BDSM in Mainstream Media – Christina Aguilera Music Video
by Slaveduties
This forum post by user sWITCHed_on made me remember about this music video featuring Christina Aguilera. The post was about BDSM in mainstream entertainment. I’m not hugely up to date with entertainment, as I really don’t get exposed to it much, but from the little I do see, it does indeed seem that BDSM is “coming out of the closet” to the mainstream more and more every day. Is it because in today’s media, you need shock value to attract viewers? Or are people becoming more open to alternative sexuality? Tough call, what do you think? Leave a comment or post in the forums! ;)
Follow me after the break to see the video
The song itself doesn’t do much for me but I have to admit the video makes me wet…
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check the questions & answers comments. PLEASE!!!!!
Sorry, I had missed one of your questions! I did answer now though :)
This is a bit late but hopefully you’ll see it anyway XD
I really liked the music video you posted about but it also made me think a bit. Looking at this reminded me vaguely of the Nine Inch Nails video for Closer ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTFwQP86BRs&feature=browch ) and I have to say that, comparing the two, I can see a definite change for the better. While Christina Agulera’s Not Myself Tonight certainly turns to BDSM symbols for shock value it has left behind the juvenile presentation of Closer’s BDSM associated content. In the case of the latter ‘kink’ is understood as little more than a slap in the face to society; the former video seems to, while still associating BDSM with rebellion, recognise it as a legitimate expression of normal human sexuality.
I think Christina Aguilera’s video was designed for shock and awe, and I think that in today’s media that’s essentially a requirement, albeit it has been for many years now – probably even back with NIN released Closer – but I think it’s getting more extreme now that everyone has to essentially upstage each other with more and more shocking material.
All that being said, I have to admire the aesthetic beauty of Christina’s video – I mean…it’s just so visually appealing, NIN’s video turns a different crank in me – a related one, but different…it makes me feel dirty and nasty, and I love that as well. All in all I think there are certainly similarities but both ignite me in different ways – is it similar for you?
I would certainly agree that the two videos are aesthetically divergent in exactly the way you outlined, however, Closer struck me as an appropriation of fetish associated imagery for entirely unrelated purposes. While the NIN video brought forward the grit and grime which customarily illicit that wonderful sensation of depravity, the video struck me as being focused on the expression of social isolation and societal rejection. For me this component of the video was established as taking primacy by the introduction of rigidly formal corporate figures – there presence transformed the subsequent representations of bondage into a visual rejection of the strictures of ordered society. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the video in it’s totality felt like it was taking up the BDSM mantle as little more than a symbol for something society does not accept – to me this seemed a dramatic contrast to Christina Agulera’s use of fetish symbols for not only shock but… something more some how.
I don’t think I’m being particularly clear but I find this whole subject fascinating and I hope you do as well :) I think I might be able to clarify what I was trying to say about Closer by throwing another video into the mix (hopefully I don’t just complicate things, I tend to do that allot OTL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEvh0mSLzSs. I understand Closer as being a forbearer to this sort of use of BDSM in pop culture – yes the video has a guy in a gimp suit but it’s been re-contextualised completely and it doesn’t mean what a guy, or gall, in a gimp suit would in isolation. I saw Christina’s video as a ‘step forward’ because it seemed to me to see what would generally be lumped and labelled with ‘kink’ as being worthy of examination n it’s own right, not something that has to be intellectualised into a whole new entity.
I really hope that makes scene and I’m very sorry if it doesn’t.