The ’90s song Macarena has been looked at as an innocent feel-good dance song over the years. I’m not sure most people really understood or knew the lyrics. It was just a catchy beat and rhythm with a dance to match.
Recently articles have surfaced ridding listeners of that innocent experience. The song is not really a feel-good dance song; it’s real meaning describes a girl named Macarena cheating on her boyfriend with two friends while he is getting drafted into the army.
These lyrics are oblivious to listeners just looking to have fun and dance. The text sheds light on what goes unnoticed, it acts on that and strips the reader of that innocent experience. Now it may seem inappropriate to play at family functions or schools for children to dance to.
Moreno, Carolina. “The Real Meaning Behind The ‘Macarena’ Will Crush Your ’90s Soul.” Editorial. The Huffington Post. N.p., 2 Sept. 2015. Web. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-macarena-meaning-crush-90-soul_55e738c9e4b0b7a9633b491d>.
This post is interesting because your text isn’t immediately recognizable as a text for children. I think you would need to establish it as a text that has become for children first. And then you might need to make the argument about why we want children to do the Macarena. This may be a hard task unless you have information on how the Macarena is a part of an official physical education curriculum or kids dance camp. You need to be able to establish it as something adults want to give children and then try to understand what’s at stake. Understanding the child as a site for adult desire does not necessarily mean that the text is “inappropriate” for children; it just means that the desires at stake in the text are more about adults who write, publish, give, and teach these texts to children.