“tell me you’ve seen it, champ! i can’t believe you haven’t seen it yet!”
like all other internet savvy adults with a few somewhat, but not really all that internet savvy relatives, i’m a bit weary when certain family members send me urgent emails about things that i “must see“. depending on the person, these forwards can be anything from “confirmed proof” that alicia keys and michelle malkin are really the exact same person to a video slideshow of annoyed puppies rocking fatigues. in the past week alone i’ve happily deleted so many “if you send this to 8 people, you’ll be saved” emails that my reflection doesn’t appear in mirrors anymore.
so, with this in mind, imagine my surprise friday afternoon when clicking on a link my cousin sent me, and being introduced to luiz otavio for the first time.
otavio, better known as the samba baby, is the star of one of the few viral videos that’s actually as cute, funny, amazing, and mesmerizing as everybody says it is. for three minutes straight, diaper-clad baby luiz samba dances (on beat!) on a table, while (what i hope were) family members record and urge him on. while watching, i didn’t know whether to be amazed his hilariously rhythmic pelvic thrusting and his stamina (lets just say that i know first hand that more than 75 consecutive seconds of intense pelvic thrusting can lead to cramps, soreness, and in some cases, gout) or tickled by his brazilian faux-hawk and his intensity. the samba game clearly is not a game to luiz.
but, after viewing it a second time, i began to feel a little uneasiness. i couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something about the video was bothering me. then it hit me:
a month or so ago, another video featuring young people doing a “mature” dance went viral. but, instead of laughter, amusement, and amazement, this video was met with anger, disbelief, and disgust.
from cnn to espn, pundits and critics drummed up their best faux-outrage to speak about how this video was a virtual rape and pedophilia petri dish. in “following in beyoncé’s ‘single ladies’ footsteps strips 7-year-olds of innocence“, sarah kaufman of the washington post even argued that it was borderline criminal child abuse.
Pedophiles don’t need more kindling on their deranged fires, but displays like this one shovel it on. And put other little girls at risk.
What’s troubling here is more than just the moves these kids are making — it’s the element of adult manipulation behind them. Sexy children, pushy parents: Think back on JonBenet Ramsey, the rouged and blow-dried beauty pageant princess, dead at 6. The irony is that kiddie pageants back then — she was killed in 1996 — were undoubtedly tamer than some of them are nowadays, with skimpy attire and dirty dancing all the rage
anyway, people of vsb.com, maybe you can answer the (still unanswered) questions that were causing me such uneasiness friday afternoon. what’s the difference between the samba baby and the young single ladies snizzles? despite the fact that they contained basically the same content (underdressed young people performing somewhat racily for the amusement of encouraging adults), why did one video make me smile while the other made me want to burn my clothes?
—the champ