Hey, I managed to write something over the weekend! You can read it here!
A couple days ago, a teacher of mine asked me why I wasn't practicing for the Rally day dance. I told him that I don't really like the idea of dancing to Beyonce, and that I have issues with her and her music.
His response to my explanation: "Oh, yeah, there's a lot of controversy around her. Some say she's empowering women, others say she isn't." Well, guess what? It's got nothing to do with empowerment. Well, not much, anyways. My issue with her has more to do with my morals. I am a Catholic, in case I haven't made that clear previously, and I do actually try my best to follow Catholic teachings on; sexuality, life, modesty, all that good stuff. Now, this means that I try to stay away from music that has explicit, sexual details, something which Beyonce likes to sing about. Now, the song that we are using for the Rally Day isn't overtly sexual (I'm pretty sure there are some innuendos in there somewhere); it's called "Move Your Body". Now, this may be somewhat "benign" or "harmless" (by her standards, anyways,) but that doesn't matter to me. She has sung about explicitly sexual things before. She is still singing about explicitly sexual things now. She most likely will continue to sing about explicitly sexual things in the future. And I have a problem with that. A big one. I refuse to participate in anything having to do with her, her music, and her dances. You can tell me that I will get a bad grade for participation in the Senior Seminar. I won't care. You can warn me that I will be the points that could have made us win rally, but made us lose instead. I won't care. You can tear me to pieces with your words, with your hands, with your looks. I. Won't. Care. It is not worth compromising my moral standards for. "But it's just one song, and it's not even the worst!" Ok, so what? If I let my standards waver just this one bit, what else will others try to sneak in? What will they try to get me to do while holding this over my head? When and where will I be allowed to draw the line? I'll tell you: right now, right here. No ifs, ands, or buts. Get mad at me. Yell at me. Curse at me. It's not going to change my decision, or my standards. I refuse to participate in anything having to do with anything sexually explicit. Even if this one song is "not that bad." It. Doesn't. Matter. And for the record, singing about sex scenes isn't empowering women: it objectifies us. What else are people to think, when they hear people just sing about have all sorts of different (disgusting) types of sex with a woman? Certainly not that she's empowered and head strong. They think that she's no better than a sex toy. Is this how we want society to see us, to see anyone? Is this what we want? It's because of this that our culture is so over-sexualized. Because people think singers like Beyonce are "empowering" women. It's not empowering; it's objectifying, sickening, and needs to stop. And it is because of this that I won't be participating in the Beyonce "All Seniors Have to Dance" portion of Rally Day. This one's really short, but it also ends on an... interesting... note. Read it here!
Chapter 3 is FINALLY here! I hope you guys weren't holding your breath for it... Anyways, go read it here!
ALSO! On deviant art, I have special commissions open for the season of Autumn! More information here! |