Hot Topic for Week 5: Obscenity and Censorship in Regards to Popularity
A song that I believe is offensive
is Nicki Minaj’s “Did it on ‘Em.” Basically, the song describes her love of
pooping on guys. If a work of art or an idea is considered offensive, that
means it “entices lust (in the average person)” or “depicts/describes sexual
conduct in an offensive way.” I’m pretty sure Nicki’s song is sexually
offensive. Yet, it is not being censored. Any kid can look this song up on YouTube
or read the lyrics on an online provider. Not only can it be accessed, but it
is indirectly promoted by YouTube. When one arrives at their main page, an
offer for channel watching includes Nicki Minaj. The song “Did it on ‘Em” is on
the playlist and even includes an opening commercial, which means that enough
people have watched it for it to qualify for advertisement. Enough people as in
almost four million views—and that’s just this one particular version of the
song. Why is Nicki’s obviously disgusting song allowed to be circulated, but pieces
of art like “A Fire in My Belly” by David Wojnarowicz are banned from museums? Is
Nicki’s song also considered art?
Singing about taking a dump on a guy’s
chest and hollering “If I had a dick, I would pull it out and piss on 'em,” is,
in my opinion, disgusting. However, Nicki Minaj is an artist, and freedom of
speech dictates that she can sing about what ever she wants to sing about. I do
not think this was a particular instance that was held in mind when the
founding documents were written, but it is important to society for artists to
be able to say what ever the hell they want. I believe it is good for a culture
to be exposed to the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly. When it comes to
child exposure, kids are going to come across things they are too young for no
matter how many censors society throws up. But if “Did it on ‘Em” can be found
this way, so should other risqué or controversial art. The problem I have lies
in the fact that Nicki’s song is not censored because she is famous and loved
by the masses.
Popularity dictates censorship. I
don’t think that Nicki should be censored or controlled, but I do think that
other artists in different media should be allocated the same equal freedoms. A
good example of this, among many, includes the artistic video “A Fire in My
Belly,” banned for inappropriate material. The so called horrible footage
includes an eleven second clip of a cross covered with ants—nothing more. However,
the artist was an openly homosexual individual who talked about his contraction
of AIDS. Wojnarowicz’s work was picked up by another museum and fostered for
its worth, but only after it was censored and spat on by the Smithsonian and
only after his death. Further reading of “A Fire in My Belly” can be found at
the bottom link bellow.
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