It appears that people are more concerned about a video that seems to glorify prostitution than they are about the actual women, girls, and boys in their communities that are trafficked into prostitution. 🤷🏾♀️
Image by Cottonbro
On a serious side rant; I'm wondering, from a pop culture stand point, how people can be so disgusted with an artist (though, I reluctantly refer to her as such) for agreeing to perform her song to the direction of Collin Tilley's "WAP" video, but still hold reverence for songstress, Patti Labelle, who in 1974, along with a few other vocalists, actually sung a song about a prostitute in New Orleans ("Lady Marmalade", produced by Allen Toussaint), (and claimed to be clueless of the songs meaning afterward, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Marmalade). I'm sure for the generation in which the song was released, it had to have been very controversial, however, generations later people seem to have forgotten the salaciousness of it, (so much so that one can hear it featured on a 70's Top 40 playlist at their local grocery store, laundromat, or diner). Oh, and please don't get me started on the beloved Michael Jackson's "Dirty Diana" 👀 Somehow the same generation of folks that have since encountered some pretty heavy sexual or sexualized content in mainstream media, and their children and grandchildren can not stomach a song and video like "WAP"??? Though I am not a Cardi B fan, nor do I support hypersexual behavior, and neither is this post condoning the body of work that she produced, I still feel compelled to implore people to please cut the sudden self righteous nonsense. Sex, even the most taboo forms, has been a major part of our pop culture and society, so much so, it has even shaped the general social attitude of sex and how people today (young, and old generations, the former is of which Cardi B finds herself a member of) approach sex.
Instead of just condemning a rapper, who's own early years of abuse inspire the content she now creates, and who has no responsibility to preserve the innocence of your children, we should re-focus our collective energy on becoming more knowledgeable about the horrific practice of human and sex trafficking/prostitution, in terms of knowing what it truly looks like in our communities, how women and children are recruited and groomed, and even knowing how to identify likely perpetrators. Also, let's make ourselves more socially sensitive to the issues in our communities that tend to be a pipeline to human and sex trafficking victimization, i.e. domestic violence, child abuse, juvenile homelessness, poverty/need insecurity, and or substance abuse.
In short, I safely assume that most people know that Cardi B and Tilley, will not be the cause of prostitution in today's generation. however, turning a blind eye to the real issues that create it, and misdirecting our social disapproval will.