Toni Fowler is back with another controversial music video. Is it empowering or merely a pornographic objectification of women?
Content warning: This article discusses sexual content.
Toni Fowler is being dubbed the Filipino Cardi B, but not exactly as a compliment. The vlogger, musician, and actress who’s also known as Mommy Oni previously received heavy backlash for her hypersexual “M.P.L.” (“Malibog Pag Lasing”) music video. This week, she’s back with another controversial music video for a track called “M.N.M.” (“Masarap Na Mommy”). While it did make a valid point on moms not being “past their prime,” there’s still a lot to be said about its male gaze-y and straight-up pornographic objectification of women.
A casual scroll on the comments section of Fowler’s music videos shows several sarcastic comments about how she “never fails to disappoint” and more comprehensive criticisms on how her “obscenity” isn’t a good example for kids, especially her own. However, there are also netizens praising her for being authentic and calling out her critics for being “hypocrites” when similarly sexual Western songs like Cardi B’s “WAP” or Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” are deemed “acceptable.”
To Fowler’s credit, both “M.N.M.” and “M.P.L.” are unlisted videos on YouTube and are only available to viewers 18 and above. This means you’ll have to head to Fowler’s channel to watch them. Fowler also posted a video where she chastised parents of kids who were dancing to “M.P.L.” in the hopes of being chosen for her iPhone 14 giveaway. She has repeatedly said that her content isn’t for children, but this doesn’t entirely absolve her of all responsibility for it.
Like Cardi B, Fowler uses stripper aesthetics in her music videos. Both of them may be paying homage to the years when they previously worked as a stripper and exotic dancer, respectively. However, Fowler’s use of the aesthetic seems more like a co-opting of body and style trends that can be traced to the wave of Black culture and Black women appropriation. And the visual language of Fowler’s music video caters more to male sexual appetite instead of inspiring women empowerment. In the case of “M.N.M.,” for example, it seemed to cross between proclaiming that moms, even pregnant moms, are sexy, and fetishizing pregnancy.
In the “M.N.M.” music video, Fowler sports a number of revealing outfits including a draped pearl top that doesn’t cover her nipple pasties and a matching skirt, a sheer red bodysuit, and a skimpy mummy costume. A prop vulva is a recurring image, attached on the back of Fowler’s neck and on another woman’s belly. There are also sequences of a pregnant woman pole dancing. Those parts would probably be only deemed “too much” by more conservative viewers.
The lyrics “Sarap ng p*kng may tahi” didn’t even bother me. I mean, I can’t even think of any other song that references the surgical procedure episiotomy done during childbirth.
But the parts that are basically fetishistic porn don’t sit right with me. There are two different sequences of Fowler scissoring with a pregnant woman. There’s a shot of her bare genitals. There are shots of Fowler sucking on another woman’s nipple as milk spills when the line “Ako na nagpa-suso pero mas mukhang bata” comes on. And there’s a really long sequence of different shots from the POV of a person having sex with all these women.
Despite being made aware that the “M.P.L.” music video was viewed by a lot of underage Filipinos regardless of prior warnings and that her own following includes kids, she still released this on her YouTube channel instead of an adults-only space. This is a very irresponsible move.
It wasn’t that long ago when we criticized Donnalyn Bartolome’s sexy adult baby photoshoot and stated that on the internet where young people aren’t strictly protected from consuming adult content, content creators must take extra care not to contribute to the hypersexualization of young people or behavior commonly attributed to young people like breastfeeding.
And oddly enough, the core message of “moms are hot, too” was diluted by lyrics like “Ang sexy-sexy ng ‘yong body, ‘yan ang gusto ko na MILF” that reinforces ridiculous beauty standards on mom bods. But what else can we expect from a music video that mainly caters to male fantasies?
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