There is so much controversy surrounding Willow Smith's new music video #SUMMERFLING. It seems like every single uptight parent and active opinionist in the world has crawled out of the woodworks to put their 2 pence in and ask questions like "is this too mature for a 12-year old" .. "why are our children growing up so fast?".. "is her clothing inappropriate?". First of all, I love the video.. and the song and think she's really coming into herself in terms of being an artist and young teen queen fashionista. I understand that touchy adults think that the theme of a "summer fling" is too mature for her but no-one was complaining at a thirteen year old JoJo releasing "Leave (Get Out)" with similar subject issues in 2004, so why have things changed? It's still the same light hearted-ness in a song that young teens are likely to have thrown at them to make them big in the charts. All young artists sing about "boyfriends" and "breakups" and "being in love".. it's what you think about when you're that age and it's not something to be taken so seriously and critically because 99% of the time it's all fiction and the actions and behaviour are not really taking place in real life! I don't believe that Will Smith would really let his daughter go and put this kind of music out without being confident that it's not going to affect her career or give her a bad image and surely he wants to help boost her image and let her express herself with fun and youthful videos while she's still at the age of 12.. not even a teenager - I would love to be able to show that kind of creativeness for myself at that age!
On terms of the "love interest" in the video, he is shown in a mere two clips - innocently sat by each other next to the water at the start of the video and then later on when he picks her up playfully .. barely seems like anything to worry about to me, could have been a lot worse. And to the people complaining about her clothes.. are 12 year olds wearing anything other than crop tops nowadays? I've seen children younger than 12 wearing much more inappropriate clothing with their full midriffs hanging loose but Willow is reflecting a 90's fashion trend and I don't see a problem with it! She is doing everything that a young girl would enjoy doing in the video.. playing about in a pool and spending time with people a bit older which everyone does at some stage to "fit in" and her brother is there might I add.. nothing to complain about in my opinion! I think people are picking at the lyrics a bit too much and trying to divulge something out of nothing but each to their own. I'm glad she's moved on from the whip my hair phase and I actually think this style suits her, she is obviously wiser and more mature than her years and if she wanted to be playing with barbies I'm sure she would be. She's a talented little twig and I reckon Jada and Will are letting her ride the wave into her teenage years and standing behind her each step of the way which is great and what parents should be doing! The British accent also adds to the fact she really isn't taking life too seriously and still has plenty of growing up to do!
#TEAMSMITH
No comments:
Post a Comment