‘The Humpty Dance’ helps fat girls feel that they have a right to be happy, even if we are arguing about the latest unauthorized Kardashian bikini photos
I only have 17% of the shame to admit that after hearing about the bikini photo of Khloe Kardashian and not wanting the world to see it, the first thing I did was to search for the photo. It’s too easy to find. Kardashian wore a two-piece dress made of animal print fabric strung together on a black thread. Cross your legs slightly across your thighs, without makeup, a gentle smile when your grandma who loves you wants to take pictures of you.
It’s not that I lack sympathy for Kardashian. I am a woman, and she took terrible pictures of herself on the Internet. but it is not the truth. She looks beautiful, soft and happy—but not ready for consumption that capitalism will stir. Over the years, the Kardashians have used their contributions to the unattainable beauty standards set by popular culture, paradoxically persuading young women that this level of beauty can be achieved through the right purchase in real life. (Abdominal disappearance tea and lip mucus are starter packs.) Social media is a mirror that can reflect what and who is desirable. Waist is thin, facial features are thin. Here is a filter that can do both.
This random photo of Kardashian appeared on the Internet is of the Wizard of Oz, moments behind the scenes. A friend on Twitter questioned this latest Kardashian drama, wondering why they think we, the general public, don’t know that the family business is a multi-billion dollar business built on the best lighting, photoshopping, and excessive Beyond the fantasy of dieting and exercise, I still don’t know enough about plastic surgery and other methods. I jumped into the subject and pointed out that sometimes the cage is made by ourselves, even a beautiful lie is a lie, and it is not always easy to maintain your image.
In contrast, Cardi B is still not disturbed by the paparazzi catching her off work, because the woman has been truthful to her audience from day one, about what she looked like when she was not finished. We have seen her wearing no makeup, wearing a hat, and wearing all kinds of home clothes. I don’t know what is the core of Cardi B’s confidence. But recently, I started to understand that part of me came from some lyrics in a song, and the most famous bar was about being busy in the Burger King bathroom.
The song “The Humpty Dance” was sung by Shock G and Digital Underground. I haven’t thought about this group of people for many years, but when I learned that he passed away last week at the age of 57, my mood must be like this. Maybe it was the white wine I drank that night, but his news of Shock G’s death brought me back in time.
Digital Underground released “The Humpty Dance” in 1990 when I was 5 years old. The music video lost to MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” for the best rap video at the MTV Video Music Awards that year. I have an MC Hammer doll wearing purple flashing elf pants. I suspect that Shock G’s self-esteem anthem disguised as a party rock singer is really on my radar. But this song was likely to dominate the radio at the time, and when driving around the city, the lyrics penetrated into my young subconscious mind.
You can’t always put too much weight behind the lyrics. Sometimes they run away in a hurry, or the performer just dresses up as a character, after all, Humpty Hump is Shock G’s other self. But when Shock G raps, what makes “The Humpty Dance” feel real is the middle of the song, “I think it’s obvious, and I also like writing.” This is a kind of tone shift that fills your 10th grade class with these words The seriousness of the clown, only you are the only one to relax your guard against you after school. It forces you to move back and forth in the music to discover other truths.
In the music video, shot with a budget that barely exists, Shock G shocked the microphone as Humpty Hump. He wears a white faux fur hat with a hanging tag, a plaid suit jacket, a white polka-dot tie around his neck, a second black polka-dot tie on his shoulders, and a fake plastic nose. Glasses. When Humpty started to rap how funny he looked, my kindergartener could not disagree.
In the 90s, we may have overweight D, an overweight lover at home, but obesity is still, as it is today, it is synonymous with not being sexy in most circles. However, when Humpty Hump yelled: “Hey, yo, fat girl, come here-are you ticklish?” To me, this doesn’t sound like a cruel quip at the expense of a female body. Sounds interesting. When I grew up, after experiencing how a man would spit out the word “Fat b–!” Once rejected, Humpty’s bar sounds happy and enjoyable.
He is a person who makes his desires known and makes it clear that bodies of all shapes and sizes can be desired in public and are worth enjoying: “Yes, I call you fat/Look at me, I am thin /It has never stopped I am not busy anymore.” When I paid tribute to Shock G with white wine in an Instagram story, I enthusiastically made the same argument. A thin friend sneaked into my private message and shared that these bars not only resonate with fat girls who want to flirt. For many years, he has been using the slim frame mentioned by Humpty Hump as a self-affirmation before marriage.
I don’t want to force the front lens of the body on Shock G. The instruction of “The Humpty Dance” is not mature enough and very capable. The girls in the music video are thin enough to become influencers of modern social media. Who knows who Shock G is reducing gender.
But I believe his egalitarian view of happiness goes beyond this fragment. At the end of the song, Humpty said he was not ashamed of his nose—”It’s as big as kimchi!” In the same album of “Doowutchyalike”, Shock G invited people of all classes and skin colors to strip off their clothes and jump into the swimming pool. . A year later, Digital Underground released “No Nos Job”. Although this song does enter the realm of body humiliation, its main message is that the nose, lips and buttocks of black women do not need to be corrected by plastic surgery. Shock G even called on the greed of celebrities to further exacerbate the problem: “All these so-called celebrities have sold millions of records and claimed no responsibility/A young girl saw you on a TV show/She was only 6 years old and said,’ Mom, I don’t’dislike my nose!’/Why are you messing up your child’s head/So you can make another golden waterbed?!”
Shock G pointed out that little girls can distort their opinions through the media they consume. Therefore, as the years go by and my body grows and blossoms, little Mingda hides some desire for a fat girl in her heart and returns again and again, which may not be so unusual. . When a culture that invests in thin supreme tries to tell me that I am not allowed to enjoy a body over a certain weight and it is not worthy of being desired, I have an instruction, no matter how small, believe otherwise, continue to seek happiness and happiness. How the public thinks I should view my body has never stopped me from being busy. No need for Burger King bathroom.
If you keep an eye on the people you follow on Instagram, you will use their thigh gap to overtake influencers and force you to buy whatever they sell. Your feed can have fewer back arched bikinis that fit on your thighs, and more Lizzo will use her body to bless you during exercise and be happily praised and longed for. You might even turn to #bookstagram and see beautiful books placed next to the tea cup, such as Sabrina Strings’ “Fear of Black Body: The Racial Origins of Obesity Fear”, which links lipophobia with racism. Or Sonya Renee Taylor’s The Body is Not a Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love with Taylor’s Black body lavishly opened on the cover, inviting you to revel in your own body. Or a video by Adrienne Maree Brown, the author of the book Happy Activism: Feeling Good Politics. She says these words to enrich you, not to disappoint you. If Instagram insists on selling you things, why not buy things that nourish you?
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These books and these black female messengers mean that I no longer need to protect my desires and desires with the lyrics of a 30-year-old rap song. But this shows the power of the Shock G role. In just a few words, he created a sufficiently strong life raft to help me maintain my self-esteem in the wave of culturally designed self-hatred. Shock G and Digital Underground will be remembered for their contributions to music, and hopefully the memories of Shock G will also be remembered for guiding us all to have more fun.
Minda Honey is a writer and founder of TAUNT in Louisville, Kentucky. She spends her free time in a life beyond emotions and hyped her friends on social media.
Post time: Sep-04-2021