POP CULTURE

NEWS | ENTERTAINMENT | HEARSAY

Aitch’s “Learning Curves’:

What to learn?

Manchester rapper Aitch, real name Harrison Armstrong, has made a comeback with the release of his highly anticipated new single ‘Learning Curve’. It dropped on the 24th of June and has received glowing reviews from fans and mainstream music commentators alike. The 21-year-old is no stranger to success. He shot to fame in 2019 with his first single ‘Taste (Make It Shake)’, which managed to reach number two on the UK charts.

‘Learning Curve’ is praised for its up-tempo flow, sophisticated production, and impressive accompanying music video. Youtuber James Daniels describes it as the “Definition of quality over quantity, tune is sick and the music video is next level”.

In addition to the spectacular video editing, there is another feature of the video that has everyone talking. The women chosen to play roles in the video are said to represent the ‘everyday woman’, inclusive of different ethnicities, hairstyles, body shapes, and sizes, and even includes a woman with vitiligo, a long-term condition where pale white patches develop on the skin.

Fans of the rapper have rushed to thank him “for the diversity of women in this video...mad respect for including some BBWs. Big girls need loving too”. Another expressed “feeling beautiful with the representation of women with skin conditions in this video”.

Alongside the appreciation, there has been the usual small-minded intolerance that seems to always pop up on social media. In reference to the six “curvy” women lying on a bed with Aitch, two of whom are black, and another has vitiligo, one YouTube comment reads, “That bed looks like what I'd imagine hell to be like. What a hippo pit”.

Diversity, inclusivity and media representation are extremely important and should be welcomed, however, when it comes to the mainstream media, we cannot take things at face value. Given that everything else about the song and video objectifies women in line with what is typical of misogynistic stereotyping, the inclusion of a bit of diversity in a single scene in the video is not something we should be thankful for.

To start with, what role are the six women cosying up in bed with Aitch, all in matching underwear, playing? Their depiction is in no way liberating or progressive. Secondly, most of the video sees Aitch with other women who are slim and who very much fit society’s manufactured image of what sexy is. The lyrics further sexualise and objectify women, an example being, “She ain’t have no bum but her boobs was nice”.

Like most industries, the mainstream media uses marketing ploys for the sole purpose of making huge sums of money. The marketing is often so sophisticated that it dictates what it is that we desire. Sometimes, however, through socially conscious campaigns and movements, e,g, #metoo, and BLM, this is turned upside down, and it is us who dictates what it is that we want. This is where corporate marketing becomes even more sophisticated, and even more manipulative. They re-package our aspirations and values and sell them back to us. Their strategy to make profits is simple; whatever sells and by any means. 

Women deserve real inclusivity and representation, not scraps of it that are disingenuous and superficial. Progression on this front will not come through the existing structures of mainstream media. It will come through the collective efforts and expression of ordinary people who genuinely respect and value women and whose motivation is more about raw creativity and human connection than it is about selling at any cost and for profit’s sake.