This photo is from last weekend's HARD Day of the Dead show. Diplo, a producer from Philadelphia, created a video for his track, "Express Yourself"that was posted on Youtube last May and it has a whole lot of booty shakin. At HARD, Diplo asked the crowd, "Does anyone want to express themselves?" and women flocked to the stage to dance salaciously.
It seems likely that Diplo's intention is to have women come shake their booties up onstage, but the way it unfolds is a very voluntary process on the part of the women. The song's title, "Express Yourself," is by no means linguistically objectifying women. It is an invitation to do whatever it is that makes you feel alive. Diplo and his production team probably did not have to force (or even more likely, try hard) to get the dancers in the "Express Yourself" video, Quack Mini-Cat, Meaka, Ro, Nick, Timmy, and Noonie-Cat, to do their thing. This is a dance form, something that they're proud of and want to share, and Diplo is there to accept and appreciate it.
Initially, I believed that some of the responsibility of the issue of objectifying women should be put on the women for making the choice to continue to represent themselves in disreputable ways. Women should not allow men to make those decisions for them. However, as with Lady in "Pussy be Yankin" and Lil Kim's badass chick stance on hip hop, I'm beginning to see this portrayal as less harmful and more...expressive.
Watch "Express Yourself" and tell me:
Should women take more responsibility for the way they are portrayed in music videos by refusing to act and dance certain ways?
Is twerking or booty shakin a form of dance?
If women want to represent themselves promiscuously and as sex objects on camera, do they have that right and should they be more aware of the way women will be treated according to their actions?
I think "twerking or booty shaking" are totally valid forms of dance, but I think it might be how these are co-opted that changes the discussion.
ReplyDeleteThere's quite the difference, there seems to me, between a woman dancing with her friends or her S/O on a dance floor, and that same woman dancing alone while men pour alcohol on her, push her into pools, or slide a credit cards down their ass.
Perhaps this is too much of a cop out, but I don't know if I am in any position as a white male to make any other assertions. Perhaps it depends on the reasons and intentions the individual women have. Perhaps it doesn't even matter.
None of this really answered your questions, hanna. just some thoughts...