“You saying that you want me. So press record, I’ll let you film me”. Sounds enticing? Well what about “Do you like what you see? You want to video me”? Even better –“What? You want me naked. If you liking this position you can tape it on your video phone.” Beyonce is one of the most popular female artists of the past ten years and has a fan base ranging from scary old men to bubbly young girls. Her allure was that she has a) an incredible voice and b) and incredible body.
She was someone that young girls could aspire to be — confident in her body, an incredible performer and by some crazy power and dedication she has managed to keep her name clean from shady stories in the press. However, her latest boy who murdered his class mate was branded as a “listener of Slipknot” and Slipknot was branded as the type of music no parents should let their kids listen to. Why then are parents letting their sons and daughters watch this Beyonce video, or videos by most other female and male hip-hop artists?
Is the whole thing irrelevant? Do we not take as much from music as the media would have us believe? Under this argument one would argue that it’s just music, and as “critical viewers” we can distinguish between acceptable action and the action that we see on TV. Behaviour could not be linked to what we see. But we all know this is not the case. Any young adult that went out in the time since Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It will have been witness to the behaviour that followed the playing of this song in a club or at a party, among “straight” girls. Celebrities and popular music artists help to define what is acceptable for girls and boys to do, yet don’t take the responsibility for it.
So I wonder why then Beyonce felt that her next move on the popular music ladder would be to sell her sex for a video?
Author
A prince with dignity and determination
Prince Ngarambe’s goals are to become Rwanda’s first transgender model and to uplift the country’s youth
The EFF’s principles are unshakeable
Unlike the ANC, the core values of the freedom fighters do not change with each leader it elects
