Saturday, April 21, 2012

Sexy and We Know It

We've all heard the song "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO. But how many of us have seen the music video?

It features men walking around in animal-print fabric that is painted onto their bodies and includes a special cameo of them shaking their willies at the camera.

But because it's sung by male musicians, it's funny. We laugh and emulate this behavior, especially the ten-year-old boy my roommate nannies. But if this song were to have been sung by a woman? Admit it, your mind jumped to skimpy clothing and booties shaking all over the place, right?

So why is it okay for men to stand around shaking their willies (I thank the Brits for this hilarious word) everywhere on-screen, when it would be considered promiscuous for a woman to do the same? I don't hear any huge public outrage over this music video when there would have been if a female artist had done the same thing (Lady GaGa, Beyonce, Madonna, Britney Spears -- you name the female artist and you'll find she's been criticized for being too promiscuous).

A question I'm not sure I should answer outright (although I might get more comments if I did). Intriguing, isn't it?

Personally, I find LMFAO's song hilarious and their music video ... interesting. I think that's a safe word, one the conservatives can't condemn me for and one the liberals can't interpret one way or the other in order to accuse me of liking it. Men running around in barely there animal-print speedos just doesn't do it for me (just to clarify), but the fact that there hasn't been some huge outcry at the inappropriateness of it says a lot about our culture. If it had been women in the same skimpy attire (with a band-aid-top in concession of perceived modesty), would people have reacted as indifferently?