Single Ladies

I stumbled onto a video of 5, 7 year olds performing an incredibly provocative dance to the song “single ladies” by Beyonce. At first glance, one is simply disgusted to see such young girls dressed in such a scandals way. As they start to dance, that feeling is overpowered by a sense of how incredibly talented these miniature people are. They are fantastically trained and talented dancers, and they execute their moves with grace and synchrony. They are passionate and attack the dance full heartedly. As the dance continues, there is more booty shaking, and dropping it to the floor. You are overwhelmed at how effectively these young girls can communicate sexuality, and you begin feeling guilty for even momentarily being impressed. My last blog post was on the horrifying spectacle that is child beauty pageants, and while this is of a similar flavor, it mad me question my original thoughts. My question becomes, to what extent do these children understand the connotations of the moves they execute. And if they do not understand, does that mean they are not harmed by it. Children learn many actions, but they only learn their significance from adults. If the children do not understand sexuality and that what they are doing is sexual, then how can they be objectified? If they think they are just dancing, and pulling the difficult moves that they have been taught, then who’s to say it is harmful. In fact, our disgustful judgments potentially say more about societies views of sexuality and perversion. Am I perverted because I was unable to see their dance as nothing more than a dance, and my mind could not help to add sexuality to people that did not intend to portray it? What does that say about my conception of sexuality?

A similar question was raised when photographer Bill Henson’s portraits of naked twelve and thirteen year old began a huge controversy in Australia. Nudity in art has always transcended the realm of simply sexual, so why is this case any different. There was nothing inherently sexual about the images, but they featured younger girls. “It might be argued that sexualization is entirely in the eye of the beholder; the audience leave as they are revolted, or perhaps as they fear incrimination as witnesses.” Are these both examples of an overly sexualized audience, imposing its fears and desires onto whatever they’re provided with? Or is there something inherently wrong with taking picutes of naked 12 year olds or having seven year-olds perform provocative dance moves?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir8BO4-7DkM