"Call Me Out On Cowardice But I Guess That's Your Business..."
Jessica Hopper on R. Kelly and The Game:
Maybe you’re like me and you have a long-running internal dialogue about whether it’s OK to like R. Kelly. From all available evidence, he seems to be a real-deal sketchball. But then lots of male celebrities are probably bad people—he just got caught. And when a song like “The Zoo” comes on WGCI, you turn it up, thinking, This song is so funny! R. Kelly is singing about being a sex dinosaur! If it’s a joke, then he’s a joke, and if he’s a joke, then I don’t have to feel super awful about enjoying his product. Here’s my solution: a penance system. Every time you willfully partake of R. Kelly, you have to listen to the Game’s “Wouldn’t Get Far” twice in a row. Don’t bother with the vague radio edit, which could be confused for a song about video vixens and the high price of trying to love a rap star. Listen to the dirty version, where he checks women by first and last name and implies that they’re whores, and see if your humanity doesn’t shrivel a bit. Lines like “If you could keep your legs closed, girl” are the sort of thing some scenery-chewing stepdad says in a Lifetime movie of the week before he backhands the teenage girl.I liked this riff better when it was on her blog two weeks earlier, but "w/e," as they say. Good blog, btw! My favorite post is the recent one about dignity:
Obviously, the Game is a no-talent knuckle-dragger who’s probably mad that the dancers in Busta Rhymes videos have more of a career than he does. Thinking that way, you could argue that he’s not even worth taking seriously. But I don’t think you can excuse pop music by prefacing it with a “just,” whether it’s about sex dinosaurs or hating women
I was walking to my car and some pricks in their office clothes were eating outdoors at revolting Dunlays, and they took a break from their chewing to make some kiss-kiss noises at me and look me up and down and I was on the phone with Matt and told him. He was about to drive up to where they were. So he did. He got out of his car and went and stood by their table and stood there making kissy noises at them while they stared at the ground and then yelled at them a little while the other diners watched on. I dunno why I didn't walk back and do it myself. Sometimes it's nice to see someone else defend your honor.Jessica Hopper hates women, pass it on!
posted by Leon at 3:19 PM
1 Comments:
I can't really tell if you're actually endorsing this person, but she's obviously a doofus. Like, seriously. Pretending to care that R. Kelly had sex (is there any doubt that it was consensual?) with a somewhat young girl is embarrassing; pretending that you're offended that the Game makes fun of video vixens is nothing but a point-winning exercise. Does feminism mean that video vixens couldn't possibly use sex with rappers to advance their pseudo-careers? Is it really a surprise to anyone that this happens? It cannot be misogynistic to recognize some facts about vixens! I mean, lord, even Kanye acknowledges the validity of the Game's point, and he was raised right. I really hate this kind of thing. Why defile the brave and thoughtful tradition of real feminism by adopting hairtrigger ideological responses to everything that comes your way?
Anyway, the blogger should like the Game; they're both really worried about sexual honor. Those men were violating her honor by "sexualizing" her; her burly bf (note how carefully she tells us that he scared them -- she doesn't date some shrinking violet weakling, no sir -- and that her harassers were in "office clothes" and thus, we can safely assume, were white bourgeois types that the reader can unguiltily wish to see receive their comeuppance, not working-clothes construction guys (I'm sure she would assure us that THOSE people NEVER bother her)) defended her honor as any gentleman should. The Game may not be defending Superhead's honor, but his point is that mixing sex and work turns these ladies into fallen women with "bad reputations." He has no interest in whistling at them; he wishes he could respect them. I'm not bullshitting here! He has that line about how a lot of girls want to be "Melissa Ford" (whoever that is), but "they don't know Melissa Ford drive a Honda Accord." In other words: young ladies, don't make this your ambition. Get a real job, get an education, etc. Don't lose your precious, precious sexual integrity. This is probably a bunch of stupid nonsense that we shouldn't allow into our politics and that we should look askance at in our culture, 'cause we wanna legalize prostitution and also dress sexy (see Sexy Dressing Etc. by critical legal student Duncan Kennedy for more on that!). But I also bar the entrance to any despicable, naked attempt to BRAG ABOUT YOUR FEMINIST CREDENTIALS *AND ALSO* HOW YOU'RE SO ATTRACTIVE TO RANDOM OFFICE WORKERS *AND ALSO* HOW YOUR BOYFRIEND WOULD KILL AT YOUR BIDDING.
A fair point to make against all this is that I jumped to the conclusion that Matt was some kind of significant other. I'll take that bet, but if I'm wrong, my credibility is fucked. Nonetheless, I'm probably still right about everything important.
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