Toni Fowler’s M.P.L and M.N.M, straight up women objectification
Content warning: This article discusses sexual content.
Women’s bodies have been a site for politics, control, and resistance for centuries. But the patriarchy reduced it to mere sexual objects of men. Toni Fowler dubbed as the Filipino Cardi B, is back again with another controversial music video centering on women objectification. After her hypersexual track M.P.L (Malibog Pag Lasing) netizens stated that “she never fails to disappoint” with her new song M.N.M (Masarap Na Mommy).
The vlogger, musician, and actress who’s also known as Mommy Oni made a valid point on moms not being “past their prime”. But her music video failed to empower women as it is inherently misogynistic and pornographic, to say the least. It focuses on women’s physical appearance and sexualized imagery. This type of representation normalizes objectification and reinforces harmful stereotypes about women’s worth based on their looks and sexual availability.
For women empowerment? It’s not giving
Women serve as mere props or accessories to cater to the male audience’s fantasies.
A casual scroll on the video’s comment section shows several sarcastic remarks and hornet’s nest of criticisms about its “obscenity”. However, some netizens commend Fowler for being authentic while calling out her critics for being “hypocrites”. They argue that equally sexual videos from Western artists like Cardi B’s “WAP” or Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” are deemed “acceptable.”
Photo screen grabbed from the “M.N.M” music video
Like Cardi B, Fowler uses stripper aesthetics in her music videos. Both of them acknowledges the sex industry as a previous stripper and exotic dancer. Still, Fowler’s use of the aesthetic seems more like a co-opting of body and style trends from the wave of Black culture and Black women appropriation.
So, are female rappers actually empowering women to be open about their sexuality, or is it just reducing them to being sexual objects?
These female rap artists tend to have overtly sexual lyrics, never seeming to shy away from their sexuality and bodies. We all know the hip-hop culture’s sexualization of women as a male-dominated genre. But female rappers have managed to rewrite this narrative to fall on female sexuality instead of objectification.
So in comparison to Fowler’s music, the visual language in “M.N.M” caters more to male sexual appetite instead of inspiring women empowerment. It crosses the point of fetishizing moms, pregnant moms, and even breastfeeding. The camera angles, framing, and narrative choices were purely created for men.
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. After receiving feedback that kids were dancing to “M.P.L.” to participate in her iPhone 14 giveaway, she posted a video where she chastised parents for allowing their children to watch her content. After repeatedly stating that it’s only for adults, this doesn’t entirely absolve her of all responsibility as an “influencer“.
Hypersexualization, misogyny
Fowler’s sports revealing attires in the “M.N.M” music video. A prop vulva is a recurring image, attached on the back of Fowler’s neck and another woman’s belly. There’s also a shot of a pregnant woman pole dancing. These parts would probably be only deemed “too much” by conservative viewers.
Those things didn’t even bother me, what doesn’t sit right with me are the images of fetishistic porn. There are two different sequences of Fowler scissoring with a pregnant woman. A shot of her bare genitals. Fowler sucking on another woman’s breast as milk spills along with the line “Ako na nagpa-suso pero mas mukhang bata”. This scene perpetuates the sexualization of breastfeeding. It shows that it is inherently sexual or indecent instead of a natural process of nourishing an infant.
Photo screen grabbed from the “M.N.M” music video
It wasn’t that long ago when we criticized Donnalyn Bartolome’s sexy adult baby photoshoot and stated that content creators must not contribute to the hypersexualization of children and or their behavior. These lyrics including “‘Yong iba nagpalaglag matawag na dalaga, akala mo kung sino mabait,” is misogynistic as well as it tries to put other women down. It also further stigmatizes women’s battle for a safe abortion.
And it did not stop there, there’s also a long sequence of various shots from the POV of a person having sex with all these women. The lyrics “Sarap ng p*king may tahi” and “Ang sexy-sexy ng ‘yong body, ‘yan ang gusto ko na MILF” diluted the core message of “moms are hot, too”. It reinforces unrealistic beauty standards on women’s bodies, especially mom-bods.
Women in a Man’s World
Just like everyone else, Fowler is a victim of a patriarchal society.
Ever heard of the phrase “sex sells?” Well, it does. Women are constantly being sexualized, no matter what they do, so they tend to use this concept to gain profit. But should anybody talk about sex that way? Does it cancel out if both sexes use language in the same way? Personally, I definitely think there’s a double standard, it’s gaining more backlash since Fowler is a woman. Nonetheless, it doesn’t justify her internalized misogyny and perpetuation of the male gaze.
Photo screen grabbed from the “M.N.M” music video
Women have been objectified for political purposes. Even though a woman’s physical incarnation has been at the center of many issues throughout time, history demonstrates that women have long found ways to engage in acts of resistance by weaponizing their bodies. Fowler should reconstruct her definition of “women empowerment,” instead of using women as passive objects of desire.
