Bell Bottoms

1/6 male action figure jeans

I had nothing doll-related to write about for today's post except the bell-bottom or flare-leg jeans Kendrick Lamar wore during his Super Bowl LIX half-time performance. There was a message in every aspect of his performance, but let's focus on the jeans.

Bell-bottoms, as we affectionately referred to them back in the day, became popular during the 1960s of my youth. During my 1970s high school experience I wore them often. I had a pair in every color of the rainbow during my senior year in high school that I begged my daddy to buy from the Army-Navy store. I wore a different pair to school almost every day that year before going home at noon to change into business attire for my medical transcriptionist job training, a skill I occasionally use even though I am long retired. 

At 17, I was one of eight senior high school students from area schools and the only African American in Baylor University Medical Center's medical transcription on-the-job training course. 

In the above picture, I had worn jeans to school for my half-day school classes before changing into the clothes I wear in this picture taken by the MT course instructor. 

Denim jeans remain a staple in my wardrobe. My most recent pair, a Christmas gift from Old Navy from my daughter, have flared legs like the ones Kendrick Lamar wore last Sunday night. I wear mine for comfort. 

Kendrick Lamar performs at Super Bowl LIX.

Lamar's jeans choice harkens back to the 1960s attire of young Black males, such as members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideology included Black nationalism, self-defense against policy brutality, and attaining equal rights -- everpresent issues in the Black community. "Among the organization initiatives, [the Panthers] campaigned for prison reform, held voter registration drives, organized free food programs which included food giveaways and a school breakfast program in several cities, opened free health clinics in a dozen cities serving thousands who could not afford it, and created Freedom Schools in nine cities" (The Black Panther Party).

Lamar's rap performance was filled with messages and symbolisms. Yet the messages and symbols were not clear to some people who do not appreciate or understand rap. Someone on Facebook explained the performance as follows (I've reworded insensitive language and parenthetically expounded be on a couple of points):

"1. Samuel L. Jackson playing Uncle Sam aka the house [N-word] like he played in Django. (Uncle Sam gave constant reminders for Lamar to behave as "" would desire, which Lamar unapologetically ignored because doing so would have weakened the messages.)

2. Samuel L. Jackson warning Kendrick to play the game white America wants us to play and not be “ghetto.” 

3. The Squid games stage which symbolizes the rich killing the poor.

4. The dancers in red, white, & Blue representing the American flag. (Their bent posture symbolizes that enslaved and other Black people built this country. Kendrick in the center of the split human flag signifies a divided America.)

5. The stage also being a prison yard where his Black performers harmonized while he rapped. (The prison yard represents the over and often unjust incarceration of Black people, particularly Black males).

6. Protecting Black women like Serena Williams after the disrespect from Drake. (Serena Williams's crip walk was stellar! She and Drake once dated and supposedly he disrespected her in some way. I'm not privy to how, but it can always be googled if you'd like to know.)

7. And once again reminding Drake and America 

'They Not Like Us'*

Y’all please this is bigger than rap!"

*The pronoun, they, can be used to refer to an individual person or a group of people. Lamar's four-Grammy award-winning song, "Not Like Us" is a diss track to Drake where (in his words) Lamar tells Drake he's fake, that his rap-game is weak, and he'll never be as masterful at rapping as Lamar. However, in the context of the divided-America Super Bowl XIV theme of the performance, "Not Like Us" could be viewed as a reminder of racial differences in America, but I believe in this performance it continued to be a direct diss to Drake in the ongoing feud between both rappers.

Super Bowl XIV logo

In other Super Bowl LIX news, a "Black woman from New Orleans makes history as the first artist to create Super Bowl logo and theme art for the NFL."  Her name is Tahj Williams. Read more here. View a video here.

I do not own any bell-bottom denim-jeans-wearing male dolls. The jeans Kendrick Lamar wore have influenced me to purchase a pair for at least one. 

I am willing to bet we will all see more real people wearing bell-bottoms now.

References

The Black Panther Party

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