Back in the day, there were standards of decorum that men and women set and adhered to. The women in my family and neighborhood behaved maturely and responsibly and always looked after all the kids and provided guidance. Very rarely would they act or behave in a manner that would be detrimental to our development. Those times are long gone.
Today, the trend is completely opposite. Young women often mimic behaviors, not of their elders, but those that are presented in the media. This habit has seemed to worsen over the years. Young women adopt behaviors of people who should not be idolized or looked up too as role models at all. One such person is the self-proclaimed black Barbie, Nicki Minaj.
I have yet to understand how much one has to hate who they are to the extent that they would identify with a white toy doll. Now if it is a metaphor to indicate that one is fake, plastic, artificial, superficial and lacks substance — then the term fits. Otherwise, it is one of the dumbest assertions I have ever heard. Unfortunately, I guess I am the only one who thinks like this, for it appears young women copy everything and like what she does. From colored wigs, to having so many tattoo’s on their bodies they could pass as being a Maori, a New Zealand native, young women have been influenced so much that they do not even carry themselves like ladies.
The message of being responsible and being your own person with personal standards and morals is lost in the picture. We have a culture of young African American girls who are so fixated on entertainers and materialism, that they concern themselves more with their hair and clothes, than education and basic family values.
Attempting to be like trifling folk like Nicki Minaj is just a way of saying a person doesn’t like themselves and would rather accept and live by European standards of what is considered beautiful. The fact is that a younger audience is listening to her music, an audience that already lacks self-respect and is often disrespectful in general. These are just more ignorant practices that degrade women as just a form of meat. -torrance stephens
