Sunday, April 09, 2006

Comments of the Week: Mandisa Edition

In case you missed it, La Wade pointed us to Mandisa's Advocate interview, which addresses her feelings (Mandisa's, not Wade's) on homosexuality. I would sum it up as: she is opposed to it, but not hateful about it.

We also got a short comment in this entry that really made me disproportionately angry: "I say there is a big difference between "full-figured" and Mandissa" [sic]. What does this mean? That it's okay to be "full-figured" as long as you aren't too full-figured? What is Mandisa if not a full figured woman? I don't know; I was really irritated.

And here's my favorite comment, from Miche in this post with another take on my oversimplified notions of blackness and weight (it's a long and interesting comment, I endorse checking out the whole thing):

"While it is true that culturally, a little bit of 'phatness' isn't a dating death sentence, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is acceptible across the board to be fat. When I was heavy, I was called a fat, ugly bitch by as many black guys as white guys. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, Beyonce, and music videos, black men are tending toward the Eurocentric aesthetic as far as looks go...

So, yeah. Everytime you think that it's more acceptible for black women to carry some weight, I ask you to remember that it's been more than a decade since Sir Mix A Lot wrote 'Baby's Got Back,' and there really haven't been any comparable shout-outs to women of any colors since."


I thought I heard a song on the radio not that long ago that was a shout-out to the big girls but now I can't remember what it was. Is it true that the days of "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Big Bottom" are over?

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Outcast -- "I Like The Way You Move" shouted out to the big women:

"Speacialy the big girl
Big girls need love too
No discrimation dis world
So keep ur hands off my cheeks
Let me study how u ride the beat(Ya big freak)".

4:33 PM  
Blogger Amy K. said...

I thought Black Eyed Peas "My Humps" was about bigger (or at least damned curvy) girls.

"What you gon' do with all that junk?
All that junk inside that trunk?
...
What you gon' do with all that ass?
All that ass inside them jeans?"

8:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Miche said much more eloquently what I had tried to hint at with an earlier comment. I'm glad she broke it all the way down.

It's interesting what can be justified by "marketing" and "upwardly mobile aspirations" these days -- but perhaps that's another discussion.

BTW, Anon, for those maybe looking for the record - it's OutKast. :D

11:08 AM  

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