socilo

Taboos

Taboos are actions that are forbidden in everyday life. An example of a taboo would be cannibalism, it’s very dangerous to the person being eaten which usually leads to death and it’s socially wrong for a person to eat another human being. In the image above we see a rapper Lil Nas X giving the devil a lap dance. Lil Nas X's new song “Montero, Call Me By Your Name” has recently brought a lot of negative attention. Not only do people find his music video offensive, but he also released new Nike shoes that had a drop of human blood, which led to a lawsuit. Lil Nas X received major hate for the music video, a controversy that most religious people found disgusting. In the video we see Lil Nas being drawn to the devil so that he could be accepted into heaven. Lil Nas is a gay black man who had to work hard to be accepted, the music video shows exactly that. We’ve seen through the years that it is now less taboo to be in the LGBTQ to be in the music industry, however, the double standards are still there between cisgender and in the LGBTQ community. If it were a female singer who were giving the devil a lapdance it wouldn’t have been criticized as much compared to Lil Nas experience. Lil Nas played with religion and religious people found it very offensive, they claimed it was an unthinkable action he shouldn’t have followed through with. I believe taboos land under functionalism perspective. With taboos in place it really does control what people think are “forbidden actions.” We all wear clothes, it would be uncomfortable for someone to see a naked person around and not think much of it. We wouldn’t want to see things such as rape, bestiality, necrophilia, and canibalissm seen as a social norm. Taboos can be different things to different people, but as I was trying to explain was that to religious people what Lil Nas X was an unthinkable action that shouldn’t have occurred. Playing with the devil can really push with people's buttons.