Grammies for Britney, Fergie and FIR for Honey Singh?

Singer Yo Yo Honey Singh was forced to cancel his New Year’s Eve show after an FIR was lodged against him for his vulgar lyrics against women. People are up in arms because he mentions certain body parts and objectifies women. But why single him out when, for years together, female singers have been objectifying themselves. Let’s start with Grammy winners, who are role models to millions of girls across the world. Take for example Britney Spears. She burst into the pop music scene in 1999 with her chartbuster song Baby One More Time. In the video an 18-year-old Britney dances in what is certainly an excuse for a school uniform and is inviting her love interest to ‘hit her’ one more time. The song earned her Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Solo Performance. [caption id=“attachment_576275” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie even has a song called My Humps (read breasts) where she sings: They say I’m really sexy, the boys they wanna sex me. They always standin next to me, always dancin next to me. Tryna feel my hump hump, Lookin at my lump lump. The song won her a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 2007. No one was up in arms against Rihanna’s Rude boy, because of course there is nothing wrong with singing: Come here, rude boy, boy, can you get it up? Come here rude boy, boy, is you big enough? No one in India stopped it from playing on the radio, in club or bars. The list of such songs is endless and singers like Lady Gaga, and Madonna are all a part of it. Closer home we saw Kareena Kapoor being vocal about the Delhi gangrape, but what happened when she gyrated to Fevicol Se in Dabangg 2? Nobody filed an FIR against her for dancing to lyrics like Main toh tandoori main to tandoori murgi hoon yaar, gatkale saiyan alcohol se, a rough translation of which means I am like tandoori chicken, down me with some alcohol! There is a thin line between being sensual and being vulgar. When the line is being crossed by female icons of the music and film industry so very often, will banning Yo Yo Honey Singh solve our problem? Will it change our mindset?