The song “Mamacita”, released by the Velea Brothers, the children of the artists Alex Velea and Antonia, caused strong reactions online, after Andreea Raicu publicly criticized the messages in the lyrics.
In a post on social media, the star drew attention to the impact such messages can have on children and how certain ideas become normalized in society.
“Today I listened to the song “Mamacita”, released by the Velea Brothers, in which they talk about an 8-year-old girl and at one point they say something like “I’m going to make her mine”. And I admit that it saddened me. It didn’t shock me, but rather it hurt how normal it seems. It’s the kind of line you hear everywhere: in songs, in jokes, between people and you don’t even dwell on it anymore. But when you hear it said by a child, about a little girl, it’s starting to bother me”, he said that.
Andreea Raicu emphasized that the problem does not belong to the child, but to the environment in which he grows up and the messages he receives.
“Because, beyond innocence, there is a message that we learn very early: that a girl can be “someone’s”, that she can be conquered, taken, claimed. And, without realizing it, we end up tying the value of a girl to the fact that she can be wanted, chosen, claimed by someone. It’s not about the child, he just repeats what he sees and what he hears, but it’s about us, about the culture we grow up in and the language we use we normalize without realizing it” noted Raicu.
The star draws attention to the fact that such concepts are internalized from an early age.
“At 8 years old, a child shouldn’t be reproducing dynamics of seduction or possession, and yet it happens. Not because there’s anything wrong with him, but because girls are sexualized too early, because relationships are presented as power plays, and desire ends up being confused with possession. These are things we see everywhere, so often they become invisible.”she explained.
In his opinion, one of the biggest problems is precisely the lack of reaction to these messages: “And maybe that’s exactly the problem. That we don’t see them anymore. That we don’t feel them anymore. That we don’t question them anymore.”
Andreea Raicu also spoke about how these patterns influence the perception of girls: “Because, unconsciously, girls grow up with the idea that they have to be wanted, chosen, validated, that their value comes from how they are looked at and how much they are wanted. And much less often they grow up with the idea that they choose, that they decide, that they don’t belong to anyone. It is not a real space of equality, but, often, a very fine relationship of subordination, so subtle that we don’t even notice it anymore. A relationship in which one is looked at, and the other choose, one waits, and the other decides, not because someone told us so directly, but because we grew up in a culture that repeats these messages over and over until they become normal.”
The message sent by the star is not one of condemnation, but of reflection: “It’s not an attack, it’s just a moment of awareness. Maybe change doesn’t come from big gestures, but from the little things we choose to stop ignoring.”
The song “Mamacita” generated numerous reactions on the Internet, being both criticized and appreciated by the public. Alex Velea and Antonia have been a couple since 2012 and have two children together, Dominic and Akim.
