A music video set to the tune of Cardi B鈥檚 breakout hit 鈥淏odak Yellow鈥� is amplifying young people鈥檚 voices in hopes of teaching an important lesson about consent.
stars a cast of youth who explore how to respond to unwanted advances. Lauren Chang, who plays Cardi B鈥檚 stand-in, Miss G, opens the video by confronting a guy who gropes her.
鈥淟isten up, you ain鈥檛 touching me unless I want you to. I鈥檓 not joking, this is my body, it鈥檚 my right to choose,鈥� Chang raps.
The video was created by Sex Education by Theatre (SExT) in partnership with the Canadian Foundation for AIDS research. SexT founder Shira Taylor said conversations about sex-ed are often seen as 鈥渁dults debating each other,鈥� and she wanted to create something that was fun, non-judgmental and centred around youth.
鈥淭hese are the approaches that lead to real behaviour change,鈥� Taylor told 麻豆传媒 Channel on Friday.
The video also purposefully includes a diverse cast that reflects the audience Taylor hopes to reach.
鈥淚n this video, we see young people who look like youth in Toronto in 2018. And they鈥檙e listening to the same music, they鈥檙e rocking the same dance moves, and here they are modelling how to enact consent in a really relatable way,鈥� she said.
The song choice was also quite purposeful. 鈥淏odak Yellow鈥� dropped in June 2017 and quickly became a ubiquitous presence on radio, smashing chart records and solidifying Cardi B鈥檚 position as rap鈥檚 rising star.
The song鈥檚 popularity amongst young people made it an easy choice to parody, Chang said.
鈥溾�橞odak Yellow鈥� was one of those songs that all my friends knew the words to, and I thought it was pretty cool because it鈥檚 by a female rapper. And I knew I wanted to talk about consent, and consent is usually framed as this super serious thing 鈥� which of course it is 鈥� but I wanted to do a fun and empowering take on it,鈥� she said.
Chang says it鈥檚 important that the message comes from young people because they have an inside understanding of issues facing young people today.
鈥淚 see a lot around me that my friends and I go through these sort of situations every day. And sometimes I don鈥檛 think that our parents understand or are fully aware of this,鈥� she said.
