2 posts!

[eoe]

via videosift.com

This combines 4 great things:

David Byrne, Dizzee Rascal, Nudity, and Art.

There's something about the playfulness juxtaposed with nudity -- it's something you so rarely see in American culture. We're so repressed that we think everything sexy is repressed, dangerous, scandalous, or passionate. It can sometimes just be fun.

Comments

[quietgrrl]

I had to watch that twice just to get all the censor bar humor. Pretty sweet though.

where is that from?

[aquavator]

That looks like a fun party. But like you implied, not just because of the beautiful naked women.

[derdriu]

Okay, I am going to make a disclaimer on the statements I am about to make below by asserting that I don't necessarily disagree with your assertions about it being playful, lighthearted and that nudity is a big deal because we're repressed. In fact, I agree and, on the whole, found it to be cute.

That being said, I am a little annoyed that, as aquavator noted above, it is primarily women who are being used to push the boundaries significantly more than the men. I find this odd, particularly because the naked female is so heavily commodified that showing T&A (and manicured vagina) in films is significantly less edgy and prohibited than showing a penis. So, why aren't the majority of the naked people in this video men? That would push boundaries just a little more, don't you think? Granted, they may have had to get a bit more creative with the censored line-art, but I think that the overall statement would have been worth it, no?

[aquavator]

The large female-to-male ratio in the video was glaring, but I'm not sure you can read much of anything into it. I doubt they were looking to push any boundaries regarding on-screen nudity as it applies to men vs women.

[derdriu]

I realized, upon re-reading my initial comment, that I implied that you had made a statement that you didn't make. I really meant to say that you had pointed out that there were a larger number of women in the video. Sometimes, I fail at constructing sentences and I'm sorry

[aquavator]

I agree that artists need to be very careful about any inadvertent statements they might make and ultimately are responsible for what they produce, regardless of their intent. I also think, however, that as an audience we have an obligation to distinguish the degree to which any inadvertent statements are harmful in some way. I have no idea if David Byrne considered the male:female ratio in this video to be any kind of statement on gender inequality (intentionally or not) or if it was simply the result of being conceived by - presumably - a small group of heterosexual men. I'm willing to judge the video on its own terms while at least acknowledging the gender split. We could also do the same exercise with race and age, but I feel that there is a big difference between non-inclusion and exclusion.