Food, a Body-shaper? No, Try Hip Hop and Society

The media is a powerful tool for influencing, shaping and changing public opinion. The media can change society’s views from one thing to the next in just a heartbeat. Music videos and music such as Hip Hop are powerful in that they are influential in forming our views about almost everything. Obviously this is great because artists can use this music to reach out to the young people and educate or make them aware about certain issues. Unfortunately, Hip Hop and its music videos would much rather talk about sex, getting high, money and the woman’s body.

Just yesterday, society favoured skinny girls and worshipped them. You had to be skinny in order to be called beautiful or noticed by your crush. This was all thanks to Hip Hop music and its videos showing off skinny girls in bikinis and the lyrics praising such skinny models. Well, today skinny is not that attractive anymore (sorry, skinny one). Today you must be “yellow boned” and “thick” as in having a bigger butt, small waist, soft and perfectly flawless skin and a Brazilian weave.

Furthermore, the sad truth is that most of us ladies are being influenced by Rap and Hip Hop and its videos. Drake’s song lyrics and many other artists’ lyrics describe a thick and caramel (yellow boned) woman and their music videos show a whole bunch of naked thick yellow bones by the swimming pool or busy dancing seductively around the singer. This is the norm for Hip Hop videos as more Hip Hop songs and music videos are about girls’ bodies. The more we see such music videos, hear such songs and hear the guys around us and even our boyfriends praise such “thick” yellow boned girls, the more we are convinced that being “thick” and yellow bone is the only beautiful there is today.

We begin to doubt our own unique beauty. We feel unnoticed, not pretty enough, not fitting into society and their new idea of beautiful. We feel pressured to change our bodies to fit in, get noticed and be called beautiful.

Consequently a skinny girl will be dying to get a bigger butt. The lot of us will be dying for a smaller waist and getting an expensive Brazilian weave. Many of us will be doing whatever we can to get that thick body and yellow bone colour. We will put in the effort in exercise (which is not bad), we will buy ‘bleaching’ creams, buy expensive weaves we cannot even afford. Some of us go as far as dating older men in order to get money to buy expensive creams and weaves to look like the girls in music videos so that men can call us beautiful too.

Why do we let music videos and what men think shape our bodies? Tomorrow the kind of beauty Hip Hop artists sing about in videos might be totally different. Are we going to change and shape our bodies each time according to what society, men and music calls beautiful? How long can we keep up with this, ladies?

However, before I get bashed, I must acknowledge that it is understandable that sex sells and therefore singing about girls and sex is the best and easiest way to put food on the artist’s table. It is also understandable that also other kinds of bleaching celebrities who aim for “thick” bodies influence us, their followers.

Sincerely the best kind of beauty is that which shows uniqueness & confidence, love & kindness. This is the true beauty that slays. The way you see yourself is a powerful influential tool too. It can influence society in your favour and notice your kind of beauty. Stick to your own beauty. Skinny ladies, dark ladies, “thick ladies”, "yellow bones" and all other ladies, embrace your bodies, walk with pride in your skin and be confident in your body. Flawless or not, you are beautiful! If your boyfriend seeks perfect, then there are perfectly cheap Barbie dolls at Pep! A man who loves you, will love you just as you are, as Bruno Mars and John Legend say. As the saying goes, stay Be-You-tiful.