My dislike for the strong influence that pop culture has on our society is a topic that is very dear to me. I clutch my opinions tighter than a woman holding the last little black dress at a discount sale. However, nothing has angered me more than the portrayal of women in this plethora of entertainment mediums. More often than not, we find that women are either portrayed negatively or berated for their ‘illicit’ behaviour by some sexist guy in a music video. We even find that they are praised for acting promiscuously and are even encouraged to do so. Today I will peel away the greasy layers of some of our top pop culture phenomena: music videos and their lyrics.
I recently underwent the excruciating torture of viewing a new rap video: ‘Coco’ by O.T. Genesis. Seriously, I have never rolled my eyes so often in four minutes. I think I may need corrective eye surgery, along with a mind- wipe like they have in Men In Black. I have never seen a larger show of blatant objectification of women since a Lil’ Wayne video! This video (which is apparently the ‘made-for-TV’ version of the original video), depicts the usual buxom women squeezed into microscopic white bikinis, shaking their posteriors lewdly at the cameras. Keep in mind that this display of more skin than a nudist commune was approved by the big wigs at television stations. The cameraman went to great lengths to tape those women from every possible ‘flattering’ angle, crudely taking shots from the ground looking up as they passed by and zooming into their assets. One girl even ground her backside vigorously against the rapper’s pelvis. Definitely not made for TV. We hardly saw any of their faces and all that I took away from the video was: 1) I need to attend Sunday mass to cleanse my soul and 2) That was a terrible song!
Not only are the videos horrendous and demeaning to us, the lyrics leave much to be desired. Amongst the proverbial racial and homophobic slurs, gang violence and drug selling, therein lies a mix of lyrics about treating women like whores, objectifying them, insulting them and encouraging them to ‘throw that thing round for my boys.’ Whatever that means. Hip Hop culture in itself is a juxtaposition. We ask for more rappers with deeper lyrics yet continue to promote the ones who brag about how many women are waiting in their tour bus. It’s disgusting! It makes us appear to be loose creatures with low or no morals that jump from man to man.
It disgusts me how we women are treated as mere sexual apparatus in music videos. This is very prevalent in rap videos from all generations, though it seems to have gotten worse over the years. With the advent of twerking, rap videos have made a mockery of women across the globe. As more rappers hit the scene and gain more and more success, more and more clothes are stripped from women in videos. More and more women are disrobed of their dignity in said videos, and with that, any shred of respect that the outside world may have had for them. Now if we see that same video vixen on the street, she will be met with cold stares from other women and leering men. Often times these women choose to become video vixens, I would assume, for financial reasons (although in this day and age, they could just be ‘expressing their sexuality’). According to HipHopWorld.com, video vixens are defined as being ‘Hip Hop Honeys’.
"What makes a Hip Hop Honey?
To be a Honey the female must be physically extremely beautiful, educated, confident, simultaneously insatiable and demure. A vixen doesn't need a man to get her the finer things in life, but expects it on the strength of her beauty, and love alone. A vixen is a woman full of curves in all the right places and a style always befitting. A vixen is beyond a show piece. She is what makes the item sell in a culture that is dominated and driven by sexual presentations and money."
Never before have I associated video vixens (or ‘Hip Hop Honeys’) as being educated and demure. Demure suggests that they are reserved and composed, a far cry from the gyrating, oiled-up bodies we usually see. Sure, they may be demure in real life but I would hardly guess that from seeing how they are made to behave on screen. For all we know, that dark-haired girl in Rae Sremmurd’s video could have a degree in Law from Harvard or is currently studying to be an engineer at MIT. The negative portrayal of these women leads many to think that women are actually like that in real life. We’re not. Far from it. At least I’m not.
We do not waste away our days mindlessly chasing after men, then draping ourselves over their arm in the VIP room of a club. We do not aspire to appear naked to the world, shaking everything moveable on our person. We do not want the views of a certain group of rappers to be accepted as the universal truth for all women. I do not oppose the idea that women can’t be sexual beings. We embrace our sexuality and to be berated universally by sexist rappers infuriates us. Why do these rappers continue to harangue the very beings that brought them into this world?
I am not a video vixen, ho, bitch or chick. I am a woman. And no, I will not twerk for you.
-"Throw Sum Mo!"
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