Other than “Happy Birthday,” I have absolutely no clue what these lyrics mean but I always loved this video, being a fan of early MTV. This of course was back in the days before that channel changed its format to the one it currently has – contrived reality show central, starring every has-been or never-was, displaying barely-dressed people, spouting out mostly bleep-censored stupidities. No, surprisingly enough, early MTV didn’t have any reality shows. Back in the baby MTV days, the channel’s lineup consisted solely of…you know…music videos. That would probably account for the reason MTV is an acronym for “Music Television”.
Also surprisingly, the videos they showed back then weren’t carbon copies of each other. Even more shocking, some of them didn’t even involve youthful sexual exploitation! Yeah a lot of those vids may have been bizarre and pointless (The Look of Love and Rock Me Tonight are good examples off the top of my head - though now I'm just disturbed after seeing Billy Squier crawl across the floor) but still, a lot of them managed to be pretty cool without scantily clad nubile girls gyrating during their lip-syncing. I mean, obviously there was some of that back then too, but those videos that did utilize young bimbos were usually starring older men rockers (i.e. Rod Stewart, ZZ Top, Robert Palmer and every single hair metal band) who, if they weren’t famous, would most likely never have had said bimbettes fawning all over them. Plus, if you were a video director back then, how else were you going to get the always highly coveted 18-to-34-year-old male demographic to watch three scraggily-bearded and generally dusty-looking old fogies? Naturally you’d let the guys make just a few key appearances and then hire the bimbettes to do the rest.
And let’s face it; the bimbettes had to have known why they were hired. They knew they had no other reason to be in the entertainment industry other than to be exploited for their bodies. If not for those videos, those scantily clad chicks would have just had to get jobs at Hooters that much sooner. But at least there was no question of what purpose those girls were meant to serve. They were fooling themselves the way that today’s young women singers do.Today’s women singers dress far more provocatively and gyrate infinitely more suggestively than the gals in "Simply Irresistible" ever dreamed; yet seem to be under the impression that because their videos are on “their terms,” they are calling the shots. Somehow through the years, an incredibly skewed concept emerged that has completely deluded these women into thinking that as long as they aren’t being pushed into sexual exploitation, self-sexual exploitation is a powerful expression of feminism. And what’s really sad is that by continuing this tradition, these young women are doing nothing but perpetuating their objectification. I guarantee that the amount of young girls who actually feel empowered by watching Miley Cyrus is far outweighed by creepy old men in trench coats who feel something entirely different when watching Miley.
Although many came before, Madonna is almost always credited as the woman having started this trend. If that’s true, then in examining the 20 years of MTV since she came on the scene, one can see Madonna really did an incredible disservice to so many women, and her continued impact is truly staggering. There is nothing wrong with being sexy but being sexualized is really not the same thing, and by trying to suggest it is acceptable provided the person being sexualized is “in charge” of it doesn’t change a thing. It’s like those African American comedians who use that word in a joke and then become appalled when a white person, with no other intention other than finding the joke humorous and wanting to pass it on, restates the word. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy did the exact same thing. Gay people spent a generation attempting to eradicate that word and with one show it was brought back to the acceptable forefront. You simply can’t have it both ways. If a given word is generally deemed unacceptable to one, why would it be ok for another? If a behavior is regarded as unacceptable to many, why would one person’s ownership of that behavior be looked on any differently? At least Madonna’s gotten her somewhat just desert of late, looking and behaving nothing more than a decrepit joke. For someone who has spent a lifetime carving out a career of artifice, this has got to be a major tragedy.
But I don't care about Madonna and since I don't watch MTV anymore, I could care less about any of the people appearing on that channel. But I still remember the olden golden MTV days fondly and I still love the above Altered Images video. More importantly, I dedicate it to my lovely sister-in-law, Esmerelda, to whom I wish a very special Happy Birthday and Incredibly Splendiferous Year! Thanks for your constant support and making my brother an even better man than he already was!!!!
