i have been neglecting my blog, but not without good reason. i try to write only when i feel that i have something remotely interesting to share, although that is debatable…
i am very late on this one, this song has been out for quite some time, but about a month ago, i heard wouldn’t get far. at first, i was taken aback by the lyrics. i thought “what an ignorant song to make, how much more will women take??” i watched a hip hop documentary that aired on PBS a couple of weeks (or was it months?) ago, and it broached the topic of mysogeny in hip hop. i remember thinking at the time that women should take more ownership of their image(s) and voice(s), which got me to thinking about “exploitation.”
there is no black and white here, the whole thing is one giant gray area. the industry demands sex, it sells. as long as the demand exists, so will the supply. it wouldn’t matter if one girl walked off of a video set refusing to appear scantily clad, there would be 100 more willing to take her place. how can men respect women if women don’t respect themselves? but why should men disrespect women, regardless of how they represent themselves? why is it ever acceptable that any man’s excuse for acting out of turn would be “you saw how she was dressed, she was asking for it.” and then there is the age old double standard: a promiscuous woman is viewed differently than a promiscuous man. i think in the end, it boils down to who has the power.
the person in the position to wield control over the outcome of someone elses “success” has the potential to exploit. yet, anyone who compromises themselves to get what they want, and then makes excuses for the reasons, is delusional. i don’t buy “i had no other choice.” it’s a needs versus wants, and we live in a society that values material things. a person needs food, shelter, and a means of income. what they don’t need is caviar, a mansion on the hills, and a multi-million dollar salary. some people want fame, fortune, and excess, and they will do whatever it takes to get a piece of the action.
i suppose when all is said and done, the game wrote a song that is blunt and truthful. as much as the women are indicted for using their femeninity to make it, men are equally as responsible. after all, if sex wasn’t currency with them, it wouldn’t be used as a form of payment.