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LIFE/ C^Iatte $ot
Thursday, April 29, 2004
College women, sick of shakin’ it, take aim at rappers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — Maybe it was the credit card
that rap superstar Nelly swiped through a
woman’s backside in a recent video.
At Spelman, the most famous black
women’s college in the country, a feud has
erupted over images of women in rap videos,
sparking a petition drive and phone cam
paigns.
Nelly planned to visit Spelman earlier this
month for a charity event enlisting students
for a bone marrow registry. But the rapper
canceled the appearance after hearing that a
protest was in the works because of his videos
- especially “Tip Drill,” the one vdth the cred
it card, which also shows men throwing
money between women’s legs and women
simulating sex acts with each other.
Misogyny in pop music, especially hip-hop,
has been around for years. What’s new, stu
dents say, is an explosion of almost-X-rated
videos passed around on the Internet or
shown late at night on cable channels like
Black Entertainment Television, also knovm
as BET.
Never before, students say, have the por
trayals of black women been so hypersexual
and explicit.
“It’s very harsh. This is something we have
to see and listen to on a daily basis,” said
senior Shanequa Yates. “Nelly just didn’t want
to come here and face the criticism for the
choices he’s made.”
Not all students agreed that rappers are to
blame, or that the images were harmful to
society. At a recent meeting at Spelman to
decide what should be done to protest rap
music, some pointed out that women in the
videos know what they’re doing and are paid
to do it.
The issue especially incensed some men
studying at Morehouse, a black men’s college
closely affiliated -with Spelman. “These are
grown women. I’m putting the blame on the
women,” said Kenneth Lavergne, a senior
who was loudly booed by the 300 or so women
at the meeting.
Another student, Bradley Walker from
Clark Atlanta University, talked about the
credit-card swiping. “Bottom line, a woman let
him do that,” he said. “I do think sometimes
the total blame is put on artists themselves.”
Nelly’s record label agrees. A spokeswoman
for Universal Records, Wendy Washington,
complained that the charity event fell apart
just because women at Spelman were looking
for a scapegoat. She said the feud unfairly
made Nelly an example to fire up urban radio
stations and music writers across the country.
“He did not think it was appropriate at all
for students to use that as a forum,”
Washington said. “I think he was profoundly
fhistrated. He was not the first, certainly, to
do a video like that.”
Spelman women have low hopes of getting a
change from BET, which shows bawdy videos
with genitals and breasts fuzzed out on “BET
Uncut” at 3 a.m.
The network has no plans to stop running it.
“”Uncut” has developed an almost cult-like
following because of the freedom of artists to
express themselves,” said network
spokesman Michael Lewellen. “It is specifical
ly for adults. These are music videos whose
content is too strong for our day points. We
exercise more scrutiny than is required.”
That sums up the basic message Spelman
women have gotten from rappers and TV
executives—if you don’t like it, don’t watch the
videos or listen to the music. But the student
activists insist the stereotypes in rap music
hurt black people even if they don’t listen.
“Black entertainers have become the new
myth makers, showing gangsters and bikini-
clad women with hyperactive libidos,” said
Zenobia Hikes, vice president for student
affairs. “For non-black children it creates a
gross misrepresentation of the black experi
ence.”
The next move is a petition drive, and a
campaign to phone complaints to TV net
works and radio stations that run offensive
material. If Janet Jackson’s breast sparked
such a crackdown on indecency in the media,
the students say, surely a woman shaking so
violently her bikini bottom pops off should
anger people, too.
“We need to organize and say no to this
stuff, this nasty, disgusting stuff,” said
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, director of the school’s
Women’s Research and Resource Center.
It won’t be easy.
“I don’t see a solution as long as you have
people willing to do it,”said senior Nikole
Howard. ‘You have to demand respect, but I
doubt these women even thought they were
being disrespected. It makes me sad, makes
me realize how much work we have to do to
educate women.”
On The Net:
Spelman College:
WWW. spelman. edu
Nelly:
www.nelly.net/tnain.html
BET:
www.bet.com
Diet, exercise can help ward off arthritis in aging weight-gaining
THK ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON-As baby
boomers get older and fatter,
they’re also more likely to
come down with one of the
consequences of age and
weight-arthritis.
Although they can’t prevent
aging, boomers can reduce
the risk from obesity, and diet
and exercise can help them
achieve it, doctors say.
Osteoarthritis, the most
common form, develops as
cartilage that cushions the
joints wears away, leaving
the ends of the bones rubbing
against each other. The
Arthritis Foundation says X-
rays can find signs of
osteoarthritis in most people
over 60.
The condition commonly
begins to show up between
ages 40 and 60, so most
boomers are “right smack in
the target,” said Bill Roberts,
an associate professor of fam
ily medicine at the University
of Minnesota and president
elect of the American College
of Sports Medicine.
Extra weight on the cartilage
brings extra risk of the joint
disease. “The simple explana
tion is, you’re putting more
biomechanical stress on the
joints,” said Kevin Fontaine,
an assistant professor of
rheumatology at the Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine.
Fontaine and his colleagues
looked at survey data from
the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and
concluded that the odds of
joint pain went up as weight
did. People ages 60 and older
had a 12 percent likehhood of
pain if they were under
weight but a 60 percent
chance if they were very
Reducing sodas helps slim kids down
obese, according to the study
in the October edition of the
journal Obesity Research.
Although the CDC survey
did not ask whether the pain
came from arthritis,
Fontaine believes it did
because the people polled
were in the right age range.
Losing weight can reduce
the risk of developing arthri
tis, said Dr. David Pisetsky,
director of the Duke
University Arthritis Center
and a medical adviser to the
Arthritis Foundation.
“There is good evidence that
people who are close to their
ideal weight are going to have
fewer problems,” he said.
Pisetsky also said over
weight people ought to give
special consideration to phys
ical activity because it offers
protection beyond weight
loss. “Many tissues just per
form better when they move
or bear weight,” he said.
Continued from page 1B
of diet carbonated drinks
they would benefit dental
health,” said the scientists,
diabetes doctors and nurses
at the Royal Bournemouth
Hospital in southern
England.
The program involved a
one-hour session given to
each participating class four
times during the school year.
The first session focused on
good health and the impor
tance of drinking water. The
children ate fruit to empha
size the sweetness of natural
products and each class
received a tooth immersed in
cola to show its effects on
teeth.
The second and third ses
sion involved a music compe
tition in which classes were
challenged to produce a song
with a healthy message.
The final session involved
art presentations and a class
room quiz based on a TV
game show.
The percentage of over
weight and obese children
increased by 7.5 percent in
the group that did not partic
ipate and dipped by 0.2 per
cent among those who did.
Consumption of soft drinks
dropped by 0.6 glasses a day
among the targeted children,
but increased by 0.2 glasses a
day among the children out
side the program.
All the children drank more
water than before. They had
been told it improves concen
tration.
It was not possible to prove
the weight improvements
were linked to the decline in
soda consumption because
the children may have
changed other aspects of
their diet.
But experts said the impor
tant point was that the pro
gram reduced obesity rates
through nutrition education.
Soft drink consumption has
increased enormously in the
United States and in Europe
over the last three decades,
and children are becoming
increasingly overweight
around the world.
The World Health
Organization said that
although the change in obesi
ty in the study was small, the
intervention was also mod
est.
“This is a promising find
ing,” said Derrek Yach, who
spearheads the agency’s anti
obesity effort. “We would
hope to see larger studies
with more intensive inter
ventions ... What happens
when you combine this with
the removal of vending
machines? I’m sure you’d see
even bigger beneficial
effects.”
On the Net:
www.b-dec. com/index, asp
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