Beyonce, sex, morality, and PAS

By Sim Kwang Yang

Beyonce Knowles is going to perform at a concert in the Bukit Jalil Stadium in KL later this month, and so as expected in Malaysia, there are voices in PAS calling on a ban on her concert so as to protect Malaysian youths from her negative immoral influence.

Two years or so ago, a concert of hers was cancelled because she could not accept the dress code imposed on her by the authorities

We all know who Beyonce is.  She is the scantily clad pop icon who is also a one-woman tour de force that can whip up a frenzy on the stage.

I have watched her performance on TV a few times.  I do not find her mode of dress and her performance “sexy”.  They are all like that these days, and after a while, you become numb to their alien mode of presenting themselves.

I am not a big fan of pop culture, but if other people are crazy about her, let them go to her concert.  They harm no one.  It is just simple entertainment, a commodity for mass consumption, and consumers must be entitled to their right of choice.

I am having trouble trying to understand what is meant by “sexy”.  I have heard ladies talking among themselves, even on TV fashion shows, about how to look “sexy”.  In that context, I suppose it means accentuating their gender uniqueness in their clothes, expressing their femininity in the most flattering ways possible.

In the mind of certain other people, “sexy” probably means “alluring, provocative, and titillating”, with the undertone that “sexy” ladies will immediately lure men into thinking of having sex with them.

You know how the argument goes.  If a woman is too scantily dressed, she will excite the men into all kinds of sexual fantasies, and that is how rape occurs sometimes.  If the rape does happen, then the women are somehow responsible for it, and not the rapists.  That is why women are advised to cover up their whole body from head to toe, including their face if possible.

I find that sort of interpretation of the sexuality of man and woman reductionist, simplistic, and essentialist.  There, the unique and complex personality and humanity of the woman person is overlooked, and she is reduced to the teleological function of her reproductive organ and her primordial child-bearing function.

That portrayal of manhood is also strange.  The idea that a man is so primordial in his sex drive, and that five thousand years of global civilized culture have not tamed the beast in him, that all he can think of when he sees a woman, especially when she is “sexily dressed”, is to want to have sex with her!

There may be the odd psychopathic rapists among us who think like that, but I don’t.  Do you?  How many of us think like that anyway?

Then, there is the strange idea that morality is about banning behaviour, banning foods and drinks, and banning performances that feature “sexy” ladies.

Today, Malaysian youths are exposed to “sexy” performances round the clock 24/7 on TV, and on the Internet.  Cheap pornography can be downloaded from countless websites.  Pornographic videos and VCDs are readily available in numerous night markets nightly through the large cities in decent neighbourhoods.

What would be achieved in banning Beyonce from performing in KL, when the kids lay their hands on the real immoral stuff for the price of a song any time they want to?

The real meaningful way to build up the personal character of our youths is not to ban them access to immoral stuff, because that will never work.  The forbidden fruit is all the more irresistible!

The real path to moral education is to weave a complex network of community education, starting in the homes with the personal examples set by the parents, closely tied to school education with personal examples set by teachers, and finally with community involvement that encourages values that express ultimate concern for others, and the readiness to contribute to the welfare and happiness of other human beings.

When it comes to Beyonce, I cannot see her singing and dancing with her body clad from head to toe, veil and all.  That would not be Beyonce.  That type of dancing that she does would not be possible with so many encumbrances anyway!

She excites little sexual feeling in me.  At my age, nothing does.

When I watch her perform on TV, I never fail to be amazed by how healthy she is, and what a great athlete she is.  Her kind of moves needs great agility and strength, especially on those killer high-heels.  She must be stressed out at the end of her performance, and sex must be the last thing on her mind.  I have seen her interviewed by an TV entertainment magazine, and she came across as a young, decent, nice, average and keen American girl.  There is nothing immoral about her, except perhaps in the eyes of those self-appointed moral guardians of the people.

Come on people, don’t be so excited about sex and all that.  Let Beyonce have her song and dance.  It is just entertainment.  Those who find her offensive can just stay home and pray.

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