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Sam Smith has sparked a dispute over the ‘hypersexualized’ dance in his new music video with critics arguing it is ‘normalizing pornography’ in pop culture, but fans claim it is ’empowering’.
The ‘raunchy’ video for the singer’s new song I’m Not Here To Make Friends has led to a debate over whether she should have age restrictions on platforms like YouTube due to their allegedly explicit content.
It shows them arriving at a castle by helicopter before dancing alongside a large number of performers dressed in corsets, suspenders and nipple tassels. A fountain of water is also seen being sprayed into the singer’s mouth.
In other scenes, the dancers are filmed slowly pushing on a bed wearing only black leather underwear and then surround Smith, who is non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them, as they dance provocatively.
Sam Smith is seen wearing a corset, suspenders and nipple tassels in his new music video for I’m Not Here To Make Friends.
Critics called for age restrictions, as they said children as young as five can watch the ‘sexualized’ music video on YouTube.
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The 30-year-old singer released the video for the new song, part of her new album Gloria, last week.
But appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today, journalist Alex Phillips said the music video was “unhealthy” for society.
She added: ‘We live in a time where pornography is becoming so normalized. It’s in music videos, it’s in fast fashion that’s marketed to teens, and we also live in a time where we know people get sexually assaulted at school.
“You have to have websites where people say ‘I’m going through these terrible experiences.’ You have dirt in the WhatsApp groups among the police.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that reports of things like sexual assault and sexual assault, relationships falling apart, the swipe left and swipe right generation.
‘It’s bad, it’s not healthy, it’s not good for society and this is a symptom of it.’
Meanwhile, radio host Shivani Dave defended the singer, claiming that past stars like Madonna would not have received such criticism if they had released such a video.
She said: ‘Miley Cyrus has done this, Nicki Minaj has done this, a lot of people have done this.
“I think the difference here is that Sam Smith was assigned male at birth and we’re not used to seeing people who are assigned male at birth dancing around in lingerie and corsets and things like that.”
Dave added: ‘Madonna has done that. There were some people who said it was over sexualization and she wasn’t on TV in the morning; people didn’t debate it in the same way.
Similarly, viewers were also mixed in their views on the music video on social media.
Some said the video should be kept out of the reach of children and is similar to a Playboy photo shoot.
Smith is also seen performing provocative dance moves during the music video, released last week.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today, journalist Alex Phillips said the music video was “unhealthy” for society.
Sam Smith has sparked a dispute over his new music video. Pictured: The singer performs onstage at Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball 2022
One tweeted: ‘It’s vulgar… Sam Smith has a great voice but his video is offensive. I certainly don’t want my son to see it..
‘Less is more Sam. How this can be seen as “empowerment” is beyond me. A sign of these crazy times if anyone thinks that’s a good thing!
A second said: “Totally agree with Alex and this should be banned, it’s embarrassing.”
A third added: ‘It’s time the standards were raised regarding pop videos. Many of them are nothing more than pornography, softcore or otherwise. What are these people trying to do with our children?
But some fans were quick to jump to her defense, claiming hypocrisy about similar music videos released by female singers.
One said: “Whether you like Sam Smith or not, there were much worse videos in the ’80s and ’90s.” There are always calls to ban these things. People only like free speech when it suits them.’
Another tweeted: ‘Blimey, lots of pearls grabbed! Does anyone remember the 70’s and 80’s? Do you remember the Tubes or Divine? Everyone move. It’s been done before.
A third said: ‘I see no difference between them and a woman who does the same thing. It is what it is.
They are living their best life.
A fourth added: “I’m not a fan of Sam Smith, but I can’t see any difference to the types of videos made by people like Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, etc. They weren’t being discussed on TV.”
The debate came after GMB presenter Richard Madeley had to apologize for mistaking Smith on the show.
Sam, 30, is non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them and Richard was talking about the scenes in Sam’s video, when he accidentally referred to them as ‘he’.
As a panel discussed the video, Richard said that ‘they were right’ and was informed that they also use they/them pronouns.
Richard apologized a second time, saying: ‘I’m so sorry. I will learn to do that.
Gloria, Sam’s fourth studio album, was released on Friday and is the first LP they have released in three years.
It was removed after almost a year of public preparations by Sam, who released his first single Love Me More in April 2022.
Sam revealed Friday that they were spat at in the street after coming out as non-binary.
The Grammy winner changed his gender pronouns to they/them in 2019 and said he wishes he had done it sooner, but he also opened up about the shocking reaction.