Good Morning Britain guest expertly shuts down criticism of Sam Smith’s new music video
Sam Smith’s music video for “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” has caused a controversy (Paras Griffin/Getty Images for iHeartRadio, Lia Toby/Getty Images)
Non-binary journalist and broadcaster Shivani Dave raised an excellent point while addressing claims that Sam Smith has been overly provocative in their new music video.
While appearing on Good Morning Britain opposite former GBNews presenter Alex Phillips on Monday (30 January), Dave made the excellent point that pop music icons such as Madonna and Nicki Minaj have long produced music videos with overtly sexual themes.
“Miley Cyrus has done this, Nicki Minaj has done this, so many people have done this,” Dave explained before going on to say: “I think the difference is that Sam Smith was assigned male at birth.”
The music video for Smith’s queer anthem “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” features men in corsets, a floor-length hot pink ruffled gown and a RuPaul sample, as well as a controversial scene in which a fountain of champagne is sprayed into the singer’s mouth.
“We are not used to seeing people who are assigned male at birth dance around in lingerie and corsets and things like that,” Dave added.
Host Susannah Reid then asked Dave whether audiences would be more tolerant of the video, had someone such as Madonna released it, to which they replied: “Oh, yeah. Madonna’s done that. There were some people who said that it was over-sexualisation, but it wasn’t on the telly in the morning. People weren’t debating it in the same way.”
Pop star and gay icon Madonna, who recently announced a world tour featuring RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Bob the Drag Queen, has released a number of provocative projects that sparked outrage in their day, such as the 1990 music video for “Justify My Love“, which features nudity, latex and leather clothing, and BDSM equipment.
Journalist Owen Jones echoed the point, taking to Twitter to write: “Sex has always been a running theme in modern pop music, and music videos often flaunt it.
“But Sam Smith has made the criminal offence of being a) queer and b) not skinny, and in an increasingly anti-LGBTQ culture, that can’t be tolerated.”
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