Channel O’s Topless and Thirsty proves that it’s not only American music videos that leave virtually nothing to the imagination these days.
|||Music lovers might have noticed that the more music videos leave less to the imagination, the more people tune in to them.
We have had songs like L-Tido’s Dlala Ka Yona which features the famous local video vixen, Pulane, and some other hot chicks doing raunchy things in a club setting. So explicit is the video that it is blurred out in some parts. Formerly, we used to only see this sort of behaviour on American videos.
This is where a show like Channel O’s Topless and Thirsty comes in. Every Tuesday at 1pm we see provocative music videos with the subjects either topless or suggestively full of lust. It is a weird time to air such material, but the show is popular. If you think L-Tido’s video is too much, then you haven’t seen what the Tanzanians or Nigerians are doing. Better yet, you have to be thankful that Channel O doesn’t play soukous music because that can get really pornographic.
Another huge show that’s related to this and is also on Channel O, is Booty Appreciation, and that’s self-explanatory. Ever since the induction of the word “bootylicious” into the Oxford Dictionary after the success of a Destiny’s Child song of the same name, it has become acceptable to talk about women’s rear ends. Or so it seems. Seriously, think back to that Marie Clare issue that had Boity Thulo posing naked with a host of other celebrities for specific campaigns. Yet, when images of Thulo’s well-sculpted body hit the internet, she trended so much that people forgot what the campaign was about in the first place. They even forgot that there were other people featured because all the lusty fans talked about was Thulo’s derriere.
On Booty Appreciation, which airs Fridays at 1pm, you will see the usual suspects from Nicki Minaj to Beyonce. J.Lo’s music might make the cut, but Taylor Swift’s definitely won’t. Again, because it is shown during the day and South Africa is generally not into X-rated material, all the inappropriate stuff is blurred out. Does that defeat the purpose? Maybe, but there are other options that you can use if you really have to see it.
Women’s rights groups and feminists are usually against this kind of material. Not only does it contribute to the decay of our society, it is also a one-sided affair.