Atlanta Exotic Dancers Shamelessly Objectify Voting In 'Get Your Booty To The Poll' PSA
Well here's a change from the usual Get Out The Vote ad. No fifes, tricorn hats, or patriotic mush here, just several Atlanta-based exotic dancers who want people to think about voting, because "it's more than just the president on the ballot, right?" Exactly.
One of the women asks, "So … you're really not gonna vote?" She does not approve of your indifference, because there are a lot of other offices whose occupants can make a serious difference in your life, so for godssake "Get your booty to the poll."
Twerking at the poll is optional. (Video contains no nudity but may not be safe for all workplaces, because strippers.)
Get it? They are POLL DANCING.
For instance, the women note, district attorneys make decisions about who gets prosecuted and who doesn't, "including whether or not to go after dirty cops."
Do you know who elects the DA? We do!
But you don't wanna vote?
Can't make it rain if you're locked up on some bullshit.
The whole thing is a silly, playful, and yet absolutely earnest call for voter engagement, reminding viewers that Ferguson, Missouri, just elected its first Black mayor.
The spot closes with a pretty explicit (politically, at least) appeal:
It's clear Black lives don't matter to some of our current elected officials.
If they matter to you ...
Then don't let other people decide who's going to run your community. Get your booty to the poll.
The spot was produced by Paul Fox and Angela Gomes, who raised the money to make it through a GoFundMe campaign that says it will be part of a series of clips.
Fox and Gomes say,
Our research tells us that most people don't vote because they don't understand the specifics of how who they vote for can impact their day to day lives, so we want to educate in a way that's fun, flirty, conversational and -- most important -- shareable.
The spot promotes an eponymous website, getyourbootytothepoll.com, which provides links to all sorts of useful national voter tools to help people check whether they're registered to vote, and register if they aren't. The links also include a nifty tool from the League of Women Voters that allows you to print or download a sample ballot for your own area, and another site that provides information on state and local candidates, what their offices do, and local ballot measures, too. Neato!
Yes, we can say "neato" in a post about strippers. They're civic-minded strippers.
Also, there are some very grumpy wingnuts in the YouTube replies saying the video is a plot by white Democrats to degrade Black women, which may be news to the Black women who made and directed the PSA. CNN entertainment senior writer Lisa Respers France apparently was taken in by the plot, too, proclaiming the spot "the best voting ad campaign" she's seen yet.
It is your open thread. Please keep the music down, you kids. It's your OPEN THREAD!
[Get Your Booty to the Poll / The Wrap / The Hill]
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