Access Politics
Michelle Obama has spent a lot of her time as first lady encouraging young girls everywhere to feel empowered and reach for the biggest of dreams. It’s too bad she chooses the worst possible role models to help spread that message.
FLOTUS’s fav role model for young girls is Beyoncé. And what’s not to like about that choice? She’s a beautiful, young black American whose talent for singing and dancing has made her super rich and famous. Now those are some totes achievable goals, am I right? Young girls the world over can relate to those qualifications. But in Queen B’s latest video from her new album Lemonade, she’s angrily slinging a baseball bat and smashing every window in the hood and that’s when she’s not busy cussing out her cheating man — because THAT’s what a good role model does!
Let’s look at another example: Last year for International Day of the Girl, Mrs. Obama published a special Spotify playlist for young girls only. What better way to encourage #62MillionGirls, many in oppressed third-world countries, to fight for their educations than the Beyoncé anthem, Run the World. Here is just a sampling of some of the choice lyrics in this toe tapper. Step aside men, “Girls run this mother:”
Girls! We run this mother (yeah)
Girls! We run this mother (yeah)Who run the world? Girls (girls)
Who run the world? Girls (girls)This goes out to all my girls that’s in the club rocking the latest
Who will buy it for themselves and get more money later
I think I need a barber
None of these niggas can fade me
I’m so good with this
I remind you I’m so hood with thisBoy I’m just playing
Come here baby
Hope you still like me
F’ you pay meMy persuasion can build a nation
Endless power, the love we can devour
You’ll do anything for me
That’s right, little 11-year-old girl in Afghanistan, next time your daddy asks you to do a chore, just tell him, “F’ you, pay me.”
But that’s not even the most inappropriate song on the playlist. Did I say inappropriate? I meant empowering. Like this one from the inspirational, yet never fully-clothed, Nicki Minaj. She has a little raunchy advice to prepare prepubescent girls of what to expect in their future relationships. I give you the song, Bang Bang:
She got a body like an hour glass
But I can give it to you all the time
She got a booty like a Cadillac
But I can send you into overdrive (oh)Bang bang into the room (I know ya want it)
Bang bang all over you (I’ll let ya have it)
Wait a minute lemme take you there (ah)
Wait a minute till ya (ah)She might’ve let you hold her hand in school
But I’m a show you how to graduate
No, I don’t need to hear you talk the talk
Just come and show me what your momma gave (oh, yeah)(Okay you’ve got a very big shhh,
Mouth but don’t say a thing)
See anybody could be good to you,
You need a bad girl to blow your mindIf he hangin’ we bangin’
Phone rangin’, he slangin’
It ain’t karaoke night but get the mic ’cause I’m singing (uh)
Just kill me now.
But wait! There’s more! Remember the 1990s? Feminist empowerment was around then, too. And none was more qualified to deliver that message than Lauryn Hill — another hip-hop artist included on FLOTUS the EMPOWERER’s playlist. This one is guaranteed to encourage any inner-city female to think twice before letting their boyfriend “hit it.” She had your young daughters in mind when she recommended this old school anthem, Doo Wop (That Thing):
It’s been three weeks since you were looking for your friend
The one you let hit it and never called you againPlus, when you give it up so easy you ain’t even foolin’ him
If you did it then, then you’d probably f*** againBaby girl, respect is just a minimum
Niggas f***** up and you still defending ’emMoney taking and heart breaking, now you wonder why women hate men
The sleepy, silent men
The punk, domestic violence men
Quick to shoot the semen, stop acting like boys and be men
Tru dat, right girls?
Is there any further evidence required that the first lady is down right terrible at picking role models and music?
Case dismissed.
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