Bad Media is Good Because....
Artist Lil Nas X an American rapper and singer recently released a music video to go with his new song Montero (Call Me By Your Name). Which has caused quite the controversy, backlash and hate. Even American politicians have an opinion about it. People have been expressing their concern over the music video and the “songs dangerous and destructive imagery that is endangering the God-given eternal souls of innocent American children”.
I highly disagree with these statements, Lil Nas X is simply showcasing how he feels his actions are seen by society, making a creative connection between America’s fear of the devil and America’s concerns about the LGBTQIA+ community and how they sadly link together.
Throughout Montero (Call Me By Your Name) music video there is an underlying theme of a dream-like state and a disturbed alternate reality. Which shows no matter how ‘normalise’ society wants us to believe LGBTQIA+ matters are the fact is that they are not. And the sad thing is that not only do some heterosexual people still believe that being anything other than straight is a sin that is meet by hell, but that mentality also invades the very people it diminishes. This is displayed perfectly in Montero’s, futuristic CGI biblical world where Lil Nas X gets banished to hell for fantasising about a sinful snake (his queerness). Montero shows a powerful divide of ambivalence not only between the people that hate the video and people who highly support it like myself but also between the creators own conscious and subconscious mind.
Putting the surface level issue of homophobia in this music video that is the overarching reason as to why it is deemed ‘bad’ by so many people aside, and looking deeper into the connotation this media provides I find very interesting.
It shows having a strong and proud sense of self is a hard thing to do, and I don’t think anyone can ever just be content, there is always a way to do better, be better, self criticise and self deprecate, which inevitably results in change whether that be appearance or otherwise.
As humans, our relationships with ourselves and the images we identify with will never stop changing. So it’s up to us to create and foster the environments filled with people and images that we want to be reflected against and subsequently then reflected onto others. That is the only way one can feel as whole heartily connected to their true reflection of self as possible.
And that is the reason why I have chosen to defend this text, I understand and agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but that mentality never goes both ways. If a music video of a gay man being himself, showing the world his story of self-acceptance and taking back the power to reclaim a story that once crippled him and many others of invalidation, I don’t see the issue. If you don’t agree with it then don’t watch it. But I can guarantee that Lil Nas X through Montero (Call Me By Your Name) has changed the perspectives and given new images of self-expression to many young people that are struggling with their own reflection.
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