Selling Sex
- TV Movie
- 2005
- 55m
YOUR RATING
Documentary looking at the pressures on female hip hop artists to sell themselves by using sex and skin more than talent.Documentary looking at the pressures on female hip hop artists to sell themselves by using sex and skin more than talent.Documentary looking at the pressures on female hip hop artists to sell themselves by using sex and skin more than talent.
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Featured review
Had potential but is a worthlessly superficial affair that prefers to show videos rather than really get into the issues
With hip-hop and r'n'b dominating the charts more and more the amount of new artists is sometimes overwhelming. Male artists come and go, with the minority managing make a lasting success but they do not face the uphill struggle that female artists face. You can almost count on the fingers of one hand the number of female artists that have made it without having to trade on their looks and sexuality as much (if not more) than their talent. Lauren Hill, Missy Elliott, Ms Dynamite and a few others are the obvious ones but they pale in comparison to those that are always in scanty clothes and sexy videos Destiny's Child, Foxy Brown, Lil Kim and any new female rapper of the past few years. They exist in a role that appears to be halfway between being an artist and being just one of the video girls; this documentary lots at their role within the industry.
I am a man so naturally I do appreciate the fact that video girls and scantily clad female artists are fun to watch, I can't help but wonder what sort of message it sends out to female viewers even those with talent have to have a great ass to be successful. So I had hoped that this documentary would look at this and perhaps have something interesting and insightful to say; although I did fear that it would just be a collection of music videos that show us just how sexual the female artists have to be. Sadly it turns out to be the latter for the most part despite the fact that it is a reasonable stab.
The problem is that it just sort of looks at a couple of artists rather looking at the issues and cultural impact of an industry where women struggle to sell unless they look like the dancing girls in the background. The first half of the film looks at the videos and this is pretty much just a collection of raunchy videos with a few talking heads certainly the lamentable Jacki-O shouldn't have been such a big focus just because she had been banned a few times. The second half looks at a couple of artists that have made it without stripping off and looks at two aspiring artists trying to do it there way but although Symantix was worth looking at I didn't thing the film helped itself by looking at a 9 year old girl and arguing she can't make it because of not being sexual.
With these parts it becomes very clear that the film is just making one point and not applying thought to it. The narrator draws conclusions that don't ring true with what is on screen and it does take away from its value. As it is the film ends up just being a lot of flesh, some very basic superficial input from talking heads and never goes beyond the surface. It is not a nasty or exploitative film in the way that "porn with attitude" was but it is ultimately pretty valueless despite the fact that the potential was there and it could have been a fascinating debate.
I am a man so naturally I do appreciate the fact that video girls and scantily clad female artists are fun to watch, I can't help but wonder what sort of message it sends out to female viewers even those with talent have to have a great ass to be successful. So I had hoped that this documentary would look at this and perhaps have something interesting and insightful to say; although I did fear that it would just be a collection of music videos that show us just how sexual the female artists have to be. Sadly it turns out to be the latter for the most part despite the fact that it is a reasonable stab.
The problem is that it just sort of looks at a couple of artists rather looking at the issues and cultural impact of an industry where women struggle to sell unless they look like the dancing girls in the background. The first half of the film looks at the videos and this is pretty much just a collection of raunchy videos with a few talking heads certainly the lamentable Jacki-O shouldn't have been such a big focus just because she had been banned a few times. The second half looks at a couple of artists that have made it without stripping off and looks at two aspiring artists trying to do it there way but although Symantix was worth looking at I didn't thing the film helped itself by looking at a 9 year old girl and arguing she can't make it because of not being sexual.
With these parts it becomes very clear that the film is just making one point and not applying thought to it. The narrator draws conclusions that don't ring true with what is on screen and it does take away from its value. As it is the film ends up just being a lot of flesh, some very basic superficial input from talking heads and never goes beyond the surface. It is not a nasty or exploitative film in the way that "porn with attitude" was but it is ultimately pretty valueless despite the fact that the potential was there and it could have been a fascinating debate.
helpful•20
- bob the moo
- Oct 11, 2005
Details
- Runtime55 minutes
- Color
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