To be very uncomfortable with 17 year old Billie Eilish's Bad Guy video?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Am I being an old gimmer?

It makes me deeply uncomfortable because she's not legally an adult, and I'm pretty certain the production team around her are all adults, possibly with the exception of an intern or two. Most of the men you can see in the video are.

It feels very exploitative. I don't know much about this singer, but a quick google shows she is open about mental health issues, so possibly quite vulnerable in a way, and then she's singing about bruises on her knees and rough sex, seducing dads (who are obviously going to be adult men!) and she's only 17 years old.

I'll be honest, I would have thought in 2019 this wouldn't be legal until the singer is 18 - or at least frowned upon by the industry as not acceptable? Not that it is magically better when someone turns 18 but the whole attitude seems very dated?

So I am younger (25). When I was her age this was all fairly standard stuff to talk about. Very few people did this to this kind of thing to this extent bit it was certainly part of our banter etc. Obviously I’m not saying that 17 year olds should be going out and doing this stuff but i think it’s quite naive to expect them not to be exposed or aware of this.

It's also ludicrous to whine that kids are discussing this sort of thing, thinking about it, and playing around with this kind of 'look at me, I'm so dirty' stuff in a way that isn't terribly serious. Being a teenager is about music and imagery that piss your parents off. It doesn't mean you're participating in stuff you might be a bit young for.

But stupid people have always had problems distinguishing between art and reality, whether their rage-pissing stems from the fact that it's 'disgusting' to mention sex at all, or whether it's concern-trolling about the wellbeing of the artist who uses such imagery. (Most kids who go through a Goth phase especially the ones who don't actually grow out of it tend to be clever, kind, well-adjusted, hardworking etc.)

Also, some musical education for younger posters, who can be excusde to an extent for wailing that only female singers perform stuff about being some kind of sexual victim:
"Sub-Mission"

I'm on a submarine mission for you baby
I feel the way you were going
I picked you up on my tv screen
I feel your undercurrent flowing

Submission going down down
Dragging me down submission
I can't tell ya what I've found

You've got me pretty deep baby
I can't figure out your watery love
I gotta solve your mystery
You're sitting it out in heaven above

Submission going down down
Dragging me down submission
I can't tell you what I've found
For there's a mystery
Under the sea in the water
Come and share it

Submission going down down
Dragging me down submission
I can't tell ya what I've found
'Cause it's a secret
Under the water in the sea
Octopus Rock

Got me pretty deep baby
I can't figure out your watery love
I gotta solve your mystery
You're sitting it out in heaven above

Submission going down down
Dragging me down submission
I can't tell ya what I've found

Submission Submission
Going down down under the sea
I wanna drown drown under the water
Going down down under the sea

(That's the Sex Pistols, from 1977.)

And from the early 70s, Iggy Pop and the Stooges...
"I Wanna Be Your Dog"

So messed up I want you here
In my room I want you here
Now we're gonna be Face-to-face
And I'll lay right down In my favorite place
And now I wanna be your dog
Now I wanna be your dog
Now I wanna be your dog
Well c'mon
Now I'm ready to close my eyes
And now I'm ready to close my mind
And now I'm ready to feel your hand
And lose my heart on the burning sands
And now I wanna be your dog
And now I wanna be your dog
Now I wanna be your dog
Well c'mon

And also, I give you

I love that Take That video with the totally batshit Paula Hamilton (still is, by all accounts...)

Ah Billie Eilish - what the heck is she wearing? Will she please speak up I can't hear her through all that mumbling, and what ridiculous and inappropriate videos ....

She makes me feel old but she speaks to the teens and 20 somethings of the day. Us old folk are not supposed to 'get', like or agree with youth music.

Billie sings to her generation.

It's about context though isn't it?

The problem of domestic violence. The fact that 2 women a week are murdered by their partner or ex. The fact that increasingly 'rough sex gone wrong' is being used as a murder defence, except in these 'sex games gone wrong' it's always the woman who ends up dead. Teen Vogue pushing anal sex on teenagers earlier and earlier, with handy diagrams which don't even feature a clitoris. Teen Vogue writing articles about how 'sex work is work' (but only for girls of course). Choking, anal, hair pulling and other porny stuff now being marketed as mainstream to young people (but it's always the girl being choked, having her hair pulled, getting the bloody nose, getting the bruised knees etc).

So, you can post a Take That video where some men are tied up by a woman and tell us that that means males and females have equal power balance, or whatever point you are trying to make, but it doesn't translate into real life, does it?

I like this song by her