Stereotypical Music Videos

Act of stereotyping part one-

Black (for want of a better word) men are portrayed as criminal. They are shown to be muscular, shifty-looking, 'gangsta' thugs who hang around in gangs and wear bling from their apparent wealth. Not in all cases, of course, but enough for the typical 'black person' image to take root. I have nothing against these 'sexy' criminal-ish guys (who seem to get whatever backup dancer they want) but the extent to which young black men are pushed is like they are being forced to live up to this image or risk being seen as uncool. To famous black rappers/singers/whatever, not all guys with your beautiful dark skin want to be seen as a 'homie gangsta'.

Act of stereotyping part two-

NOT all girls are skanks. In fact, hardly any walk around in hot pants and a bikini top shaking their booty, and being all over any guy that just happens to walk past. Sure, they can if they want to, but is there really any point in surrounding singers with skanky backup dancers in practically underwear? All it does is make people believe that its okay to judge girls on whether they are a double D cup or not, and makes some guys think its okay to talk about a girls body in derogative ways if they are not the image of 'feminine perfection' found in skanky backup dancers. Obviously, dancers in film clips have to wear clothes that make them appealing, as such. That doesn't mean that they wear practically nothing and show that fact off. Girls only go along with it to get noticed in the dog eat dog world of backup dancers, and to gain the attention of sexist managers...

More on this another time. Peace for now.

xoxo