It's All in the Context: Erykah Badu and Nudity

Erykah Badu has never been one to suppress her artistic side.  And she is making news for being "artistic" in her new music video for the lead single from her new CD The New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh.  In the video for Window Seat, Badu strips naked while walking through downtown Dallas to the site where JFK was assassinated before herself being assassinated and bleeding the word "group think"  then in a voiceover says:

"They who play it safe, are quick to assassinate what they don't understand.  They move in packs, ingesting more and more fear with every act of hate on one another. They feel more comfortable in groups, less guilt to swallow. They are us. This is what we have become, afraid to respect the individual."

According to Badu, people were shouting various things while she filmed the impromptu video like "This is a public place," "You should be ashamed," "Put your clothes on," etc.  And in American culture, we are taught that our bodies are shameful.  Particularly when placed contextually.  So, if instead, Erykah Badu was on a beach walking toward the water and taking off her clothes would we be as appalled? Probably not, because a woman on the beach in a bra and panties (also known as a two-piece bikini) wouldn't so much as raise an eyebrow.  What is (largely) problematic is the idea that Erykah Badu showed her naked body on a city street where (GASP!) there are children present and according to the Dallas Police was an illegal video shoot because they did not obtain a permit. 

I'm reminded of my recent trip to Amsterdam and, as most tourists do, I walked through the Red Light District to see scantily clad women striking sexually suggestive poses in windows.  Dutch families walk through with their children without shielding their children's eyes from the "filthy half naked women" in the windows. 

Playing devil's advocate, this could very well be a PR stunt to generate publicity for her CD which will be released tomorrow, but we should be forced to ask ourselves, if we know that these things are publicity stunts, why not refuse to give it the attention it craves? 

This is, in my opinion a brilliant video that pushes people's buttons and at the same time (should) force us to think about why a naked Erykah Badu walking down the street in a way that is very much non-sexual is more upsetting that watching scantily clad cheerleaders at a football game or watching the bachelor make out with and/or have sex with a houseful of women.  It should be difficult to indict the naked body (which is how we came into this world) without indicting the endless parade of sexualized images we are fed constantly by the media machine.