ABC’s “The View” hosts tapped into their parental side Wednesday as they discussed recent criticism of Malia and Sasha Obama for listening to Grammy-winning artist Beyoncé.
During the hot topics segment, host Rosie O’Donnell mentioned recent comments by Republican and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee chastising President and Mrs. Obama for allowing their daughters to listen to Beyoncé in an interview with People magazine.
It didn’t take long for guest co-host Mario Cantone to chime in. “In the 70s, the raciest lyrics were ‘afternoon delight.’ Now, it’s like ‘I want to get on your mojo,’” Cantone said. “But it’s generational, it really is. And Beyonce, I don’t really think she’s, at this point, inappropriate. Not in ‘Dream Girls’ she wasn’t inappropriate.”
Fellow host Nicolle Wallace joined the discussion.
“This cultural battlefield is a minefield, politically speaking, the movie ‘Footloose’ is all I kept thinking of when I heard this,” Wallace said. “When you try to repress and suppress what a 13 year old and 16 year olds listen to or dance to, it always backfires.”
“Instead of criticizing the Obamas, they’re not eight, they’re not babies, the place people will follow is know what they’re listening to and talk to them about it,” Wallace continued.
Guest co-hosts “Glee” actress Naya Rivera and ESPN sportscaster Samantha Ponder, who has a young daughter, also joined the debate.
“It’s scary to criticize Beyoncé in this country. People take their Beyoncé very seriously,” Ponder said. “I went back and looked back at some of the lyrics last night, and my little girl is only six months old. I don’t know if I could be cool with her singing along to some of that stuff and dancing that way.”
“Plus, I feel like a lot of her lyrics, she speaks in innuendo. Like I still don’t know what ‘drinking watermelon is,’” Rivera admitted jokingly.
Continuing with hot topics, Rivera clarified her Tuesday comment about white people showering more than “ethnics,” a statement that caused a social media frenzy. She read a tweet from Twitter user @RetiredFilth stating, “Now white people gonna think we don’t shower cuz of Naya Rivera.”
“I had an opinion on it that was supposed to be a joke, but apparently it didn’t go over so well. I apologize if anyone was offended,” Rivera said.
Wallace came to Rivera’s defense.
“I’m white, so she was talking about me if anyone missed that, and I shower three times a day,” Wallace said laughing.