On the other hand my twitter timeline went ablaze with GUYS who were talking about her Window Seat video. Some of the things that were said were Jay Electronica should be glad he gets to lay up under that. Damn those boy shorts sat up on that ass. "I went to 10 Badu concerts I believe Window Seat is a personal gift to me from Erykah" and yadda yadda. Now honestly after reading those tweets I wanted to see the video for her body, I once heard she had a fatty in some random convo and I honestly wanted to see (I have lesbian tendencies...lol rather I like beautiful bodies) I watched it...I wowed at her ass...and I'm like damn she sure does have a big ole ghetto booty who knew. Then she strips down to nothing and POW.. she gets shot and falls to the ground with Groupthink bleeding from her head and a little message about group think limiting our individuality.
My first thought was DAMN how come I wasn't expecting this great message from this video, even after reading quite a few tweets about the vid. Then I thought dang what's the difference between lets say a Video girl's nakedness and this BADU nakedness as I'mma call it. What made her nakedness so amazing and ok and tolerated, while a video girls nakedness is intolerable and cheap and demeaning. I got to thinking when is nakedness ok?
I happened to come across the vid by Matt and Kim that inspired Badu on the blog of a fellow blogger, and when I saw theirs I thought, dang they had a message and their nakedness and naked bodies or ass shots were limited. Now lets be a little honest with ourselves how many guys really got the message, and how many repeated the video for the message? Did Badu not realize that ass shots would limit the strength of the message? Did she leave it purposefully for the added attention she'd garner from her ass? Was every aspect of that video really put in place for the sole purpose of advancing the message?
Let me first say that I get the message...I get her as an artist stripping down to her essence and ridding herself of an ideology that permeates society where we think wholistically instead of as individuals... I get it...TRUST me I do. However Do I think that the ass shots were a ploy to garner attention...Sure the hell yes I do. Do I feel like she knew what she was doing when she left those few seconds of her ass cheeks jiggling in the video....Sure the hell yes I do....Also do I think she realized, that the ass shots would or could take away from the message? Sure the hell yes I do.
You know what though, in all those ways its genius..she grabbed everyone...she grabbed the little 15 year old boy who only wants to see a fat ass to the intellectuals, so that they can have a discussion. But lets not be so quick to think that the message was sooo deep that those who question her decisions her intentions and her methods are just people who don't get the message.
If there's anything that I learnt from the video is this...I wont think like everyone else and make an excuse for her work and her nakedness as art because it has meaning and depth with a message...or think of it any different from those video girls who sell sex, because Badu was well aware. (She knew that the nakedness although not overt would still grab attention, and boost listening, boost rhetoric and WOWZERS possibly even boost ALBUM SALES..Dang who woulda thunkit she is an artist who sings for a living afterall). Im going to think like an individual and dissect it, because its my brain and I do what I want with it.
With that said peep the vid
PS on top of the above what the hell does the video have to do with the song, we all wanna be all intellectual yet what the hell happened to videos that made sense for a song and its lyrics?
PSS Maybe all the video girls at the end of music videos shld shout "womens liberation" then they wont be called bitches and hoes.
her message was deep and she knew going naked in a video would garner attention. i don't think the nudity, or even the ass jiggle, take a way from the message of the song.
ReplyDeletehaving a fat ass and walking down the street with such does not mean you are selling sex. she wasn't clapping it, shaking it, or otherwise sexing herself up. she was walking, not even in heels.
to compare Badu to a gyrating hyper-sexualized video girl because she took off her clothes is baffling. they are not nearly one in the same. the message matters. nude does not mean sexualized.
I will admit that the video girl comparison is a bit of a stretch, and it isn't one in the same but at the bare minimum the root of it all, it is using nudity as a means to garner attention to something that again at the root is monetary along with a message.
ReplyDeleteMy argument isn't that she is sexualized which i now see where the video girl reference can be a bit misleading, however it is a bit troublesome that most view it as sexy and the message gets lost (esp men...i read over 50 tweets and non referenced the message you see nothing wrong with that?)....and was miss erykah aware that this could happen.
My point is I think that she was well aware that it could and that it would, esp based on some of her follow-up questions on twitter.thats all my point is because like I said I get the message.
I originally read this from my phone so I didn't want to write a comment and risk T-mobile losing it...the assholes they are.
ReplyDeleteThese same points crossed my mind when I was writing my take on her video. I think some people don't want the comparison to be equivalent because they LOVE/LIKE Badu and view her differently than the women who CHOOSE to be naked in other music videos. Logically speaking, in this day and age, I've NEVER felt like Black women were being exploited in music videos because that was a conscious decision ALL of them chose to make. No one forces these women to audition AND appear in these videos scantily clad or butt ass naked. JUST LIKE ERYKAH, they make the adult decision to let the world see something that is usually only seen behind closed doors or on a beach. I don't feel bad for them at all because it is THEIR CHOICE to do that with their life. When they decide to do something different, kudos to them.
I admire ANY woman who has enough confidence (real or imagined) to show their body to people they don't even know. However, I'm no fool and will not delude myself into thinking Erykah was doing something 100% for the message. She could have expressed THE SAME MESSAGE by being fully clothed. If her body was made different, the message would have been taken different by our Black men. However, I feel confident in saying the majority of men who watched that could have given a fuck about groupthinking.
I have 160 followers on Twitter and I follow 180 people; out of the people who tweet regularly, about 80% of those individuals were talking about HER ASS...NOT HER MESSAGE. I REFUSE to believe that my timeline was the ONLY one being affected like this; especially when people were RTing OTHER people with VARIOUS "booty" tweets that I don't even know, from their timelines.
It is what it is and people can try and make it into something more "clean" but the bottom line is...she knew what she was doing and to a degree, it isn't any different than what these rappers do...they want you to buy their music so they create videos that grab your attention. Sex sells...she just sold sex with a message. The end.
P.S. -just like I watch and like rappers videos with barely dressed women, I liked her naked ass video too LOL
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the Head Assertive Wit..that was the majority of my point. She knew she had a fatty...she knew nakedness draws attantion, she knew non sexualized nakedness means "ART" (puhlease) and shes a recording artist.
ReplyDeleteHer ethnocentricsm, intellect and depth does not automatically make this 100% about the message...FOR ME IT DIDNT FLY