Back in the day, there were standards of decorum that men and women set and adhered to. The women in my family and neighborhood behaved maturely and responsibly and always looked after all the kids and provided guidance. Very rarely would they act or behave in a manner that would be detrimental to our development. Those times are long gone.
Today, the trend is completely opposite. Young women often mimic behaviors, not of their elders, but those that are presented in the media. This habit has seemed to worsen over the years. Young women adopt behaviors of people who should not be idolized or looked up too as role models at all. One such person is the self-proclaimed black Barbie, Nicki Minaj.
I have yet to understand how much one has to hate who they are to the extent that they would identify with a white toy doll. Now if it is a metaphor to indicate that one is fake, plastic, artificial, superficial and lacks substance -- then the term fits. Otherwise, it is one of the dumbest assertions I have ever heard. Unfortunately, I guess I am the only one who thinks like this, for it appears young women copy everything and like what she does. From colored wigs, to having so many tattoo's on their bodies they could pass as being a Maori, a New Zealand native, young women have been influenced so much that they do not even carry themselves like ladies.
The message of being responsible and being your own person with personal standards and morals is lost in the picture. We have a culture of young African American girls who are so fixated on entertainers and materialism, that they concern themselves more with their hair and clothes, than education and basic family values.
Attempting to be like trifling folk like Nicki Minaj is just a way of saying a person doesn't like themselves and would rather accept and live by European standards of what is considered beautiful. The fact is that a younger audience is listening to her music, an audience that already lacks self-respect and is often disrespectful in general. These are just more ignorant practices that degrade women as just a form of meat.
14 comments:
Well I did not know who this Nicki was so I googled her. She sure looks vulgar, and if I had a daughter, not the image I would want her portraying. This is something for all to think about, epically those that have and mentor young black women.
I don't know of this person also and I choose not to Google her as to not increase her search ranking.
I've had several conversations recently on the presentation of the young ladies today. Girls barely in their teens appearing twice their age. And as we discussed on the show a few weeks ago, Age <> Maturity. These girls lack the maturity to handle the attraction they are bringing to themselves.
We can't just fault them, we fault the ones exposing and purchasing the weaves, tattoos, attire, and such. If these are their parents or guardians, shame on them.
We should dictate how are our children present themselves and not the reverse.
If a parent feels it's fine for his/her daughter to dress like a 'ho, there's not much anyone else can say or do. We can talk until we can no more, but it will fall on deaf ears.
The voices of the past are drowned in the bullshyt of today's media, which is feed to the brown people of this country by Folk's Caucasian cousins in an effort to perpetuate the stereotypes placed upon people of color.
The sad fact is that the eyes of our people are blind to this, in hopes that they too can become rich by turning their backs on the morales of society and the rich culture of their ancestry and piss on the norms of society for material gain.
Good post.
I have had days when I look at other Black folks and wonder-what would the ancestors think about us now? Would they even recognize us as being their descendants? Hell, I have a difficult time relating to the way many of the people look nowadays.
You learn respect from the adults in your world. If they don't respect who they are and teach theirs to do the same-the problem just continues to multiply.
I had to google the woman and then I realized I'd googled her before but quickly forgotten her and now I see why....
Like many others have said it all stems from what we teach and instill from young...if we teach respect for ho's then hey our kids will respect and look up to ho's!
I simply love this post and NO, you are not alone in your thinking. Ms. Minaj is a disgrace to all women of color and detrimental to our young women. I do blame women for this type of behavior from our youth, especially our girls. We have got to say NO! turn off the music, turn off the music videos and become the role models for our children. Well I could go on...but I will not do that in your space. Just want you to know that I agree with you and encourage you to keep speaking on the matter...so other's won't think that they are alone.
i kown am a coretta king role model type
Good and true post T! Looks like we are living in the age of pure marketing and nothing more. Substance has no value. Or so it appears.
On a lazy, warm Sunday afternoon, just cruising around trying to pass the day...
First, listened to the radio show about the Rangel & Water's ethics violations. Unlike laws, which are concrete and applicable to everyone regardless of status or wealth, ethics are more like rules that are agreed and voluntarily abided by. Feel free to break the rules, like peeking when you count for hide and seek, and the punishment is determined by the kids you are playing with. Since from time to time when they are 'it', they have peeked, you can just about imagine that the punishment is going amount to some grousing. Unless, you are near the bottom of the social totem pole or the Queen Bee or Alpha Boy of the neighborhood wants to make an example of you or there is simply a 'mood' in the neighborhood that has shifted and 'today, well, today just ain't your day, Charlie', and you get pushed further into the limbo of the outcasts.
The thing about all that is that isn't how things work in Washington. When the nerds are not the ones in charge, they get to drum up dirt on the ones who are. Is it 'business as usual' that all the folks on the CBC are finding themselves in trouble? Or is it actually 'business as usual' and the GOP are targeting vulnerable members of the Dem. Party?
... cause I wasn't done...
Is there something racial about the congressfolk in trouble? I will let other folks make their statement on that aspect. I mainly see it as the power machine whirring and clicking. Does it have a special extra whirl because of the ethnicity of its targets this time? Maybe, maybe not. If I was smart as you are (and I am not being facetious... listening to the show put me in my place... let me stay in my lane!!) and as well read, I could substantiate my arguement. But I really can't. An odd reading or viewing doesn't count as footnotes or sources for debate, sooooo....
Nicky Minaj is a thread attached to a bigger thread which is connected to a yet larger thread which brings us closer to the power elite! I was rambling about how racial social politics play out, the idea being to shrink things to where I am discussing something relevant in my own life. I don't think that in the last half of the century that we as black people have done a good job of making progress with the changes in society. I am shocked to hear the conversations that we are having... most of the talk harken back to post WWII only without the hope that things would change and things did.
As a 43 year old cat, I remember as a teen chiding my Mother for saying that 'us kids did not appreciate' this or that. I felt then as I do know, that it was HER generation who would raise the lost children to the crack epidemic and was already leaving broken families in their wake ('Claudine' had its roots somewhere in black america before I came along), and as far as teen-single mothers go... why is that crap so new?? It isn't, and I know folks who are my age who came from single parent/teenage led households. Why are we in such a freaking case of delusion?
I don't think that the way anylonger is by fixing issues as they impact ethnic groups. The problems and conditions are not equitable. What is equitable is class, reflected in money, education, and employment. Find a way to thread the belief through the forgetten lower and middle classes that 'my hispanic brother's problem is my Appalachian brother problem and that my big city sister's problem is my small town on the plains Mary Ann's problem, I think we would be getting somewhere.
History is filled with social upheavals that emerged from unity, good (slavery, civil rights) and bad (German Socialism, Rwanda & Ethopian genocide). Talking about 'race' in a time that is CLEARLY post racial, or at least on the cusp of it, in society is risky.
It is a problem of economics. Now if the hundred millionaire brothers were talking about going to war with the billionaire whites...
... as to Nicky Minaj...
We have always been objectified by white America and being able to earn some measure of the lost pride, self esteem and sense of self by trying to achieve material worth because that is all many of black americans see themselves as.
Chattel.
Since I do sincerely believe this is about a universal poison that effects different people and groups differently, I am not really bothered by her statement or claims. There is a greater BY LEAPS AND FREAKIN BOUNDS image problem in South America than it is with some bling-blinded sister wanting to be the black, bi-sexual Barbie, or whatever.
Once you join another economic group, like climbing a mountain, you have to adjust for the change in the air pressure from the higher elevation. Many black folks who work in the minstrelry, manage to do that. Some, like Michael Jackson, it comes at great cost. Others, like the list of former atheletes who earned millions and now are broke and destitute (that cat, Lorenzen Wright comes to mind, tragically... but only because of how recent it was... the same could be said of David Vaughn, who is fighting to return to 'real life') are long and sad to read. Is it racism when you finally get on the other side of the fence and you see after a time, that it is as crappy as the side you came from? Adjust to the environment because the environment won't adjust to you.
Anywho, the images that people aspire to and idolize are not of their own minds. I want to believe that people can think for themselves, but doing that is too much like work!!
Thanks for letting me talk... be well!!
My reply is on my site.
angstandhumor.blogspot.com/2010/08/nicki-minajthe-post-feminism-poster.html
uir [url=http://cgi3.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=acheter-cialis&hc=1&key=acheter-cialis]acheter cialis[/url] trn 49093 cialis wpg 37489 http://cgi3.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=acheter-cialis&hc=1&key=acheter-cialis achat cialis ! kzr 61414
Your blog is so useful … hold up the beneficial work!
--------------------------------------------
美国留学生
Also welcome you!
Post a Comment