Blowing the Whistle

This week my Wicked Wednesday post is taking a tangent away from straight up (fnar fnar) erotica, into social commentary. This is because this week I decided to try and follow the prompt. Rebels Notes always gives such fun and interesting prompts, I thought I would try to match it. This week was no different. The prompt is the hugely successful Number 1 song “Whistle” by the rapper Flo Rida. The lyrics are rather fun and jolly. The whole song is essentially a very thinly veiled reference to oral sex. Here are a sample of the lyrics:

Can you blow my whistle baby, whistle baby
Let me know
Girl I’m gonna show you how to do it
And we start real slow
You just put your lips together
And you come real close
Can you blow my whistle baby, whistle baby
Here we go

These lyrics totally kicked my brain into positive action. I thought of all kinds of delicious things to write about. But then I watched the video. And I sighed. And I moaned. And neither the sigh nor the moan were me having fun sexy times!

I find the video repellent. “Whistle, gets exactly the type of video you’d expect: shot in sunny Acalpulco, the ... vid features boobs, babes, bikinis, and little else” (Becky Bain, Idolator). Here it is:

 

I like women. I like boobs. I like bikinis (not as much as swimsuits, but that is another story). I love sucking cock. I enjoy wanking off to porn. So why on earth would I have a problem with this video? I don’t. There is nothing wrong with the video at all. My problem is that this is the only representation of women the target audience of the video is likely to encounter. My problem is that this video and the countless others like it present unrealistic, unnatural, consumerist, views of sex and sexuality, often with elements of non-consent.

Why does the music industry insist on objectifying women en masse? I don’t need to write about the impact of sexual objectification of women in videos, because quite frankly it has been done elsewhere.

Besides, if I am honest, I don’t mind if people are objectified. This blog objectifies me. I am quite certain that at least one person has been “inspired” to pleasure himself because of it. If I didn’t want to be objectified I would not write this blog in the way I do. But I objectify myself for my own pleasure and if others receive pleasure as well that is a happy bonus, it is not my primary aim.

What saddens me is the lack of equality on display in music videos. Where are the older women? Where are the larger women? Where are the women in wheelchairs? I would wager none of the gyrating women in music videos are trans women. Most women are invisible, denied both a presence and sexual voice. The women in these videos are displayed to appeal to other people; they are almost certainly not projecting sexuality for their own sexual pleasure.

This is also the same for men and those who do not meet society’s gender binary expectations. The only people who do not meet societal norms of beauty and who are permitted to be sexual beings are the artists themselves.

Until we see people of all genders and all sexualities in erotically charged music videos, the privileges portrayed in videos like Flo Rida’s “Whistle” will continue to create the norms of our society. I hope the end of those days is nigh.

Until then, and in honor of the spirit of Wicked Wednesday, here is the incredibly hot Laura Jane Grace singing Transgender Dysphoria Blues.

 

For less rantier responses to the prompt pop over to the Wicked Wednesday page.