I’m writing to you because I came across a disturbing video on youtube yesterday. Plies casting special for Bust it Baby showcases black women doing anything to get on this reality show.Oh my god. I stopped towards the end when the panalyst were asking about swinging, but then I decided to bite the bullet and continue on with the video. I nearly cried towards the end, especially when they were asking what looked like an intelligent black woman a slew of inane, and profane questions. It really did look as if they were like “dance monkeys dance for the camera!”.
“Lemme ask you something how did you wake up with a penis in ya mouth?”-what the hell.I haven’t seen any of the ‘Girls Gone Wild’ videos, but I have seen the commercials for them and you are right in a sense that this is the same kind of stuff that white girls are doing in those clips. However if this is going to be a network reality show then I think it extremely over the top. Please someone tell me this(scene&show) is only going to be put out as a special dvd, or just tell me its a joke, I like that idea better. I mean this is essentially the black ‘Girls Gone Wild’ video being marketed as the black version of ‘The Batchelor’. Dammit I can’t stop shaking. Anyways to address this question “white people are allowed to be individuals, black folks are not. you dont think thats wack?”
Yes it is unfornuate that black people have a social burden, but that is a reality that some(Plies!!!) black people are not quite understanding. I hope so much that this is NOT black people being themselves because it is truly saddening. And to think they had a sista doing the interviews. I know money is tight right now, but some people need to know when to say NO to a job.
To the reader, you assume that people do everything for money. In a celebrity obsessed culture everybody wants to be a star and we’ve had more than an few posts about women doing anything for the attention of a man. I’ve gotten emails about a recent story where a woman let her boyfriend move back into the home after he impregnates her 10 year old daughter.-
this was after CPS said he had to stay away.
The baby’s birth at University Hospital on Nov. 4 was routine.What wasn’t routine was the fact that the infant’s mother was just 10 at the time, impregnated by her mother’s boyfriend.
Now, social workers are trying to figure out how to unravel the mess involving one of the youngest children ever to give birth in Greater Cincinnati.The girl’s mother was warned not to let any adult men in her Lockland home while caseworkers tried to track down the infant’s father.Prosecutors say the girl’s mother ignored that order, and when a caseworker made a surprise visit to her Lockland home Jan. 4, they found Chaffer.
Two other men were eliminated as the baby’s father before Chaffer’s DNA was tested. SOURCE
We like to believe that everybody has the same basic value system. While you may have proved impervious to the stereotypes that the culture has created, taught and reinforced, everybody wasn’t. The real problem is that there is no counter culture. Not one that is as prominent and seductive as this one. Right now, if you want to go another way, you are out there on your own. We talk about out outrage and our value systems in private and on blogs, but they have no problem packaging their outrage and selling it to the world.
Who is going to come up with the reality show about Black women who go around to these casting calls shouting the foolishness down. Ain’t no shame in their game because they can do this all out in the open with no recriminations. The people who are shaking their heads just aren’t as bold in their outrage as this cast of characters is with their outrageousness.
Amazing how big corporate interests have been able to mainstream Black women volunteering to play roles we were once forced to play under threat of violence or death. Things aren’t going to change because we’re outraged. How many of you would have been willing to head down to the casting call with a bullhorn and some placards??? Who is breaking out the camera to do their own casting call for an alternative?
UPDATE: BlkseaGoat from Black Sapience has put up a reply to the “Bust it Baby” video on YouTube. This is a start.
35 comments ↓
The embedded story in your post is extremely sad-heartbreaking. I’m 27 years old, and I can’t imagine giving birth/raising a child now. And this girl is 11, and had to go through not only the pain of childbirth, but the pain of giving her child away. I hope the men in Cinncinati’s jail give the mother’s boyfriend a nice “break in” (and I don’t normally talk like that!)
I don’t even know what to say about the Plies situation. A wack artist coming up with a wacker reality show.
I feel like beating the sh*t out of every father, step-father, cousin, uncle, boyfriend, preacher, boy-neighbor, and whoever else who effected the minds of these women to find validation in life by getting involved in this crap.
Brother Komrade, how about the mothers, sisters, aunts, and 40 year old grandmothers who do the same thing? Should they have there sh*t kicked out of their azzes as well?
No one forced these bottom feeders to go to a casting call to be degraded. They CHOSE to. I could have gone down to the casting call with an army and would have gotten cursed out by these women, and called all kinds of names.
People who are willing participants in their own degradation bear some responsibility for their victimization. These women will do anything (except forge their own identity and assert their personal dignity) to be on television or to be a baby’s mama to a psuedo-thug.
This is just another sad chapter in the black community; not all of these women are seeking validation because of some form of past abuse… some are simply opportunist. In this society fame and infamy are interchangeable and worth more than self-respect.
Yeah, after watching the video *barf* and seeing some black woman’s naked azz peeking from beneath her skirt, I can say unequivocally that these women are not VICTIMS.
They are clearly opportunists.
Sidebar: What the hell is a Bust it Baby?
Yes, I’m all about responsibility BSG, after the fact of gaining consciousness and armed with the tools to understand why you do the things you do in a social context. Look, I can drink a fifth of whiskey every night and be told that I need to be responsible and not get drunk. However, the question remains, WHY do I drink? Where does my need to drunk come from? What triggers it?
One component that Gina hits on is the glamorizing of celebrity in our mainstream culture. You could be right that there are girls in that casting line who may have come from some solid backgrounds, but grew up with Tila Tequila, Madonna, Buffy, etc. – “the instant celebrities of no-talent”. Therefore, they want that instant celebrity as well. It happened to Tiffany “New York” Pollard. But I can only imagine that those women are a minority and the rest on the casting line are women who have been abused or abandoned as girls and told that their only worth is sexual.
My point is that wecan get to the responsibility part, but the root must be dealt with as well.
Brother Komrade,
To make your argument plausible one would have assume that every woman in that video was victimized by some black man as the root for them prostitutung thenselves to get on TV.
Respectfully, I disagree. Listen to the comments of the women. They refer to themselves as “real ass bitches”, “down ass bitches”, and (insert adjective here) bitches. They are not victims. The root of their cause is the need for celebrity, NOT a cry for help resulting from years of abuse.
These are the future Kim Porters, Lil’ Kim’s and New Yorks of our community. Instead of providing an excuse for their behavior, let’s do what’s right and call them out on it. A grown woman should know better than to have her haked backside hanging out of a skirt that’s 3 sizes too small for her. We can attack Plies, big business, and MSM all we want, but that won’t stop black women and women in general from lining up by the thousand to sell their coochies on TV for 15 seconds of fame.
Get into the girl who talks about being a “cum buddy” to Plies. See how PROUD she is to be a semen receptacle. Look at how proud all of these women are to be a part of such garbage. Indirectly some black man may be responsible for how SOME of these women (if any at all) turned out, but not enough to indict black men as a whole and pathologize them for what’s happening to black women.
Again, black women, ALL black women have to take an active role in stopping their degradation. Someone has to bring Karrine Steffans and Tiffany Pollard (and those like them) to the table and explain to them that are causing irreparable damage to the psyche of black women. The same can be said for Plies and most in the Hip-Hop community and other form of media, but for now, black women should be targeted. Corporate American won’t be able to exploit black women if there arent any to exploit.
I wonder… has anyone attempted to reach out to these women who are being pimped by these companies?
Blkseagoat,
Again, you aren’t incorrect in pointing out the personal responsibility aspect of this issue, but there is also a larger issue about who is it that decided which images of Black women were going to be promoted and taught and made acceptable. because there was a time when these women would have been ashamed to go on camera doing the things that they did and it is not an accident that stripper culture is creeping into the mainstream.
Your comment about what would happen if you went out and confronted them kinda proves the point that there will be no speed bumps on our race to the bottom. People are so afraid to confront the foolishness, or feel as if it is useless to take a public stand against it that there is not counter culture. We either ignore it or condemn it and walk away when we are goign to have to figure out a way to confront it. To say, no, everybody is not okay with this and do it in a way that is just as public as their displays.
I didn’t way they were victims, but they didn’t get to that point by accident and I don’t think we spend nearly enough time looking at the larger forces behind how this narrow spectrum of Black womanity got pushed into the forefront.
OMGGGGG!
OK, I mustered up a stronger stomach to finally watch the video, and I am absolutely appalled. Can you say “SKANK?!!”
We are at the last day of Black History Month…our ancestors fought, bled, and died for some Black women to go out and perform like this…I wish Harriet could come back with her gun and USE IT on some of these fools!
I don’t think that Black women are ‘encouraging’ these women to behave in this fashion; for the most part we do not ‘pull the strings’ that matter. It’s a societal problem. It’s a community problem. And it’s a perception (of the value of a particular race) problem. Indeed these ladies ‘appear’ to be making their own ‘choices’ but some where along the line they developed the attitude that all of ‘this’ is okay. I don’t believe it came from a single factor but from multiple influences or lack there of. I’ve raised three grown daughters; and am raising two younger ones without their father for the most part- They are a part of this ‘hip-hop’ culture. They could have a ’sad’ story or two to tell; they’ve had to work for what they have. I don’t have daughters even remotely interested in any exhibition like this. The reasons why are multiple. Why any intelligent, articulate and educated woman would be ‘proud’ of this decision is both sad and baffling.
Gina,
I can understand what you’re saying, but are the women in this video blameless? Of course not! They are living for every moment in front of the camera, each one trying to outdo the next ghetto superlatives.
Perhaps these women see nothing WRONG with what they are doing to themselves. How can we not allow them to make fools of themselves if it offers them an opportunity to be immortalized on TV forever?
Eddie BASG stated it best when he commented about the information I sent him about the good Reverend who built his “ministry” by spanking the behinds of his black female parishioners: “When it comes to this kind of stuff, I believe in letting “the blind lead the blind”. Sheep who follow wolves have no cause to cry when they are eaten.”
Who are these women following? Or could they be the wolves?
The sad fact is people will do anything to get on TV, to get that little nip of fame; look at a person like Kim Kardashian, what has she done except be on a sex tape? At least Madonna sold a few million records, even if you don’t like her voice. Now people become famous for just their sexual exploits, they don’t have to sing, act or do anyting, just look cute.
Here’s the downside to all of that fame, once people get a taste of fame, once they get a taste of the freebies that come with it, it’s hard to let that go and get a straight job. The problem is that you can only be a vixen for so long. Anyone who tries to be an “it girl” over thirty will be looked at as pathetic. Then they’ll do anything to keep themselves on the red carpet, no matter how degrading it is.
I’m not a prude, I’m not for going back to the 1950’s, that wasn’t such a good time for women either.
I will have to agree with brokekonman and Gina on this one. Poor girls, from the day they are old enough to listen someone is telling them they ain’t nothing. Or just good enough for a fuck. Then when they reach a certain age (depends on who is doing the judging) they supposedly to magically have the formula to resist, to know what direction, to know what is right, to know how to overcome, to know, to know, to know.
And there is not another example, because the other, “the good” (if you want to call it that) is often demonised, “sell out” “Uncle Tom” “snitch” “want to be white” “Hi-sci”, “you ain’t nobody” “you think you are better than us.”……………..Oh and the best “you should’ve known better” Should I? How exactly?
Kitty,
If that was the case then every person who has been abused or degraded should be suicidal, a prostitute, drug abuser, or porn star.
Some of these women have had nurturing and affirmation. Popular culture and the desire to be famous for ANYTHING is the driving force behind a grown woman showing her naked azz in public.
That’s a cop out and these women will have no one to blame but themselves when PLIES impregnates them or gives them some type of venereal disease or sexually transmitted infection.
I posted a response video on youtube; I can almost guarantee with certainty that no one will watch it.
Kitty, not all women who are doing this have been abused, probably not even most. This is a society that says nothing is more important than fame, you get free stuff when you’re a “celebrity” right? Free clothes, jewelry, plastic surgery? To some girls that looks very attractive.
What these girls don’t get is that that kind of fame will follow them forever, long after they stop getting free stuff. One day they’ll be thirty, forty, and the crap they did when they were young and foolish will always be there.
I am sure many will be quick to write these women off as hoes, gold diggers, hood rats, etc.–essentially reducing them to less than individuals we should care about. But you’ve gotta care about them–they’re someone’s daughter, someone’s mother (or soon to be), and they do influence and play important roles in our community.
I’d argue that these women don’t necessarily lack self-regard, but rather draw most of this self-esteem from men desiring their physical and sexual attributes. They feel good about themselves to the extent that men sexually desire and pursue them. This wouldn’t be such a problem if other self-attributes also were of value to their self-worth (most people enjoy being desired), but from the looks of things this isn’t the case. This phenomenon is not specific to the women in this video–you can also see it in Girls Gone Wild and that whole genre of video in fact. The makers behind videos and reality shows like this understand this phenomenon very well and take full advantage. It’s exploitation, at it’s best (worst?).
Take the panel in the video as one example. Here is a mix of mostly black folk (some black women, in fact) taking pleasure in disrespecting and mocking other black women. One black woman on the panel seems to be particularly entertained by this process. The panel’s job is to draw out and put on full display the most disturbing aspects of these women. “Perform for me, you clown!”, is their charge.
I pray this show falls flat on its face. But I’m a realist and know that this may be too much to ask. Many people, like the panel, dig this kind of stuff and will certainly watch and support it. The most I can hope for is enough outrage from enough people that it leads to this thing being shut down before it sees the light of day. It’s happened before and if there is any show that deserves such a fate by the hands of outraged people its this one.
BSG: I just watched your video response. Very touching! I would love to see the response of the women in the video when they watch your response.
If that was the case then every person who has been abused or degraded should be suicidal, a prostitute, drug abuser, or porn star.
Or dysfunctional. Many are suicidal, it is just not evident, instead of the easily recogniasable form of suicide it is a slow self-destruction, which is a form of suicide.
I will add here, that the problem I have with blaming the victims, and I don’t care about many examples or personal testimonies anyone provide because the bottom line is, black women in this American patriarchal society are victims (weather they want to be or not, act like it or not). The system makes them victims by default. This does not mean they are victims that will be totally defeated, or victims that may not collude in their own destruction, nevertheless, they are victims. To highlight what they should be doing or should not be doing while not pointing the finger at the main oppressive force is borderline misogyny. It is a way of saying that the very people that the entire system is against should overcome all obstacles simply because they should. And to be honest, I do not trust people who are “concern” spectators. I don’t think people who are telling them what they should or should not be doing are interested in much but to advance their own feelings of superiority. It is as if there is a group of people to point and criticize then that will make another group feel better about themselves.
Recently I have been working with a group of women trying to get their G.E.D.s They are much younger than I am, and the words and the pursuits are different than when I was their age, but in the grand scheme it is all the same. They don’t have shame. But to advocate shame is dangerous, because I remember when shame was a tool, but a lot of times the wrong thing was made to feel shame about.
It took me twenty years, exactly twenty years to get a B.A. I used to beat up on myself, but now that I can breathe, I don’t have to worry about food, clothing, shelter, acceptance, etc, I can see many of the obstacles I had in my path. Some I made, but most I inherited. I’ve been told that it is a miracle that I am not dead, addicted to drugs or pimped out. I see it is a miracle now. But not everyone can survive those obstacles. Garbage in, garbage out. It little girls are told they are fast, with your fast ass, you are so grown, etc, before they are six or seven then they will start acting the part. And when there are men out there preying on little girls, raping (because there is no consent at 10) a ten year old, knowing damn well how bad her mama wants a man, then shit will happen. But the community don’t go after the man, because he was just being what he is (rme). Instead they go after the woman. Actually this 10 year old reminds me of the little girl in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eyes, who was raped by her daddy. The whole community turned on her like it was her fault. In a patriarchal society, the man must be held accountable, but for some reason people love to point fingers at the women.
Another thing is depression. Damn I would be depressed if I had to live the life of many women. But let someone talk about getting help and see how the whole community will call them crazy and act like it needs to be all hush hush because only stupid white women see therapists and use Prozac.
Kitty bout said it for me.
@blkseagoat, I watched your video, if nobody else did!
We have to begin to at least respond and not just turn our heads in disgust.
I’mma have to dust off a copy of the miseducation the of Negro or something like that
I’m on the same page with Gina and “The Lady of the Manor” on this as well.
The definition of a “bust it baby” as found in the urban dictionary.
A woman with extraordinary carnal abilities. She is adapt at talking dirty without prompting. She is unusually skilled at fellatio, and “throwing it back” when she is given “back shots.” Basically, she is the woman you would kill everyone one on the Earth for because her coochie is so good you go partially blind after you hit it the first time. Recording artist “Plies” gives a description in his song “Shawty” featuring T-Pain.
I am afraid to watch the video.
BlkSeaGoat, 44 people including myself have viewed your video.
I’m not going to watch Piles’ video. I read about this on another blog. I have no idea who Plies is. It sounds like he is one I would not bother watching anyhow.
I truly feel that some of what we see is the condition of society these days. There is no true moral base. Whatever people want to do that is right for them. Unfortunately their actions will paint a disgusting picture of all bw, not just those participating. Only a heart change can fix this. Unless they see something wrong with what they are doing they will continue. However these days if you dare say there is right and wrong behavior you are the bigot. Their reasoning skills have been perverted.
Blogging is a way to hopefully reach some people that may not have a full understanding of the consequence of their actions. Again only a heart change and/or change of mind will fix this.
::::putting blinders on as I enter the room::::
How dare anyone bring up the issue of personal responsibility. Black Sea Goat… you should be ashamed of yourself. Can’t you see that these women are completely helpless? They can’t possibly be responsible for anything, because they don’t control their own lives. Men control these women. Therefore, men (specifically Black men) are to blame for the actions of these women.
These poor ladies. How about finding the men responsible for the event? Certainly they should be held accountable for advertising the contest. Once they set up this event and advertised it, they should have known that the women would not be able to control themselves.
These women are obviously victims of the Black male thugs. Nevermind the fact that they are attracted to these men…. That’s beside the point…and in fact, that line of thinking just amounts to blaming the victim.
And it’s not the fault of Rap or Rap Culture either. Rap culture has been great for Black people. As the great scholar Michael Eric Dyson would say…. Rappers are the great poets of our time and they simply reflect what is going on in their lives. Yes, the Rap culture refers to young women as whores, bitches, etc…and it has created a generation of young women who aspire to be strippers, and who have internalized these names and really believe that they are nothing more than sex objects… but that’s not so bad (according to Black culture).
I mean…. look at MTV and VHI. No one says anything about the White girls. Rap culture is simply saying… we want our Black girls included in this cultural Phenomenon. No Black Girl left behind should be the new motto for Black America. It’s definitely a movement that we should get behind.
Plus, these Rappers provide these young women with a chance to be seen on Television. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s another example of how Rappers (our new Black heroes…God Bless em’) are creating jobs for the community.
Their mothers are also not at fault… I am sure they set a good example for their little girls.
The fathers? They are often the main culprits in all of this. But then again, many of these girls come from stable homes. Oh wait… that would mean that these women made their own choices..right? But women are not allowed to make their own choices…men and men only are responsible for making decisions in these women’s lives.
So if you want to blame someone…. blame those men who told those women to go down to that casting call.
And if you can’t find those Black men to blame… you can always blame the Bush administration. They screw up everything else… (actually that may not be far off).
I don’t see what the big deal is here… the women are doing nothing wrong. And please don’t blame the Rappers… they are doing such a great service to the community.
Martin Luther King would be so proud of the Rap Culture and how the young Hip Hoppers are living up to the Dream…and moving Black culture forward.
Let’s stop making big deals out of nothing folks! For crying out loud. Saving the Whales is so much more important right now. Do you know that people are actually killing Dolphins for their fins? Get involved with your local PETA.
Let’s look for real problems to solve. Because in terms of this video…. there’s no there, there.
We should be happy that Black women are getting the chance to be with a Rapper. I know if I ever have a daughter…. I will do my damndest to make sure she dates as many Rappers and thugs as possible… Not only is it good for their self esteem…but it’s just a great thing for your daughter to be with a famous Rapper. My second choice would be an NBA star.
Stop blaming the victims people!!!!
Let’s start Blaming that damn Television, and the Black men who force these women to do this kind of thing. These women are slaves who CANNOT escape their captors.
For example… in that video, I saw a guy (off camera) who was pointing a machine gun at these women… and he was telling them that he would shoot if they tried to run. You have to play the video again and look really close…check the right side of the screen. They show a quick glimpse of the guy. (you have to look really hard). But these women are at gunpoint the entire time.
:::Taking my WAOD blinders off:::
[These are nice blinders too... high quality. They keep ALL of the light from getting into your eyes... I really like these. Thank you Gina.]
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Depressing and horrific (on so many levels).
I wish I had been warned before I watched that video.
If you are already at the edge of the cliff before clicking that vid… it just might be enough to send you over.
We may be beyond social programs at this point.
But since that dreaded term “personal responsibility” is so taboo to Black women… then I really don’t know where anyone could start in terms of solutions.
All are to blame.
This is probably not a culture that can be saved. Black culture is dead…has been for a long time.
The only thing left undone is the burial.
If you have a daughter who has not reached a certain age yet…perhaps they can be saved. But for those 13, 14 years or older… there may be nothing that anyone can do. The Cancer of Black rap culture has already set in. It’s almost impossible to cure once the seeds have been planted.
The video shows the impact of this particular Cancer in its advanced stage. There is no cure.
However, there is a vaccine. But Black folks have a low tolerance for the medicine that comes with the vaccine.
One pill called “Parenting” really has Black folks up in arms.
Another pill called “turn off the TV” (especially BET)… has been met with Black indifference.
Another pill named “ban Rap music and Rap culture from your homes & your lives” is met with serious resistance in the Black community….in fact, the resistance is sometimes hostile.
Scientists are currently working on new medicines that could successfully deliver the vaccine.
One of the top Doctors in this area (a man by the name of Doctor William Cosby) has been trying to pass on information about this vaccine, but he has been meeting resistance.
But I know there are all sorts of social conditions that come together and create these young women…but the Rap culture
exacerbates all those other problems by coming in to exploit the vulnerabilities left behind by those issues – those issues being the lack of Fathers in the home, lack of family, lack of positive role models, mothers that are often away working 1,2, & sometimes 3 jobs, poverty, surroundings/where these women grow up, the public schools, messages from the wider society, the fact that many of these young women may not have seen enough positive images of Black women…showing them that they can be achievers, domestic violence and witnessing it, sexual abuse… I am aware of all of these issues, and how they may play a part.
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I’m going to bed.
I’m going to have to pop 3 aspirin to knock myself out.
and Gina…. Thanks for the Horror Show.
And by the way… I thought “Plies” was some kind of skin disorder.
I’m assuming that is a rapper or rap group?
Nobody said BLKSeaGoat was wrong. In fact if you read the comments over at YouTube most people place full complete and total blame squarely at the feet of the women. They are responsible for the choices they make.
People have always made bad choices and decisions, but in the last 20 years, the people engaged in utter complete stupidity have been given a microphone and a stage for all the world to gawk. Most of the people on this blog have enough common sense to see it for what it is, but what about people who have not yet had an opportunity to develop a value and belief system?
Also, those who wan to promote utter complete stupidity and raunch have NO shame about it. They are more than happy to exploit those who line up for exploitation, but where is the response? Where is the casting call for a reality TV show about black folks who aren’t running around acting a fool? Where is the exec who is going to green light that?
Do an inventory of the Black folks on TV right now. FYI, Flavor of Love is leaving cable, but the reruns will now be running on broadcast television. I saw the commercial. It’s gone mainstream
Let me start by saying that I have absolutely no problem with pornography. If a grown woman wants to have sex, I don’t care. If she wants to do it with multiple partners, men and women, I don’t care. If she wants to do it on film, for profit, more power to her. Lord knows white women do it, and in greater numbers.
The problem is when such sexualized images of black women go mainstream, buttressing the contrived image of the hypersexualized black woman for the purpose of enabling our oppression. So the question becomes, what do we do about that?
We could offer our own counter-image, one that’s moral, upright, and professional, but frankly, that’s playing dominant society’s game. We’re still allowing for the idea that there is a single black female identity, we’re just arguing that that identity is positive. Perhaps we should instead negate the idea that there is a such thing as a single “image” of black women. Can anyone describe for me what the white woman’s “image” entails?
But that’s me in la-la land, because the day when we’ll stop being seen as a homogenous group is still a ways in coming. In which case I suggest we continue the fight this blog and others have been fighting, working against the mainstreamed hypersexualization of black women. After all Girls Gone Wild is a private video, and I only see the commercials at 2am while watching some 15 year old movie on an obscure channel. BET looks like a commercial for Sistahs Gone Wild all day everyday. All this to say that if the Plies video is public, count me in on the boycott of sponsors that is sure to follow. If it is private (think Girls Gone Wild), or on HBO (think Cathouse, Real Sex, or Tell Me You Love Me), more power to them.
But I don’t suggest we express anger towards these women, or pity them (unless we are personally aware of some past victimization and they ask for our pity), or respond with condescension. They are grown women, they’ve done nothing wrong (that we know of), and their sexuality neither negates their femininity or their blackness.
Pecola,
I think the problem for me anyway is that there isn’t a wide variety of images out there. Every rap musician sounds the same and uses the same singers to o the hooks all the women who sing look the same all the videos look the same.
On television, we have the image of the single Black law enforcement agent ie CSI, Law and Order and Missing, but she is about as one dimensional as the women of Flavor of love.
I think we need to criticize, but I also think we need to figure out how to use the same tools at the Plies of the world to put out bunch of different images, both good and bad. Has anyone ever done a “girls gone good” video?
I know that there are independnet film makers out there doing something different, but we have to figure out how to blow up their YouTube clips just as much as the foolishness.
And there is something tragic, to me, that we’ve reached a point in life where you would line up to compete with a bunch of women for the prize of becoming a “Bust it Baby”
*Putting on my best Wayne Brady impression* Is BLKSeaGoat gonna have to slap a broadcast network TV exec?
Gina,
That most recent news about Flavor going mainstream made my heart sink. At what what point did we become so LOST?
Pecola,
You have a point about continuing to view black women as a monolith. Perhaps we should respect the fct that these women are grown and assume they are capable of making their own choices. That certainly seemed to be the case with many of the women in the video.
Randi, Pamela, and Gina… Thanks.
I am gonna link this post to the youtube post. If at least one woman in that video finds their way to WAOD or the sites like it, then I guess my point will have been made.
Wow, Blkseagoat. That was great. Thank you for efforts and caring so much.
Kitty said:
Or dysfunctional. Many are suicidal, it is just not evident, instead of the easily recogniasable form of suicide it is a slow self-destruction, which is a form of suicide.
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a very true, and very over looked problem.
I have no words for the Plies video but I would like to thank blkseagoat for making that response video. That’s one video I would like to see on BET – one appreciating and respecting black women.
There’s an even better one than mine that’s been posted today. Please check it out as well.
Shane,
I hope we sent some click your way I can see that you have over 200 views. See, people care. I hope this encourages you to respond via Youtube in the future. I loved the sentiment of your response.
I saw some other responses that definitely piled on the women, but I think you went out of your way to come at it from a position of love.
Greetings all, I linked to this post via my blog at http://www.ginnysthoughts.com, although my perspective is coming from a different angle. I am totally blind, and I must say that as much as having sight would be great and wonderful and all of that, I also thank God because there are many things that I’m glad that I’ll never, unless they come up with a magical way to get my sight back, that I’ll never be able to see. BlkSeaGoat, I tried to watch/listen to your video but couldn’t get it to come up, will have to try again I guess.
To Gina, I think you commented on my blog a while back (I think, which was how I found your blog), and I have to say that I really enjoy this blog, and it’s in my feeds, and I check back here daily. I’m not an African-American as I’ve said before on here, but any woman anywhere who is oppressed, suffering, or has some issues that need to be dealt with is of concern to me. The exploitation and even willingness of many to be exploited breaks my heart! When did things get so bad? I’m not that old am I? And yet sometimes the way I talk I feel like an old grandma or something, and I’m only 32!
Here’s hoping everyone is well. Take care all.