A music video set to the tune of Cardi Bâs breakout hit âBodak Yellowâ is amplifying young peopleâs 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 Bâs stand-in, Miss G, opens the video by confronting a guy who gropes her.
âListen up, you ainât touching me unless I want you to. Iâm not joking, this is my body, itâs my right to choose,â 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 âadults debating each other,â and she wanted to create something that was fun, non-judgmental and centred around youth.
âThese are the approaches that lead to real behaviour change,â Taylor told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel on Friday.
The video also purposefully includes a diverse cast that reflects the audience Taylor hopes to reach.
âIn this video, we see young people who look like youth in Toronto in 2018. And theyâre listening to the same music, theyâre rocking the same dance moves, and here they are modelling how to enact consent in a really relatable way,â she said.
The song choice was also quite purposeful. âBodak Yellowâ dropped in June 2017 and quickly became a ubiquitous presence on radio, smashing chart records and solidifying Cardi Bâs position as rapâs rising star.
The songâs popularity amongst young people made it an easy choice to parody, Chang said.
ââBodak Yellowâ was one of those songs that all my friends knew the words to, and I thought it was pretty cool because itâs by a female rapper. And I knew I wanted to talk about consent, and consent is usually framed as this super serious thing â which of course it is â but I wanted to do a fun and empowering take on it,â she said.
Chang says itâs important that the message comes from young people because they have an inside understanding of issues facing young people today.
âI see a lot around me that my friends and I go through these sort of situations every day. And sometimes I donât think that our parents understand or are fully aware of this,â she said.