Grammy Awards Under Fire, Accused Of Being Hardcore Porn
The Grammys just had a controversial performance that some are calling pornographic.
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The Grammy Awards aired this past weekend bringing on a number of musical acts and generating significant buzz across the entertainment industry. But this year’s awards are being called into question for something other than the music, speeches of celebrities present in the audience. There’s one group out there claiming that one of the performances in this year’s Grammy Awards was tantamount to hardcore pornography.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has said that there was one Grammy Awards act in particular that went way overboard in terms of what should be acceptable for a “family” awards show and that was when Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B performed the song “WAP”. I suppose we could just start there when looking up what that stands for, though I’m not even positive the NCSE even got there with their complaint. Instead, they focused on the on-stage histrionics that went into the act. According to the group, the performance by the two superstars amounted to glorifying prostitution and stripping while exploiting women. Here, take a look at the performance and see what you think:
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has a number of different aspects of their mission statement, but are particularly focused on limiting sexual abuse of all categories as well as reducing sexual imagery on the internet and in on-air programming. They see this all as promoting unhealthy sexual relationships and contributing to abusive tendencies. In their statement, they compared the Grammy Awards performance to “hardcore pornography” and added that this kind of performance adds to a culture of sexual exploitation.
There’s for sure a sense that this Grammy Awards performance was salacious. There’s definitely a theme to what they are trying to do on stage. But hardcore pornography? That does seem to be a little over the top. Though I suppose if the group that’s calling the act into question is looking to make a splash with their own condemnation of the proceedings then using as graphic language as possible to get their point across is the way to go.
And even though the Grammy Awards might have fed on some base-level instincts for its viewers with the performances, it didn’t do much to help the ratings. The show saw a 53% dip in ratings year-over-year with an average of fewer than nine million viewers over the course of the show. If the NCSE wants to feel good about one thing with their condemnation of the performances it could be that no one was really around to watch anyway. There’s some chance that them comparing it to pornography had the unintended effect of more people actually ending up watching. I know that was the case for yours truly.
Look, this isn’t the first controversy for an awards show, and won’t be the last. Where it ranks on is tough to tell. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the Grammy Awards performance by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion was a bit over the top? Would pornography be the word you used to describe what happened on stage? I don’t think I’d go that far, but I’m also the guy who had to look up WAP just a few minutes ago.
