diff --git a/requests/models.py b/requests/models.py
index 37e7f9a2..17bc48cd 100644
--- a/requests/models.py
+++ b/requests/models.py
@@ -824,7 +824,7 @@ class Response(object):
             if self.status_code == 0 or self.raw is None:
                 self._content = None
             else:
-                self._content = bytes().join(self.iter_content(CONTENT_CHUNK_SIZE)) or bytes()
+                self._content = b''.join(self.iter_content(CONTENT_CHUNK_SIZE)) or b''
 
         self._content_consumed = True
         # don't need to release the connection; that's been handled by urllib3