Murgha of the Day

Nasty Girl !!

Recently, a good friend of mine introduced me to the latest Hip-hop sensation, 'Nasty Girl' by Notorious B.I.G. For those who have been living on the moon for last 20 years, Notorious B.I.G. is considered the savior of the East Coast hip-hop scene and enjoys Elvis-like status in the hip-hop music industry. He has made an everlasting impact on the industry, but due to the 'notorious' nature of the business, signified truly by his name, he himslef fell victim to the gang violence that plagued inner-city America during the latter part of the 20th century. That's right, he has been dead since 1997 but Biggie is not to be left behind when it comes to following the latest trend of making records after death. If Lennon and Elvis can do it, then why must Biggie be left behind?

'Nasty Girl' is the first video to come out from the album, "Biggie Duets: Last Chance", featuring collaborations from all the shining stars of the 'bling-bling' industry. According to the album's master producer, Diddy (or P. Diddy, or Puff Daddy, one of those perhaps), the song is about loving women and expressing sentiments. Listening more into the lyrics it comes to the attention that its not just about loving women but all the creative ways one can employee to love them. Objectification and symbolism of women as recreational toys in the hands of rich and famous gets a new meaning in the song. And the video makes full effort in highlighting this fact so that the viewers fully understand how to treat a 'nasty girl'.

Biggie starts the song by clearly stating his point of view:






The complete lyrics, which do make an interesting read, can be found by following this link.

The case of women's use as a marketing product is not something new, however, the growing phenomena should be a grave concern to the feminsts groups who seem very busy with pro-choice issues only. 'Nasty Girl' is simply following the industry practice of female exploitation and cruising along the freeway due to the absence of any sort of protest over such practice.

This exploitation is not simply limited to the hip-hop world. This month's issue of Vanity Fair proudly exhibits two Hollywood leading ladies deprived of all their clothing with a fully dressed male fashion icon. The ladies who chose to bare it all for Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue are Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson, while no one thought of asking Tom Ford, fashion designer, to disrobe. Some may call it art but it seems that talent is not the only thing that a female actress needs to make headlines in Hollywood. Both the females have been critically acclaimed for their various roles and have earned countless nominations and awards for their work. However, the prevalent social norms, four decades after the feminist movement, still demand them to remove their clothing in order to earn a higher place in Hollywood. On the other hand, the marketing team at Vanity Fair gave itself a pat on its own shoulder for correctly using naked actresses to increase the magazine's subscription by 3,000 and earning 5 million website visits since the launch on the issue.

Whether its Diddy celebrating recording industry's giant using a song called 'Nasty Girl' or the case of Vanity Fair using naked actresses for its Hollywood issue; the use of women as a marketing tool speaks volumes of the status modern society has given to the female sex. Alarming is also the mode of acceptance such practice has received from the women, themselves, who are quite oblivion to the capitalistic nature of exploitation business. While most young girls would readily sing along with Black Eyed Peas as Fergie sings "my humps, my humps, my lady lumps" and provokes men to "check it out", only few would pay attention to the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, U.S. First Lady, "Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

Nasty, indeed.

posted by Abrar @ 2/26/2006 03:38:00 AM