Friday, July 20, 2007

WARNING: Political commentary follows...

Am I the only person bothered by the concept of hearalding the "Obama Girl" and "Hott4Hill" video's as a fresh new way to encourage 20-somethings to get involved in politics?

These comedic videos are indeed funny, and some of the lyrics in the songs are clever political commentary, but mostly they depict scantily clad women singing about how hot they are for presidential candidates and gyrating against various people and/or things. On the "Daily Buzz" comments abounded about how the Obama Girl got hot points over the Hillary Girl for originality. Paul Levinson stated these video's increase our chances of getting the disaffected 20 -somethings involved in politics. However, after reading a great number of the comments posted after both of these videos, along with the video war between Obama and Guiliani, I discovered the comments rarely failed to evaluate the "hotness" of the girls in the videos. Granted, there were interesting comments on the objectification of women, and several comments on the meaning of democracy and various candidate platforms. However, a parley on the political issues that face our time is not occuring in the comment sections following these videos.

So.... supporting the continued sexual objectification of women so we can get 20-somethings to rate how hot they are, and then say "Candidate X in 08 baby!" is a "fresh new way to get [them] involved in politics"? Hmm....

Why can't we have cutting political humor with our clothes on? Are members of our society unable to hear the clever lyrics through the layers of the singer's clothing? Are the melodious pop sounds muffled by the wearing of pants?

Further, there is a fan video of a cute little girl apeing the Obama video. Cute? Sure. Disturbing as hell? Yes! A baby is singing about wanting Barack Obama and trying to dance like the scantily clad singer does in the video. Should a toddler really be saying "I love it when you are hard... on Hillary during debates"?

Come on! This isn't political activism!! It is supposed to be political humor, but really, this is a thinly disguised reason to dress sexy women in a bikini and send them gyrating to music across the internet. If you haven't noticed, our society has no problem sending scantily clad women everywhere on the internet, without the thin veneer of political respectability.

Should we really be teaching our little girls that the most effective way they have to influence politics is to cut the american flag into a brazillian bikini and sing about how hot the candidates are?

6 comments:

Woman with a Hatchet said...

Ahem. You have asked. I shall answer.

It's all about Teh Sex.

Women can't be taken seriously about politics, but they can be ogled. That being said, someone somewhere will always decide, "Hey! Wouldn't it be great if...?!" and then up goes a video with a hot girl gyrating. If the men watching aren't already leaning toward that candidate, this isn't going to change their mind. Instead, it just gives them something else to ogle. And it makes a nice splashy fluff story for the 24 hrs news cycle to pick up on, which makes them happy.

If "they" really wanted to get 20 somethings involved, "they" would make a point of going to high schools and campuses and breaking down into small words why the 20 somethings should get involved. How all the different decisions that come out of DC make a difference in their lives every single day. But that? That's work! It's way more fun to find sexy girls and video them being sexy.

No thought involved, either. Well, no deep thoughts.

Also, if the 20 somethings don't have parents that are politically active and their peers aren't politically active, they have precious little reason to become active themselves until/unless something happens to them personally. The What's In It For Me? syndrome. I know that I wasn't active until I started hanging out with my friends in MA and they were all VOTE! and into political discussions.

However, that was me. Fortunately, they caught me early and got me signed up to vote and I've been voting since I was - what? - 19 or 20.

Scylla said...

18 baby!! I couldn't wait to vote. My parents used to take us into the stalls with them and let us push the buttons and pull the levers.

That's why, when Marlena was 3, she waited in line with me, uncomplaning, for over three hours so she could help me vote. Family tradition.

You know, maybe she will recognize that women can do more than undress for their country.

Woman with a Hatchet said...

Nice PETA reference.

Amy Y said...

Hey there -
I've been a quiet lurker for awhile now... reading your blog whie I eat my lunch each day. :) You have beautiful kids!! I thought I'd throw in my two cents here too, just for fun. I totally agree with what you are saying here and honestly this is one of the many reaons I'm so happy I have little boys!! I think with all of the pressures and negative images for little girls out there, it would be very difficult to raise a girl to be strong and independent and not totally focused on her body image rather than her brain... her heart... her personality... etc.
It's a big bad world... for boys and girls - but the challenges for little ladies just seem to be greater. I don't think it's a good idea for political figures to be encouraging stuff like this - though it's the first I've heard about it - I would hope they aren't endorsing this stuff! Anyway, thanks for the enlightenment. :)
Oh... and what did you decide to do with the bar??

Scylla said...

Amy, I read your blog too!! Thanks for lurking!

So far none of the candidates are endorsing these videos, they were created by a group called BarelyPolitical.com, a new political humor group (so they say.)

I have decided to take the bar, and just wing it.

Woman with a Hatchet said...

Oh so NOW you tell us what you're going to do?

I'm so going to poke you when you get here.

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