DECENCY
and the entertainment industry
and the entertainment industry
There is a fine line between being free and lacking decency and people in the entertainment are (in my opinion) are flirting with this thin line.
The most disturbing one, Arthur Mafokate's music video. The song is titled "Sika le khekhe", this literally means "cut the cake", the catch- where Arthur and I both come from "Khekhe" has two meanings. One is sweet(literally) and the other derogatory(to women).
If you (by any chance) think I'm launching an undeserved attack on Arthur, wait until you see the video.
4 girls aged between 13 and 16 years dancing on top of a bed with very mini, mini skirts, nothing but your normal butt showing underwear beneath the skirts, camera conviniently focuses on their minor asses. And the show stopper, there's absolutely no cake in the music video.
This fueled a lot of debates in M'zantsi (that's South Africa to you Miss Fab). The SABC(National Broadcaster) banned the music video, funny how I still see it on one of their channels though.
Some people were arguing that if we can watch and enjoy american music videos that show nothing less than nudity why should we complain about Mr Mafokate's video. Some people had an issue with how young the girls in the video are, while other people were stressing the fact that no-one forced them to appear in that music video. Someone actually tried to use culture to justify the video. See back in the day when culture still was- women walked around half naked and this was not only acceptable but common practice. That was when women were still object who had no rights, feelings or opinions according to men.
I hate it when we resort to culture to suit ourselves or to justify our wrongdoings.
While we are on 'culture' I think the only thing that has remained of our culture (but is slowly fading away) is UBUNTU. One of the few things that make me proudly (South) African. We are nothing like the americans, our values will never be the same, our laws differ, our morals are not on the same wavelength and we definately think differently from them. We might love and follow some of the things they do but I think compromising UBUNTU because of what americans think is hott or not is a sign of a very weak Nation.
Look at women like Mirriam Makeba, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Zamajobe, Judith Sephuma, Whitney Houston, Yvonne Chaka Chaka the list is endless. They are not my personal favourites but they are women who have my respect. Their talent sell them- not what they are willing to take off in front of an audience or cameras.
I have been disappointed by a number of young female artist- particularly because what they do not only affects their albumn sales but leaves a mesage (not a pretty one) in men's mind and influences little girls who look up to them.
The most disturbing one, Arthur Mafokate's music video. The song is titled "Sika le khekhe", this literally means "cut the cake", the catch- where Arthur and I both come from "Khekhe" has two meanings. One is sweet(literally) and the other derogatory(to women).
If you (by any chance) think I'm launching an undeserved attack on Arthur, wait until you see the video.
4 girls aged between 13 and 16 years dancing on top of a bed with very mini, mini skirts, nothing but your normal butt showing underwear beneath the skirts, camera conviniently focuses on their minor asses. And the show stopper, there's absolutely no cake in the music video.
This fueled a lot of debates in M'zantsi (that's South Africa to you Miss Fab). The SABC(National Broadcaster) banned the music video, funny how I still see it on one of their channels though.
Some people were arguing that if we can watch and enjoy american music videos that show nothing less than nudity why should we complain about Mr Mafokate's video. Some people had an issue with how young the girls in the video are, while other people were stressing the fact that no-one forced them to appear in that music video. Someone actually tried to use culture to justify the video. See back in the day when culture still was- women walked around half naked and this was not only acceptable but common practice. That was when women were still object who had no rights, feelings or opinions according to men.
I hate it when we resort to culture to suit ourselves or to justify our wrongdoings.
While we are on 'culture' I think the only thing that has remained of our culture (but is slowly fading away) is UBUNTU. One of the few things that make me proudly (South) African. We are nothing like the americans, our values will never be the same, our laws differ, our morals are not on the same wavelength and we definately think differently from them. We might love and follow some of the things they do but I think compromising UBUNTU because of what americans think is hott or not is a sign of a very weak Nation.
Look at women like Mirriam Makeba, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Zamajobe, Judith Sephuma, Whitney Houston, Yvonne Chaka Chaka the list is endless. They are not my personal favourites but they are women who have my respect. Their talent sell them- not what they are willing to take off in front of an audience or cameras.
I have been disappointed by a number of young female artist- particularly because what they do not only affects their albumn sales but leaves a mesage (not a pretty one) in men's mind and influences little girls who look up to them.
See for yourself
Lebo Mathosa- A.K.A Drama Queen
Kelly Khumalo- Qinisela
Lil' Kim A.K.A Queen B
Let's talk. Let's exchange words, thoughts, ideas and opinions.
5 comments:
Awesome photos! Post some more!
Haha, just kidding! Kinda... maybe I'm missing the point here...
Biggie99
What a realistic view on this matter. thanks for the comment, I'm glad you do understand where I am coming from with our local artists though.
If ass and bling are all we can resort to make some ching-ching, clearly the world we live in is ...........
If biggie99's arguement is to be taken seriously then people should be allowed to rent child pornography and snuff movies from the local video store because clearly a market exists.
To the best of my knowledge no one (bar a crazy few) buys an album because of the number of naked women seen in a video.
When women are shown in this controversial light the commercial wheels of the music idustry hope that they can increase viewership of their artist and maybe, just maybe convert viewers into album buyers. Truth be told, and to the dissapointment of biggie99's claim of supported research, the conversion rate, at least here in Africa is very low. The vast majority of African music consumers do no have MTV and live in countries that will not have thse videos flighted on state owned television stations.
The pimp/whore imagery displayed in music videos is really a result of the "fantasy" lifestyles of studio gangsta's pot and incusive of hip-hop's g-funk era. Sadly, the music cash machine has mis-understood the culture (hip-hop) assuming that the two are directly related.
The simple economic rule of "supply and demand" applies here to - Where demand exisits it is good business to supply. If we are to allow demand for this non-fact-based form of marketing to grow then the issue of supply becomes inevitable. Would you like your sister or daughter to become meat for someone else lusty eyes?
Besides Matumza correctly asserts in her article "This is not America".
Ntoki
Much respect, thank you for coming onto the blog. Impresses me when brothers don't fall for any skin they lay their eyes which consiquently means I'm embarassed to say the least to hear about all the brothers who flew to the front row just to get a clearer view of her already tired ass.
Good luck to her, if she plans to last long in the industry, I hope she has enough left for the imagination.
One Love
Matumza
P.S Do you have a blog? I tried to get onto TK's World- No success.
it is very disgusting for our celebrities to hold themselves this way. i mean there are kids who are looking up to them and these kids come from dysfunctional homes and when they see someone they are looking up to conducting themselves like the celebrities do the see it as a way to conduct themselves also.
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