July 04.
The cover caption of the VIBE magazine's latest sex issue initially brought a burning question to my attention. The singer was photographed in lingerie, on her elbows and knees, and looked blankly into the camera with her lower back tattoo as the high focal point of the photo. “What’s Behind Brandy?” asked the headline.
While I was pondering this matter at the local drugstore magazine rack, a metaphorically-minded preteen boy and his friends were doing the same. Seeing the question on the cover, he theorized out loud “my pee pee” (I’m paraphrasing) and a hearty laugh was had by all.
Hmmmm. Here are some of my guesses. Could it be her keys? Of course! That’s it. Brandy’s keys fell under the sofa and that’s the only way she could position herself to get them, with the irony being that they were behind her the whole time. But no… pop stars probably pay people to put themselves in such a compromising position in their stead. Let’s see… could it be her proctologist or her OBGYN? After all she is a mother. Na that’s too obvious. But why would an artist original enough to remake both “Rock With You” AND “The Girl is Mine” need to do something as clichéd as sticking her butt in the air on the cover of the sex issue of VIBE magazine to sell records? Perhaps she was on her knees praying that if this she did this once she would never have to do it again. For those familiar with word puzzles, the “I “and the “B” of the word vibe is behind her so I suppose “I be behind Brandy” could be implied.
Intrigued, I picked up the magazine and read it from cover to cover. On the inside of the back cover, there was an article about condoms… and their history of mention in hiphop music.
Then it hit me, most magazines that market to an URBAN audience (the people formerly known as black) have sex issues but very little on HIV/AIDS. WHY? There’s a silly hope I like to harbor – that a magazine targeted to young ‘urban’ consumers would devote a portion of their “sex” issue to educating their readers about the fastest-growing and most lethal sexually transmitted disease affecting young black people today.
Perhaps it just wasn’t sexy enough to include. Who wants to hear about stupid old AIDS? Young people probably hear too much about it in the public schools’ comprehensive reproductive education programs, on the radio referenced responsibly in the hottest music of the day, and in the frank and honest discussions they have with their well informed peers and family members. Gosh I mean who really needs another downer about aids?
Who needs to hear that about 5 young people between the ages of 10-24 are infected every minute with HIV.
Or that every day, worldwide, 16,000 adults and 7000 young people (10 – 24 years of age) become infected with HIV.
That’s BORING!!! And math sucks. Plus Magic Johnson looks fine.
There are an estimated 1.4 million people living with AIDS in Latin America; 560,000 in East Asia; 500,000 in Western Europe; and 6.7 million in South and Southeast Asia. In North America, there are an estimated 890,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS. Among these, African American men made up 40% of the new AIDS cases among males, African American women represented 62% of the new AIDS cases reported among females. African American children made up more than 62% of the new AIDS cases among children reported in the U.S. African Americans are reportedly 13% of the population.
But AIDS is so old school. Hepatitis B or C virus, that’s what’s up. That’s what’s hot on the streets.
What better way to shoo those “we are living in one of human history’s biggest epidemics and might very well lose a generation of people” blues away than to do a sex issue of a magazine marketed to the most direly-effected demographic, and pack it with ads for sneakers, name-brand clothing, and liquor to help get your mind off the pain.
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The cover caption of the VIBE magazine's latest sex issue initially brought a burning question to my attention. The singer was photographed in lingerie, on her elbows and knees, and looked blankly into the camera with her lower back tattoo as the high focal point of the photo. “What’s Behind Brandy?” asked the headline.
While I was pondering this matter at the local drugstore magazine rack, a metaphorically-minded preteen boy and his friends were doing the same. Seeing the question on the cover, he theorized out loud “my pee pee” (I’m paraphrasing) and a hearty laugh was had by all.
Hmmmm. Here are some of my guesses. Could it be her keys? Of course! That’s it. Brandy’s keys fell under the sofa and that’s the only way she could position herself to get them, with the irony being that they were behind her the whole time. But no… pop stars probably pay people to put themselves in such a compromising position in their stead. Let’s see… could it be her proctologist or her OBGYN? After all she is a mother. Na that’s too obvious. But why would an artist original enough to remake both “Rock With You” AND “The Girl is Mine” need to do something as clichéd as sticking her butt in the air on the cover of the sex issue of VIBE magazine to sell records? Perhaps she was on her knees praying that if this she did this once she would never have to do it again. For those familiar with word puzzles, the “I “and the “B” of the word vibe is behind her so I suppose “I be behind Brandy” could be implied.
Intrigued, I picked up the magazine and read it from cover to cover. On the inside of the back cover, there was an article about condoms… and their history of mention in hiphop music.
Then it hit me, most magazines that market to an URBAN audience (the people formerly known as black) have sex issues but very little on HIV/AIDS. WHY? There’s a silly hope I like to harbor – that a magazine targeted to young ‘urban’ consumers would devote a portion of their “sex” issue to educating their readers about the fastest-growing and most lethal sexually transmitted disease affecting young black people today.
Perhaps it just wasn’t sexy enough to include. Who wants to hear about stupid old AIDS? Young people probably hear too much about it in the public schools’ comprehensive reproductive education programs, on the radio referenced responsibly in the hottest music of the day, and in the frank and honest discussions they have with their well informed peers and family members. Gosh I mean who really needs another downer about aids?
Who needs to hear that about 5 young people between the ages of 10-24 are infected every minute with HIV.
Or that every day, worldwide, 16,000 adults and 7000 young people (10 – 24 years of age) become infected with HIV.
That’s BORING!!! And math sucks. Plus Magic Johnson looks fine.
There are an estimated 1.4 million people living with AIDS in Latin America; 560,000 in East Asia; 500,000 in Western Europe; and 6.7 million in South and Southeast Asia. In North America, there are an estimated 890,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS. Among these, African American men made up 40% of the new AIDS cases among males, African American women represented 62% of the new AIDS cases reported among females. African American children made up more than 62% of the new AIDS cases among children reported in the U.S. African Americans are reportedly 13% of the population.
But AIDS is so old school. Hepatitis B or C virus, that’s what’s up. That’s what’s hot on the streets.
What better way to shoo those “we are living in one of human history’s biggest epidemics and might very well lose a generation of people” blues away than to do a sex issue of a magazine marketed to the most direly-effected demographic, and pack it with ads for sneakers, name-brand clothing, and liquor to help get your mind off the pain.
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