Anti-sex abuse organisation 'Take Back the Night' challenges Justin Timberlake song of same name

‘Take Back the Night,’ a feminist organization that works to spread awareness of sexual and domestic abuse, is shocked by the new Justin Timberlake single of the same name.

Katherine Koestner, executive director of the Take Back the Night Foundation, told Radar, “Normally entities as large as Justin Timberlake do very kind and thoughtful things to support our cause.”

She mentioned some of the issues she had with the song, such as how his song precedes the name of the organization in Wikipedia searches. ”That’s not been helpful,” she said, while adding, “The lyrics are definitely very sexual and not at all clearly anti-sexual violence. ‘Use me,’ for example, is not a great phrase for anyone affiliated with the organization.”

Koester also talked about attempts to reach Justin Timberlake, both informally through his website, and under more legally-threatening circumstances: “Then we sent him a letter Friday from our legal counsel saying ‘You used our name without our permission.’ They got back to us and said they’re sorry. His agent said ‘Justin’s a good guy! He’s a family man!’ They claimed he’d never heard of us before he wrote that song.”

Koestner went on to say, “I don’t know what country he’s been in. I suppose it could have slipped off his radar screen somehow. Somebody working for him definitely messed up.”

She added, “Usually people are pretty mindful because no one is actually ‘for’ sexual assault,” she said. “This whole thing with Justin is just really unfortunate and we’re hoping it can be amicably resolved.”

Here’s the Timberlake song in question—which seems also deserving of a few copyright letters from the Michael Jackson estate:

[via Stereogum]