Before today I had never been offended by a music video. I have been disgusted (Nine Inch Nails video to their song with the lyric "I want to f**k you like an animal" and that video to that moronic "you and me baby ain't nothing but mammals..." song), but I had never actually been offended until just a few minutes ago.
Because there was nothing else on I was interested in watching, I turned the channel to MTV to watch TRL (Total Request Live, I watch it occasionally to see what songs and videos are currently called the best by the general masses. Usually I wouldn't vote for any of the songs on the countdown.). What disturbs me the most, however, is that the video was in the number one spot. Christina Aguilera and Lil' Kim's "Can't Hold Us Down" had claimed Justin Timberlake's "Senorita" spot at the top of TRL.
The video starts with Christina Aguilera walking down a street in a city wearing a very tight and strapless thing around her upper torso. She was also wearing a small jacket over that, but at one point she throws the jacket off of her. Naturally, her midsection was not covered. She was also wearing shorts that looked more like a bikini bottom with small flaps in front and back.
Anyway, as she was bouncing down the street, some random guy had the nerve to grab her butt. After this horrible display of disrespect toward the femal race, every woman in the neighborhood decides to get into a mob-sized group and yell at a male mob-sized group.
Eventually, Lil' Kim bounces out into the open and reveals that she is wearing a bikini and something that looks like a jacket. I honestly believe that both Christina and Lil' Kim went to the fashion/costume/whatever person for the video and said, "Make us look like whores."
The lyrics I mostly wasn't able to understand. One phrase I heard repeated, however, went something like this: "...I don't understand/ If a guy has three girls then he's the man/ but if a girl does the same then she's a whore..." Now, I think that the lyrics themselves do point out the double standard toward promiscuity that a large portion of society holds today. However, in my opinion it doesn't matter if you are a guy or a girl, if you are a whore you are a whore. (Strangely enough, the video played before this was 50 cent's "P-I-M-P") So my problem isn't really the lyrics of the song, although I do think they promote sex. My problem is with what the people are doing in the video.
At one point a girl is holding a water hose in a phallic way. Christina then grabs the hose and pretends it is a microphone for a short time. She then later holds the hose between her legs and sprays the group of me with it. The men don't act much better. Several times they thrust in the direction of the women and during a large portion of the video they are, I'm assuming, trying to impress the women by dancing.
The video ends with Christine once again bouncing down the street, but this time she is smiling as if she just accomplished something and without a jacket.
I think the point of the video and song was that women should be able to be just as sexually active as men without being scorned by society. I think the whole point of me writing this was to say to all women that if you dress like a whore you are not going to be respected by any man.
Posted by Randy at August 8, 2003 01:42 PM