This is from the AUC Magazine. I write a column in there and I encourage you all to check it out. It's available at selected college campuses across the country or you can go to aucmagazine.com for more info.
Anyway, I know the words in this picture are kinda small so here's the unedited text from yours truly...
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Ok...I'm sick of this shyt!! As a music video director, I am utterly disgusted by the name-calling and double standards that society has put in place when it comes to ethnic models who appear in music videos. Why the hell are they labeled as "video hoes"?? To hear these grossly exaggerated generalizations is despicable especially when they're from a race of people who have been plagued with stereotypes for centuries.
Let me ask you a question: Did the young ladies of the Rutgers basketball team deserve to be called "hoes"? Let me answer that for you. NO!! So why is it that so many ignorant fucks out there pass judgment and place labels on these women knowing very little about their personal lives. These women are Sisters, Daughters, and Mothers-just because they're in music videos, why should that warrant the unjust labeling?
Advertisers adhere to the age-old adage that "sex sells" and models in videos are essentially selling the artist and the song. It's the same principle alcohol distributors, car manufacturers, and clothing companies have utilized since their conception. Even when the blond-haired, blue-eyed Barker beauties are parading around Rice-A-Roni, vacuum cleaners, and "new car"s on "The Price Is Right", those models are using their sexy appearance to sell the show. When the sexy ladies of the popular game show, "Deal Or No Deal", open those briefcases, their appearance is a part of the show's appeal. Those women are not called "game show hoes" so why are the women in urban clips called "video hoes".
I think it goes back to black people just hating themselves - forcing them to hate on others like them...but that's a different article in itself. I digress.
Many people who aren't in the industry doesn't realize that these women are on set (at work) for 14, maybe 16 hours a day. In addition, it takes a huge amount of courage and confidence to be in front of a camera while people are standing around watching you. The average person can NOT do it. Many of these women watch their diet and exercise regularly to keep their bodies in great shape and we KNOW that the average American does NOT have gym memberships and fast food consumption is the norm since everybody's always in a rush.
I'll even say instead of blasting these women, more folks should look at their positive attributes and emulate them. Especially the over-weight slobs that sit on their asses all day and watch music videos.
Just my two pennies...
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10 comments:
Okay I don't generalize by using the term "video hoes" for all of the women that are in these videos however, there are some that have earned it. I don't think you can compare the actions of women in videos to those of the women who sex up game shows. The last time I checked Barker beauties did not bend over and and "make it clap" for the camera. Dressing in provocative clothing and standing in front of a camera is not all these women do to sell that artist and you know it. Also, as a video director you know that some of those women provide other "services" after the shoot is over. I am not saying that all of the women on all videos behave this way but you know once a few bad apples spoil the bunch the stereotypes will swarm in, so if a women chooses this as her profession or catalyst into another realm of the entertainment world then she just needs put on her big girl panties and learn to roll with the punches.
@ Telese:
My whole point is the STEREOTYPES that comes with the job and it's a misrepresentation because women have ALWAYS provided "services" to get ahead/ a "head" (I'm so funny..lol.) in ALL professions...NOT just video modeling or acting. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I am saying that these women in particular are given a bad rep just cause their job is one that involves sex appeal. Just because you may dance a certain way does NOT constitute you being a hoe.
Also, they're plenty of women in corporate America who have "hoed" their way to be where they're at.
I'm just calling for a Death in the term "Video Hoe" because the same sentiments can be applied across the board.
I agree that plenty of women have done some of the same things to get themselves to the top of their field however I think the difference is discretion. The associate who is sleeping with the partner in the law firm doesn't come to the staff meeting and sit on his lap and giggle while she calls him Daddy. Also, the dancing plays a big role in how these women are stereotyped...hey if it looks like a duck and dances like a duck....what else could it be??? If there is no problem with it then I want to be sitting next to you the day you have a teenage daughter who decides she is going to bend her ass over in a circle of men and start poppin'...I doubt you'll be sitting there saying, "get um girl"....lol!!!
And and by the way your "head" joke soooo corny...lol!!!!!!!
So it's cool to be a hoe as long as you're "discreet" (that rhymes with "skeet"...I'm SO SO funny...lol) with it?
And HOW IN THE WORLD can you equate it to how they're dancing???? The networks don't even show girls poppin' that coochie anymore. Back in the Luke days, yeah, but not now. Telese, show me ONE video that has been released in the past several years that have girls doing that...I'll wait...
Show me a video that's being aired on BET or MTV in which a girl "bend her ass over in a circle of men and start poppin'". And I'm not talking about old videos of the "UNCUT" nature that are intended for adults. If you can find that video, please post that joint on here to prove me wrong.
The truth is, a lot of people have it twisted when it comes to Hip Hop videos...
When I did the "Laffy Taffy" video, folks was talkin' shyt about how lewd and degrading it was for girls to dances like that. BUT, if you watch the video, all you see is girls doing the little 'lean and snap' dance'. WTF!! That doesn't equate to bending over in a circle of men and poppin'...
Okay I am not saying being discreet makes it okay, what I am saying it's the reason nobody places these women under labels and stereotypes. If you a women puts it out there than she has to be willing to take all the consequences that come with that...hey like on Player's club when Ronnie tells Diamond, "Let's Go Hoe"...once she was out there dancing it was what she was going to be called so she may as well get used to it...it's not right but hey that's life.
And as far as the videos go, okay you may not find them in a circle of men on a video because videos tend to have more women than men in them these days...I meant that happens in the club but you do still see the "poppin" in videos. This site will not allow me to post videos but go watch that Drop and Gimmie 50 video by Mike Jones and you'll see plenty of "poppin" also those police chicks all spread eagle in Baby D's I'm Bout Money video.
Hmmm...ok I must be extremely slow.
After reading the blog and comments that followed, I have learned yet another lesson. Whenever I heard someone call somebody a "video hoe" I just figured that she was the girl who shows up in damn near every video on the tv, no matter who the artist was. Never really thought of it in a bad way. But I guess living in my own little world has some disadvantages.
Music videos are like movies. These people come out and play a role or a part as they are instructed and follow the script provided. There are people who do far worse in movies and often win awards for doing it.
I don't think what a woman does in front of a camera is a true indication of her character. Nor do I feel that everybody who works in that profession should bare a label earned by only one person in the profession.
@ Telese:
C'mon now...let's be real. Those videos are NOT threatening to a young girl's upbringing. I've seen more explicit dancing on "Dancing With The Stars" which is advertised and marketed as a family-oriented show on a MAJOR network...not a cable network. Most of the images in Mike Jones video are sillouhetted images anyway...leaving MUCH to the imagination without being overtly sexual with the song's lyrics. Personally, I could've came up with a better vid for Mike Jones, but at the end of the day, it's no more hoeish than actresses who play sleezy roles in soap operas, television shows, and movies. It's all acting at the end of the day...
@Princess Kandi:
I think you actually GET IT!!
Pac made the term popular in his 1996 song "All About U". JUST LIKE MY TAKE ON BEYONCE'S "UPGRADE YOU" LYRICS (check my previous post) people have LOST the point in the lyrics.
For one, Pac's lyric's are referring to GROUPIES!! There's a huge difference between "groupies" and video models. HUGE difference.
And REALLY, all the Outlaws, Nate Dogg, and Snoop is talking about in the consequent verses, choruses, and ad-libs - is just about these SAME models who have hustled themselves to be GETTING WORK. What's wrong with that?
Until someone creates a device that can wave a baton over someone that alerts them as being a "HOE", then the term "VIDEO HOE" should be obsolete...For Real.
Telese... you are on point girl! Dame, I responded to this blog on your myspace so you already know how I feel. Glad to finally know that I'm not alone of this! hahahaha
Click here for the myspace blog.
Mz. Gunn
first of all I am SO SALTY that I am just now realizing that you have a blog...secondly...this type of hypocrisy runs rampant until the stereotypes come home to roost...I joke about alot of sh1t in life...but I have been the victim of all types of assumptions on my character and it has made me more sensitive to this kind of thing...I know urban models and everyone wants to be a rapper so I am surrounded by the local scene and these chicks are people too...now some really are hoes...but I know real live hoes that don't know MC Eiht from 8ball & MJG...give them a break!
C'mon in Good Good. Have a seat and get comfortable...and by the way, there's no corner up in here ;-)
You say, "but I know real live hoes that don't know MC Eiht from 8ball & MJG...give them a break!" This is hilarious cause one a model homie of mine did a blog about hoes needing to do their "hoe homework". Basically, if you're a hoe, you need to know the names and faces of your targets. Don't be askin' other people (or other hoes) "Hey, who is that?" while you're at the club. You should already know...lol. Do Yo' Hoe Homework!!
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