OMG! Boobies!!!

Leave it to Pop Culture to give me something to focus on when I'm feeling out of sorts!

Justin Timberlake has come out with a new video.  It was immediately banned by YouTube 'due to its explicit content'.  Canoe was nice enough to post it along with a poll wherein one of the options is "offensive and sexist".

I watched it.  The song is okay - might grow on me.  Watching Timberlake dance makes me think of a white Michael Jackson (artistic but somehow awkward).  The rest of the video is made up of skinny women in g-strings gyrating, dancing and writhing.  There are some moments where they've gone artsy with patterns and colours which somewhat blur the women and are quite lovely.  Most often it's just straight up almost naked women. 

Now I love the look of the naked female body.  The lines, the curves....  Absolutely beautiful!  And I'm not offended in the least bit by this video.  And as for sexist...why is that even an option?  The women chose to do this and were most likely paid very well.  What is more feminist than women choosing what to do with their own bodies?? 

What I don't understand is why they made the video, in this society, with that level of straight up nudity.  Two reasons come to mind.  1. Simply to push the envelope.  2.  For publicity.

The one thing about pushing the envelope is that it needs to be a subtle, but consistent push over time if you actually want anything to change.  Go too far too fast and those against it will rally together and shove you back down.  The makers of the James Bond films have done this beautifully with their opening credits - Goldeneye is a perfect example.  The women are definitely naked, but the presentation is art. 

For Timberlake, I foresee boycotts and that points directly to publicity.  It would have been nice if he believed in his talent as an artist enough to work at creating actual art instead of meaningless publicity.