Today another blogger challenged bw to think before we publicly demonize black Hip Hop Video Girls. You know the ones, shaking-it-up in heavy rotation over on BET and gracing the covers of various magazines.
This blogger’s point, as I understood it, is that we as bw do ourselves no favors when we publicly tear each other down and that she has observed that enlightened ww don’t do this to each other. Essentially, by tearing down another sister, we not only de-value her, but also ourselves. We should perhaps have more compassion for these women or at the very least, speak privately about it instead of putting it “out there” for the world to see. Basically, at the end of the day, the only thing “others” will take away from the criticism is that bw are (fill in your own insult here). The “others” will not be making a distinction between the “good” bw admonishing the “bad” girl and the “video ho” we tear apart.
I have to be honest and say that I’m divided on the issue of trying to “shut down” the video girls because I believe they contribute to the damage of the image of all bw, thus making us easy prey for predators in our communities and the ideology of supporting my sisters, even though I abhor what they are doing, by refusing to publicly bash them for their behavior.
I think Michaela Angela Davis made an interesting observation on this continuing topic when she said that bw are the only women you can see shaking their naked behinds for free on tv; in order to see ww’s breasts, you have to PAY for it.
So is it more insulting that our behinds aren’t even worth paying to see or that we’re shaking it up period?
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