The VMAs an exercise in vulgarity, obscene gestures and lack of class!

Every year I don't even know about MTV Video Music Awards being aired until all media lets loose on what was shocking and then everyone everywhere starts talking about it. So this year when I heard that the VMA were being aired that same evening, I decided to check them out myself.

Although the MTV VMAs have acquired the reputation of always bringing something more appalling and incredulous each subsequent year, this year they just hit the lowest of lows by picking Miley Cyrus as the host. Her ability to do outrageous things at 22 is already legendary.

The show kicked off with Nicki Minaj's performance, which involved gyrations and over sexualized gestures and dance moves.... I had a feeling it was going to go down from there.....
Miley Cyrus' wardrobe if that word can even be used for what she barely covered herself in... Cellophane with strategically placed plastic m&ms or something like that... A white cut-out dress which had more cutout then material... basically they managed to cover just enough to slip by the censor board!
Other performances were in the same vein but fell a little short of the initial vulgarity, with Demi Levato acting so proud of her barely covered butt by jutting it out at Iggy Azalea.

To sum it up, the level of obscene comments, dance moves and the extreme sexualization of women is very saddening... Seeing these women gyrating in minimal clothing and appearing self confident left me confused and wondering, do they really feel self-accomplished by this? For me real talent shouldn't need shedding of clothing or modesty to make a mark... maybe I am wrong but I find it difficult to respect these barely clad girls and women as real talented artists....
But again that's just me.

Best act of the evening: The Weeknd performing "Can't feel my face" alone on stage .











Even Madonna's "Like A Virgin" video  broke all barriers of decency then, now seems innocent and decent nowadays!!

How to spot the opportunist versus the victim in the celebrity world?

The world of movies, television or music has supplied the world with an insurmountable amount of entertainment. Over the years that entertainment has expanded into real life. The obsessive fixation of the media on the personal lives of all those professionals of Hollywood starting with actors, actresses and on to directors, producers is starting to drive everyone crazy!
I for one am sick and tired of hearing about Miley Cyrus' twerk, or  Amanda Bynes' psychiatric problems, Lindsay Lohan's endless rehab stints, or now Shia LeBeouf weird and unsettling behavior. Why would we want to read about total strangers' life crises and their grimy unsavory and often obscene details? Are these news bites meant to be life lessons for the ordinary people? Doubt it, the regular folk are too busy tackling inflation and unemployment!
This kind of media stalking  has become so common, that after seeing young Hollywood icons toppled over one after the other, their hiccups and misfortunes appear premeditated, orchestrated and so remote that no one takes them seriously anymore. It is only when some of them end up dying of drug overdose as in the case of Cory Monteith, or Amy Winehouse, that we realize maybe they were not really into that media madness and crying out for help. Ironically it is also then that the media right away takes on the role of the sympathizer. After hounding those poor souls for years and presenting them as drug crazed and irresponsible, now the media suddenly sees them as victims. Yes they probably can be categorized as victims as some level, but whose victim? The emphatic answer: THE MEDIA!!!
Unfortunately, some celebs use this scandal mongering to their advantage, best example Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton, and now Shia LaBoeuf. The theory there is ' if I can be dramatic enough, stupid enough or just obscene enough I will make the front page!' And sadly enough it works out for them. These desperate antic are totally tiresome.
As long as the media gobbles up everything fed to them and keeps bombarding us with it without any sense of responsibility or filtering, it is highly likely that we never will be able to recognize the victim from the opportunist?

The lines are blurred in far too many ways!!

Wondering what I am talking about, it's sleazy Robin Thicke's summer hit " Blurred Lines". Yes, that supposedly upbeat party song, which was blasted by almost all radio stations all summer long. Everyone seemed to love it, but how many of you actually listened to what was being said in the song? If you did, believe me you probably wouldn't want your sons and daughters listening and singing along to this clearly obscene song. I am saying that because I actually read the lyrics to the whole song.
The reason I did that is I learned to pay attention to lyrics when I became a mom to three boys. I like listening to all kinds of music when driving, I love jamming my favs on the radio when going on long drives. Honestly speaking, I didn't really pay attention to the lyrics of the songs, if they had a fun beat, nice rhythm I'd put it on, without a thought. Then one day I heard my preschooler trying to sing along with Lil Jon's song " Get low", I was mortified!! That was not the kind of song a preschooler should be singing! I started paying attention to the words of the songs , there were far too many channels playing songs with sexually charged lyrics, the more I became conscious of the content of songs the more I was shocked. Hence I decided to listen to NPR or my own selection of music CDs mostly, and only sometimes to songs ( I knew lyrics to) on other radio channels.

So when this summer " Blurred lines" was playing in every possible place, I was very worried to notice that few seemed to even realize how obscene and disturbingly graphic the lyrics were and had lyrics insinuating that aggression and violence go along with consensual sex and relationships. I started asking myself, is our society so immune to such blatant social degradation?

Then today I saw The Guardian news headline "Blurred Lines: the most controversial song of the decade" and as I read on, the news piece was about the song being banned by University College London student union thus joining some 20 other such student bodies in the UK. It also mentions outcry by several US organizations such as Slutwalk about the explicit and violent nature of the song's lyrics. It was a relief to know that others besides myself had issues with this song, others were also worried to see the immunity of the public to songs. There are still people and organizations out there fighting to uphold certain levels of decency, morality and civility. There is hope!

The full article in The Guardian

Blurred Lines: the most controversial song of the decade