Sorry, Bruno Mars, But Women Are Not Obligated To 'Please' Men
It's time we stopped profiting off of stereotypes.
Distracted by the nice beat and the feel or attractiveness of Bruno Mars, many of us forget about the lyrical context the music industry promotes when men talk about women. While there have been many love songs that have hit the top charts, "Please Me" by Bruno Mars reinforces stereotypical gender roles on how exactly women are supposed to "please" or cater to men.
Women are being treated like second-class citizens.
At first glance, the lyrics are very sexual and refer to how women are supposed to do sexual favors for men. This reinforces the stereotype for women that they are sex objects and subjected to dehumanization. No matter how "cool" Bruno Mars or Cardi B might look having an attractive interaction and dressed up to the nines, to be a woman still being treated like a second-class citizen in 2019 is exhausting. My point is we have to stop profiting off of discriminatory stereotypes and care more about social responsibility.
Knowing that the music industry is organized around profit, it's easy to put out a song with a music video and message without caring who will interpret it. Like advertising, all that matters is partnership and viewership. Out of all the love and sex songs we know and love, having a song titled, "Please Me," obviously grabs attention for the title, but for all the wrong reasons.
Cardi B's girl gang represents an impossible standard of beauty.
For those who haven't seen the music video, there's a long list of reinforced stereotypes that are as old as time. First, Cardi B appears with her girl gang dressed as if they were models, toys, and representing an impossible standard of beauty. Cardi B and her girl gang are seen holding a lollipop that symbolizes how they want or Cardi B specifically,(yes, I actually have to say this) lick Bruno Mars's lollipop. The lyrics that support this time frame in the video are:
" Lollipoppin' (poppin'), twerkin' in some J's (ooh) On the dance floor (uh-huh), no panties in the way (nope)I take my time with it (ow), bring you close to me (ow) Don't want no young dumb shit Better fuck me like we listenin' to JodeciI was tryna lay low (low), takin' it slow (slow) When I'm fuckin' again (ayyy)"
Second, Cardi B's girl gang faces the cashier and persists to shake their booties as guys openly touch their butts and mimic having sex disguised as a dance move. This signifies ownership of women by allowing men to do anything to them in this part of the video. Third, if that wasn't enough, wait until the girl gang hops on the cashier counter and persists to twerk and smack their butts like a stripper.
No matter how much you might like Cardi B or Bruno Mars, we should all be disappointed and expect better from all artists. Portraying a stereotypical video as men being dominant is old and downright not creative or unique.
Instead of asking, "Why was this video made," we can instead dismiss it as a false reality that doesn't align with how life should be portrayed.
'Bird Box' Therapy: This Movie Could Possibly Be About Adam And Eve
A good movie.
Netflix's "Bird Box" is a survival movie that follows the character, Malorie. The movie doesn't show any creatures, like zombies, which humanity has to fight against. Instead, its version of an apocalypse leads people to kill themselves if they "look" at this mysterious force.
Malorie's sister, Jessica, falls victim to the force as they drive from the ob-gyn (because Malorie's pregnant). The audience sees Jessica's eyes mutate, indicating that whatever it is she saw has taken over her. The city goes chaos, with cars up in flames and corpses lying around. We then find out that this sight is different for everyone because it manifests their "greatest loss" or desires. The main survival tip of the movie is to not look. "Bird Box" continues from there and ends with Malorie and her two children in "paradise."
My theory is this: the movie is about Adam and Eve.
In the "Book of Genesis," Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge, which God forbade them from doing. A serpent then tempts Eve into eating from it, and Eve offers the fruit to Adam. After eating the fruit, they see that they are naked, a look that causes them to feel ashamed and to fashion together things to cover themselves. This disobedience leads God to exile them from the Garden of Eden, furthering their (and our) relationship with God.
The movie doesn't allow the characters to look because doing so leads to suicide. There are some people in the movie, however, who want to look. They don't commit suicide; but, they make other people look. Devils have possessed these bodies. They are scary and reckless. They are violent, using force to do their job. Looking is a way of obtaining knowledge, and those who look see a false reality- false knowledge. This "creature," like Descartes's evil demon, masks reality. A character, who was helping the fallen Malorie get up amongst the craziness on the street, sees her mother after looking at the creature. We later find out that her mother has been dead for a while.
This creature manifests temptation- the serpent in the Garden of Eden. It entices the lookers and possesses them to kill them. The movie provides for the point that we distance ourselves from God because we then stop to see true reality by looking. We are seeing what is not necessary. We are not seeing the good and beautiful that God had intended; just like Adam and Eve, we strayed our focus away from the beauty. Succumbing to temptation marked the fall of humanity, making way for greed and walking further away from the good and beautiful.
Girl and Boy, named so for most of the movie, are the Adam and Eve who never gave into the serpent's enticement. This is so because they were taught not to look under Malorie's assertive guidance. They were born in the emptiness of civilization, not having knowledge of this world- as if it's a restart to being in the Garden of Eden. The three survive the movie's obstacles, ending up in what looks to be the Garden of Eden on Earth, a place that has good and beautiful.
In conclusion, "Bird Box" portrays the view wherein the world has completely distanced itself from the good and beautiful. It comments on greed and corruption, taking into view the temptation of looking at things other than what really matters. The movie's world has gone to shambles (a parallel to the end-of-the-world picture), with strife taking over. Love re-enters as the three survivors enter the "Garden of Eden," starting over from the "beginning."