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Comment by Rule35 | Hacker News Reader

fwiw, it's not the sexual imagery that bothers most people, it's the degradation they hear in the rest of the song.

"Hoes in this house" for example.

Sex is natural, calling women whores is not. One is a fine thing for a kid to see, the other is problematic and requires you to explain that their language shouldn't be repeated, that it's probably indicative of depression or systematic oppression of women, etc.

Nothing in the song appears to be feminine empowerment as they defend it by saying - it's just soft-core porn masquerading as music. Porn is porn and when made without harm is a lifestyle choice, it's the masquerade that makes it icky.

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That's completely fair criticism in my opinion, but not the one I see invoked by most people. In my experience, most of the time the sexual language is the problem, and that is completely bonkers to me because, as you said, sex is a big part of human life and it makes sense for it to be reflected in art.

Actually, I have since watched a bit of the video and I now think it is the imagery as well.

Not the scantily clad ladies dry-humping. But that they look like they're doing it for the male gaze, as they stare into the camera instead of each other's eyes.

I guess it feels like what you'd get if you tried to have a three-way with two hookers. Hollow and depressing.

While I agree with you that there's definitely a male gaze aspect to it, I don't have an opinion on whether that's necessarily a bad thing when done by women.

On the one hand I can see the harm it can make by normalizing the stigma that women need to do things for the pleasure of men, but on the other hand I'm not sure preventing them from doing that would help the issue at all. It's a complex subject for sure.

Prevent? Gosh, no. I am sure that nothing good would come from that. As you say, if they choose it... (And if someone likes it, good for Cardi I guess.)

I'm just trying to answer your question from a few posts back about what I found distasteful. The best summary I can come up with is 'women trying to act like whores to be attractive'.

Maybe that's not how it is for Cardi, and that's her image of healthy sexuality, but I wouldn't show it to my kids or my lover.

As an aside, I realized that I watched the grammy performance which may not be the same as the music video.

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