Bianca Berger
Professor Masahide
ES 397
February 10, 2014
No Scrubs
For the majority of
history the traditional female role has been to service and cater to the man.
Since the beginning of time, in order for women to survive, it was necessary
for women to be make themselves visually, emotionally and sexually appealing
for men- the hunters, so they could provide for the women. Through natural
selection, the women who did partake in becoming gatherers and ‘scoring’ a male
hunter have reproduced and continued this cycle of traditional male and female
roles. Up until very recently this was still a common practice (and still is),
not just in America but also, throughout the world. In china, women bound their
feet to make them smaller, in France and allover Europe women wore deathly
tight corsets to make their figure more appealing to men; it’s an unfortunate
but true fact that women have and still behave to look a certain way in order
to attain that male attention, constantly seeking male approval. The classic
film “How to Marry a Millionaire” is the perfect example of American women just
60 + years ago in the 1950’s putting themselves in serious debt, scheming,
partaking in illegal activities just to appear as ‘classy, wealthy and
attractive’ women to score a millionaire husband. There are exceptions of
course, but it can be acknowledged that the throughout the history of time it
has generally been the male to ‘choose’ his female companion. TLC’s song, “No
Scrubs” not only defies this age-old dynamic but also, completely reverses
roles. The futuristic setting, modern day beat and low-angle shots in their
music video say it all: they’re bringing in a “New Age” and breaking age-old
stereotypes.
In TLC’s song “No
Scrubs” this ‘fly girl’ music group makes the bold powerful statement that ‘We
have the right to choose!’ it’s not about women catering to men anymore (at
least for them). Aside from breaking into the Hip Hop music scene as a three
women music group, they aren’t trying to simply ‘join the men’ in their Hip Hop
scene, they want to defy them and separate themselves. That is incredibly
interesting given how hard it was for women to break into Hip Hop and be
respected by the males, it was constantly a female’s urge to be accepted by the
males in Hip Hop culture, and not for the traditional reasons (survival and
marriage).
The music video embodies
a highly futuristic and modern taste- flashing fluorescent strobe lights, tall
chrome and metal rooms mainly shot in various low-angles creating a highly
dominating feel of the all female ‘fly girl’ group over us as a viewing us. The
primary focus of their video are these low angles- we as an audience are being
overpowered by the group, the message isn’t polite or passive. They declare ‘I don’t
want your number, I don’t want to give you mine…a scrub is a guy that can’t get
no love from me.’ It is a New Age, women want men to ‘satisfy [my] appetite
with something spectacular’ times are changing and the roles are reversing, it
is the time for men to impress the lady.
TLC rocked the music
charts with this Hip Hop pop hit, especially among females, I remember being a
young girl and this playing on the radio as my older cousins belted out the
lyrics with powerful hand gestures. TLC declared that they aren’t going to
settle as women throughout history have always done, they rang in a New Age and
made a bold statement about the female role in Hip Hop music. Rather than
yearning to be accepted and respected by the male Hip Hop community they egged
them on- saying they weren’t going to settle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrLequ6dUdM
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