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Our Crush on Obama Girl’s Satire Was Short-Lived — And It Was Never Empowering
Update at 4:00 p.m.: Sources from “The Obama Girl Team” have informed me that their new video is a musical parody of Brandy and Monica’s 1998 hit ‘The Boy Is Mine.” The video itself is loosely based on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” Both of them I’m familiar with — but neither of them have been on my radar for awhile. (Lisa Tozzi, writing for “The Caucus” blog at the New York Times, and others amazingly seem to have figured out both of those references all by themselves).
OK. This context makes the satire a little more comprehensible — and especially when put side by side with the classic confrontation in Jackson’s iconic video, pretty funny.
But the point of the satire still eludes me, leaving me with a sense that it’s not anything more than a joke — something worthy of Weird Al, rather than, say, Stephen Colbert.
There are moments that hold potential — as when Obama Girl and Giuliani Girl are confronting each other in front of American flags at a mock debate. As in the original Obama Girl video, there is a puzzled observer to their antics — a woman, presumably the debate moderator. But unlike the original video, which continually featured perplexed fellow office workers of Obama Girl, this outside observer doesn’t offer us a coherent perspective from which to see through the humor. In the new video, Obama Girl and Giuliani Girl are just goofy.
But I must say that I do appreciate the attempt (and look forward to future ones). The Obama Girl Team’s irreverent intervention into mainstream media’s political discourse — whose obsession with image is always ripe for ridicule — is refreshing.
In a world where pole-dancing and going to “babe chain restaurants” like Hawaiian Tropic Zone are considered “empowering,” using scantily-clad women as sources of satire is near-impossible, especially if your point is to criticize a culture that revels in objectifying its women.
Stephen Colbert, our present-day master of satire, pulls it off. But it should come with a warning that the kids shouldn’t try this at home.
Enter the latest video from the creators of Obama Girl: “Debate ‘08: Obama Girl vs Giuliani Girl.” The satire in the new video, unfortunately, is neither funny nor poignant — if it’s even there at all.
Last month I was one of the few voices who thought there was a real satirical point to the original “I’ve Got a Crush … on Obama” video. I didn’t think it was a tremendously nuanced point, but I also didn’t think it was a harmful one — for a campaign or for women.
The power of the first video had to do with the freshness of its ridicule. No one up to that point had gone that far to mock the intersection of politics, celebrity and the web’s homegrown culture (while at the same time effectively parodying the classic moves of female singers in hip hop videos).
The new video, however, feels more like an exploitative stunt than a political commentary, however tepid. Unlike last time, of course, it’s getting plenty of mainstream press from the beginning — just like “Hott 4 Hill,” an inferior Obama Girl parody.
Once the novelty wears off, though, let’s hope we hold them all up to higher standards.
OK, who am I kidding? Read to the end of the New Yorker’s interview with the owner of the new Hawaiian Tropic Zone. When it comes to representations of women, we’re still digging ourselves out of the stone age.
Posted at 12:07 AM | Permalink | | 
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