Lights, camera ... sex!

By George Davis

It had to happen. And it has. A dancehall performer has won the race for being the first member of the local entertainment fraternity to make a music video featuring live sex. What makes Ricky Carty's video even more remarkable is that he uses no proxies or prostheses on the set of what, for him, must number among the greatest accomplishments of his life. No, sir.

In his video for Gyal Tek C@ky, Carty assumes the role of 'dagger-master', embedding himself inside a compliant and clearly gleeful female companion. You'll not remember Carty's lyrics spat in the song, because you'll be busy being blown away by the sight of a man being blown away, on camera, by a woman, all in the name of music, free expression and entertainment.

The only curious bit about the female is that while she engages the camera and smiles like a Cheshire cat during her striptease, she chooses to hide her face by the time Carty, in his role as jockey, mounts up and begins his ride to the finish. Perhaps in that moment she feels ashamed. But maybe only for that moment.

Not even the embattled 'Missa Palmer', whose fate will be determined by a dozen of his peers in short order, ever went to that length in any of his myriad music videos. No, sir.

So Carty and his team, who conceptualised, produced and directed this video, can die happy knowing they were the first to present raw sex in the form of a music video and pass it on to a confused public.

WHY CONFUSED?

Why is the pubic confused, you wonder? Well, this kind of activity that demands and deserves condemnation is not likely to get apposite treatment. No, sir. This is so because the Jamaican public is confused about what is right, wrong, indecent, acceptable, morally corrupt, reprehensible, criminal and plain out of order.

Just who is going to condemn something like this? Fellow dancehall entertainers who make their living talking about and doing the simulation that Carty has taken to a higher notch or few? The church leaders who've stayed silent in the face of rampant abuse of boys and girls by men of the cloth the world over? The church leaders who molest pre-adolescent girls and 'breed off' the teenage ones?

The political leaders whose moral compass has never ever stopped at any cardinal point? Civil-society leaders whose sexual misdeeds are so awful that even the devil himself disapproves? Who can come forward and say Carty and his kind are doing wrong by desecrating the music and poisoning the minds of youngsters?

This is the problem we have in this country and, by extension, the world. We've allowed our sense of right and wrong to be dulled by the lure of money and our desperate need to protect our social status. We've been co-opted as a people to accept as right the things which are wrong.

FREEDOMS OF ALL

We've been coached to believe that the rights and freedoms of all, never mind the danger associated with such a belief, must be respected. So a man who takes unto himself another man should not be condemned. No, sir. Forget that buggery is illegal. Those guys should have their rights respected and should be left alone to do what they want as consenting adults. OK. Fine.

So on what basis can anyone who accepts that line have anything bad to say about Carty and his exploits? How can such a person criticise the vulnerable schoolgirls caught up in the most recent sex video which has gone viral on the Internet? How can these folks champion tough sanctions against committers of incest or carnal abuse?

Carty knows that as a nation, Jamaica has lost its moral centre. He knows that the wrong he's done by making the video will never result in him being persona non grata. No, sir. He knows that people have been corrupted to the point where none can look him in the eye or the back of the head and condemn his actions.

Why? Because we are conflicted and confused. And people in that state do or say nothing in the face of the worst wrongs.

Selah.

George Davis is a journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and george.s.davis@hotmail.com.