“What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and all things nice” you would certainly think that if you watched California Gurls, the latest video clip from Katy Perry.
“It’s all edible. We named it ‘Candyfornia’ instead of ‘California,’ so it’s a different world,” Perry said. “It’s not just like, ‘Oh, let’s go to the beach and throw a party and then shoot a music video!’ It’s more like, ‘Let’s put us California Gurls in a whole different world!’
The clip is a sugary mixture of pink candy floss, Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and a board game. Featuring Snoop Dogg, the clip takes us through Candy Land in which girls (looking so good you could eat them) are held captive by ‘King’ Snoop Dogg. Perry moves around a candy inspired board game to free them.
It culminates in a battle when Perry defeats the’ king’ with her guns made from whipped cream, which are attached to her breasts and she squeezes to make the cream come out. This is so ‘soft porn’ it’s not true and is almost too embarrassing to watch.
Just to clarify, Snoop Dogg, used to be a pimp who seems to have little respect for women. About his time as a pimp he has said “I wasn’t a gorilla pimp where I was beating the girls up” but explains he was simply offering a service “cause I know so many mother f***ers who like buyin’ it” (Rolling Stones November 2006), not a great role model for adolescent boys.
Long gone are the days when a musician or group could simply stand there and deliver their song and it be filmed. Today we are offered a whole fantasy to go with the music, a visual journey for us to get lost in.
But what is it that we are being sold here? The lyrics for many songs are borderline pornographic with little room for words of true love or romance – it all seems to be about superficial physical attraction and instant sexual gratification. When these lyrics are translated onto the screen what we see is a video clip that has become a short ‘soft porn’ movie.
The lyrics in Perry’s song make no secret of the fact that California girls are body conscious, on the look-out and available “Sex on a beach. We get sand in our stilettos. We freak and we’re cheap”.
We, or rather young girls, are being sold the idea that girls/women are here to look good enough to eat, to be delicious and to be enjoyed by men. They are being told that girls should flaunt their sexuality and make it clear that they are ready and available.
Maggie Hamilton, Generation Next speaker and author of “What’s Happening to our Girls? said “much information girls glean about sex is from magazines, TV and the movies… often sex in the media is presented as immediate, exciting, causal and risk free.”
“When girls access the media they learn almost nothing about the subtle difference between sensuality and sexuality, understanding and expressing desire, the importance of intimacy and boundaries, and life beyond instant gratification” she added.
This clip would visually appeal to young girls; it is full of all the food and colours they love at that age; ice cream, gummy bears and candy floss. They are being hooked into a world which then tells them “you are here to look pretty, taste good and give pleasure to men”.
These messages are conveyed by the way all the girls are dressed/wrapped up as ‘sweeties’ that can be eaten and are the property of Snoop Dogg’s own personal candy stash. It is reinforced by the way the women in the clip smile and give the camera the ’I’m here for you’ look.
At one point Katy seductively licks an ice cream while looking wide eyed and innocent. Later she slowly sucks her fingers as she slips some gingerbread man into her mouth.
Then we see Perry lying naked on a cloud singing about how California girls are “fine, fresh and fierce” however all the girls in the clip have a vacant/available expression on their faces like no thoughts have ever passed through their heads.
This clip is insidious because it looks like a superficial sugar candy coated innocent romp through Alice in Wonderland while actually taking a voyeuristic journey that shows women as objects for the pleasure of men . In essence it is soft porn and the worrying thing about this video is that it will be watched by thousands of young girls on a Saturday morning as they get their weekly fix of Video Hits.
Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
It’s exploiting explicit light porn to minors. If an individual adult was caught showing these types of seductive pornographic images and suggestions to a minor they would be charged as an adult for corrupting a minor or other pornographic v’s child exploiting crimes.
It’s what the adult world can see as we are wondering where the experts and professionals are in Australia who can actually make a difference and put a stop to all these problems crippling our future generations.
How about the ads explaining to our young ones that most porn stars and those acting this way are degrading all women, that they are only actors paid to look happy and content and many suffer with depression later in life.
We have the resources!
It use to be “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all”.
Now, the current generation version is “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the slutiest of them all”.
I really hope this is just a phase in society that we will quickly get over.
While I agree with the author, I must correct the lyrics. It’s not “We freak and we’re cheap”, it’s “We freak in the jeep, Snoop Doggy Dog on the stereo”.