Accidentally Fighting Beauty Standards?

I came across Ish Kevin’s Toto Mtosso and began to vibe with the music. I, then, decided to look at the music video just to get a vibe of what the music was supposed to be showing me. The music video is the way an artist expresses their music through vision. But something stuck out to me. I think it’s important to acknowledge something that Ish Kevin does, even if it’s not intentional. The music talks about having fun and living your best life. “Dutahane nkwereke isoko” come in, take a look and enjoy yourself. But in the video, there is a woman. SHe’s dancing and doing her thing. But her body type is what caught my eye. I think it’s important to acknowledge that her body type is NORMAL. She isn’t the normal unrealistic beauty standard that you see in women in American music videos. And she isn’t trying to be. I have no idea if Ish Kevin intentionally chose this woman for this reason but it’s so interesting to look at. IN American culture, it’s consistently a battle of trying to get representation. Not even just representation of plus size women, but of women of COLOR and women of color who don’t have insanely flat tummies or huge butts. There is a constant battle for WOC to see themselves in these types of roles and it is not ALL about that. And in one video, Ish Kevin has forced the audience to normalize the idea of a woman without those insane beauty standards literally just living her life. And she isn’t the focal point. The focus point is the artist with his cars and his money, dancing and rapping about being in the club. It might not seem that significant but as a black woman with a similar body type, it warmed my heart to see this video and the representation. Go check out the music video and see what I mean! 

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