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Letter: When pop music confronts societal issues

By Staff | Jul 30, 2022

Is there anything more refreshing than a bouncy pop tune ripping into America’s culture of misogyny?  Singer-songwriter Jax’s “[I know] Victoria’s Secret” visual message is as dead-on as her lyrics. Appropriately costumed, well-choreographed, and captured on an iPhone the delightful, flash-mob style video is performed by a cast of inclusive body shapes and abilities. Take that Matt Gaetz.

The message and movement by American Idol finalist and TikTok sensation Jax should be every neighborhood dance studio’s dream. No bleeping or cutting lyrics. No cringey costume moments. And enough parts for both boys and girls. But will dance studios in conservative Utah be as comfortable with Jax calling out corporate America for “cashing in on our body issues” as they are with the current studio favorite “Go Down Deh” (you get the idea but look it up).

As the U.S. Supreme Court limits civil rights for women, and all four Utah Congressmen vote against securing the right to contraception — Mike Lee continues to wage a war on federal protections for women and minorities hiding behind the slogan Constitutional “originalism.” So the time is now for musicians like Jax, and all artists and dancers and their families to recognize what misogyny looks like, and call it out.

The astonishing lack of political push back on Florida Republican Matt Gaetz’s mocking of women who are rape victims saying, “Why would anyone want to impregnate women who look like a thumb” — makes it clear that we need to speak louder than those who seek to diminish us lest our children suffer the same regrets we hear in Jax’s lyrics:

“I know Victoria’s secret

And girl, you wouldn’t believe

She’s an old man who lives in Ohio

Making money off of girls like me”

“…wish somebody would have told me

When I was younger that all bodies aren’t the same”

— Kathy Adams, Salt Lake City

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