Buble and the bum photo
Buble, renowned in Canada, where he is from, for being a wonderful human as well as a wonderful singer, posted the photo on his Instagram account for his 1,000,000 or so followers to see. It was taken by his wife, Luisana Lopilato, an actress and a model from Argentina, and it has created a stir, in part for its visual content, in part for the caption accompanying it.
This is what the caption said: “There was something about this photo lu took, that seemed worthy of instagram.” He added these hashtags: #babygotback, #hungryshorts, #beautifulbum, and #myhumps. A CBC News reporter noted that #myhumps, is a “presumed reference to the booty-celebrating song from The Black Eyed Peas.”
It is indeed and the song is linked above.
There were many angry comments about his having posted the photo, those defending it outnumbered them, however. Some commenters got into name-calling. One actually called Michael Buble disgusting, which is like calling Shirley Temple a sourpuss, and another said his “actions were shameful” and someone even called he and his wife a “creepy couple.”
Prominent among the angry remarks were the complaints that the woman didn’t sign on for the photo. Another claimed he was objectifying this unknown woman, who will likely never know she is playing a large role in a discussion of online ethics and women’s bums.
Photos in public places
But here’s this: in social media everyone is appearing in everyone’s photo, that is a fact. And the courts have said that public space is no reasonable place to expect privacy. Further, the photo is hardly demeaning. I mean let’s be straight here, she has a nice bottom and has chosen to allow actual parts of it to hang out of the bottom of her spandex shorts, to be seen by whomsoever she encounters, or their cell camera.
Those are important points and so is the fact YOU CAN’T SEE HER FACE! Could you identify this woman by her buttocks? No. I mean thankfully there are lots of women with nice buttocks of a similar type in the world (was it okay to say ‘that?) so identifying her is not possible. And the chances of someone who frequents the same place seeing the photo and recognizing her would be a co-incidence of monumental proportions.
And, again, it’s a public place in any case.
Now here’s this: it is okay for a man to like a woman’s butt. It is okay for a woman to like a woman’s butt; indeed, I’ve had women friends tell me they love female booty and in Toronto I saw an entire play where lesbians sat about gawking at female bodies. It lacked action but the dialogue was good.
Regardless of our orientation it’s okay for us to like whomsoever’s ass we like and saying we like asses, or one particular ass, publicly isn’t objectifying one another, it is celebrating one another. There are few humans who have not told another human about how they like the way someone looks.
That women should wear what they want in public is an obvious truth. In this culture most of us, however, male or female, don’t go out in public with flesh from our ass sticking out from the bottom of short shorts. It is okay to do so and whether this woman wanted to show off a nice attribute — she might be looking for a mate! — or simply be comfortable is immaterial.
It’s her choice, but then it’s anyone else’s choice to look or even point it out when they find it in the background of a photo their spouse took. Not to be demeaning, that’s different and that is not what Michael Buble did.
Classy Canadian singer
Finally here is this: Michael Buble has been called classless over this, which is nonsense. We’ll leave off with what he posted on his Facebook page about it, words that show him to be a very classy fellow indeed:
“Anybody who knows me would never misinterpret the message of the photo my wife took in Miami that seems to have caused unexpected rage by some people,” he began. “I do not court controversy. But I realize that a photo that was meant to be complimentary and lighthearted has turned into a questionable issue.
“For the record, it hurts me deeply that anyone would think that I would disrespect women or be insulting to any human being,” he added. “I was not brought up that way and it is not in my character. I regret that there are people out there who found the photo offensive. That was not and is not my intention. Women are to be celebrated, loved, respected, honored and revered.
“I’ve spent my life believing that and will continue to do so.”