I believe in Karma. I believe that what you put out into the world, good or bad, comes back to you. That's why I'm not surprised at the recent turn of events in the lawsuit about Robin Thicke's 2013 summer anthem, "Blurred Lines."
"Blurred Lines" re-created the same dilemma that any free-thinking and music-loving feminist faces: Loving the beat and the melody, but hating the words and, in this case, the video. Sure, we've all seen videos where women were nothing but sexual foils to the male artists in the video, but there was something creepy about the video, especially the topless version. Sure, Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" video made the women in it look like vacuous dolls, but this video made the women in it look like vacuous inflatable sex dolls. I'm not a big Robin Thicke fan, but somehow I expected more from the "Lost Without You" crooner. Before, he sang songs about loving women, while "Blurred Lines" smacked of undertones of grooming a woman for sexual exploitation like a privileged college frat boy rapist would. The graffiti in the video that read, "Robin Thicke has a big d***" was juvenile and over the top. Clearly no one cared about the sexism in the song and the effect it might have on young people. Sexism sells.
In their depositions in the copyright infringement suit against the children of Marvin Gaye, both Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams admitted that Thicke did not contribute to writing the song. Thicke admitted he lied about helping to write the song in order to sell more records. He also admitted he didn't do a single interview sober in the aftermath of "Blurred Lines" and the MTV Video Awards twerking incident with the tasteless and boundary-lacking Miley Cyrus.
Here's where Karma comes in.
"Blurred Lines" led to a media blitz, a twerking scandal, and a picture with Thicke's hand planted firmly in the crack of the ass of a woman not his wife. His wife, the stunningly beautiful Paula Patton (notice Thicke didn't have her running around topless in the video in front of Pharrell and T.I.), leaves him, and despite doing an album in her honor and naming it for her, the album fails and he fails to get her back. He disrespected women and lost the woman he respected. Karma.
Pharrell also got a bit of a Karma bite back. The song for which he was nominated for an Oscar, "Happy," loses to "Let It Go." It isn't often that a music artist gets nominated for an Oscar. Is it a coincidence that he lost in the wake of all the "Blurred Lines" fallout? I don't think so.
Sure, you can put your art out there and not take responsibility for it. You can pass it off as just expression and, well, art. Just because you don't take responsibility for your work doesn't mean that Karma won't hold you responsible in some form or another. And maybe, just maybe, Thicke's behavior was a cry for help for his drug and alcohol dependence issues. Maybe he really wanted what Karma was handing out.
Blurred lines, clear Karma.
You know you want it.
Showing posts with label feminism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feminism. Show all posts
President Obama's Comment About Attorney General Kamala Harris: I'm Not Offended, and Ain't I A Woman?
President Obama lauds California Attorney General Kamala Harris by saying she's brilliant, tough, dedicated and "the best looking attorney general in the country."
One of the local news channels here, CBS 13, showed a video of interviews with women -- and a guy or two -- asking them whether President Obama's remarks were offensive to women. The women gave mixed responses.
None of the women were African-American, which pisses me the hell off because, as an African-American woman, I've got a way different perspective on this and I'm tired of white women being the voice of all women. In the words of Sojourner Truth, ain't I a woman?
My perspective is different because I saw President Obama's remarks not as a gendered commentary, but a raced-and-gendered commentary, if you will, and an inside joke between friends. I don't recall President Obama ever making a comment about the looks of a non-African-American female, which is why I, as an African-American woman, respect him -- because his choices in women affirm us African-American women. I know this sounds anything but feminist, but hear me out.
I am one of the few African-American women who served on the Harvard Law Review with the President long before he became president. We weren't buds and he couldn't pick me out of a lineup, but I have to admit -- I expected that he, like many African-American men poised to be successful and powerful, wouldn't even choose an African-American woman as a mate, much less revel in the beauty of African-American women.
Many African-American men like President Obama are told that, precisely because they are successful and powerful, they don't have to "limit" themselves to African-American women. One African-American male student I met while attending Princeton told me that men like him could "trade up" and didn't have to date African-American women. In fact, he even deigned to tell me in so many words that I was lucky he was paying me any attention.
When I see so many powerful and successful African-American men date outside our race, I have to admit -- although I believe love knows no color, I wonder whether they ever considered dating an African-American woman or whether they bought into the message about "trading up." When you see Tiger Woods' parade of women past and present, it's pretty clear that he does not find African-American women attractive.
So when the Leader of the Freakin' Free World not only habitually gushes about his African-American wife's beauty -- a beauty that has been repeatedly derided in the mainstream press -- and goes on to compliment the beauty of another intelligent and powerful African-American woman, I'm not offended. I'm affirmed, strangely enough. So much of what appears in the media about African-American women is negative in so many ways -- like pictures on the internet comparing the First Lady to a chimpanzee -- that I'm happy that the one man who could pretty much choose any woman in the world revels in the intelligence and beauty of African-American women. No offense, but I don't want white women's experiences to be the barometer of whether I should be offended. They don't experience the world as I do. Never have, never will.
I'm not offended, and ain't I a woman?
The President was wrong, though. Eric Holder is the best looking attorney general in the country.
One of the local news channels here, CBS 13, showed a video of interviews with women -- and a guy or two -- asking them whether President Obama's remarks were offensive to women. The women gave mixed responses.
None of the women were African-American, which pisses me the hell off because, as an African-American woman, I've got a way different perspective on this and I'm tired of white women being the voice of all women. In the words of Sojourner Truth, ain't I a woman?
My perspective is different because I saw President Obama's remarks not as a gendered commentary, but a raced-and-gendered commentary, if you will, and an inside joke between friends. I don't recall President Obama ever making a comment about the looks of a non-African-American female, which is why I, as an African-American woman, respect him -- because his choices in women affirm us African-American women. I know this sounds anything but feminist, but hear me out.
I am one of the few African-American women who served on the Harvard Law Review with the President long before he became president. We weren't buds and he couldn't pick me out of a lineup, but I have to admit -- I expected that he, like many African-American men poised to be successful and powerful, wouldn't even choose an African-American woman as a mate, much less revel in the beauty of African-American women.
Many African-American men like President Obama are told that, precisely because they are successful and powerful, they don't have to "limit" themselves to African-American women. One African-American male student I met while attending Princeton told me that men like him could "trade up" and didn't have to date African-American women. In fact, he even deigned to tell me in so many words that I was lucky he was paying me any attention.
When I see so many powerful and successful African-American men date outside our race, I have to admit -- although I believe love knows no color, I wonder whether they ever considered dating an African-American woman or whether they bought into the message about "trading up." When you see Tiger Woods' parade of women past and present, it's pretty clear that he does not find African-American women attractive.
So when the Leader of the Freakin' Free World not only habitually gushes about his African-American wife's beauty -- a beauty that has been repeatedly derided in the mainstream press -- and goes on to compliment the beauty of another intelligent and powerful African-American woman, I'm not offended. I'm affirmed, strangely enough. So much of what appears in the media about African-American women is negative in so many ways -- like pictures on the internet comparing the First Lady to a chimpanzee -- that I'm happy that the one man who could pretty much choose any woman in the world revels in the intelligence and beauty of African-American women. No offense, but I don't want white women's experiences to be the barometer of whether I should be offended. They don't experience the world as I do. Never have, never will.
I'm not offended, and ain't I a woman?
The President was wrong, though. Eric Holder is the best looking attorney general in the country.
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