surrounding it.

Dunn has appeared on several nationally syndicated radio and TV talk shows in the past two weeks to explain her position to fans. While the 33-year-old singer said she is sensitive to the issue of date rape, she believes most of those complaining about the song are “over-reacting.”

“I think this song is a victim of timing,” she said. “A few years ago, a record like this wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow. But now everyone’s sensitivities have been aroused by media coverage of the date rape subject. I think I just got caught in the cross-fire. It seems like maybe I’m being used by some angry people who need a soapbox to express their views.”