What is it with female artists going on about their vaginas in music?

[Liliith]

I quite enjoyed a Cardi B song my Dneice was listening to so i went down a rabbit hole listening to some of her other stuff. Every song was "my pussy" this and "my pussy" that.

I'm not a prude but I think it's crass. It's primarily an American thing from what I can tell. Cardi B isn't the only woman that does it.

AIBU to think it's cringe, stupid and that they're objectifying themselves?

genuinely shocked Then you need to get out more!

If young children are listening to it then their parents need to parent better. Do you expect celebrities to parent and be role models for your children?

AIBU to think it's cringe, stupid and that they're objectifying themselves? Nobody has ever said that about men rapping about their bodies.

It's funny how your first post bangs on about how stupid women are but when faced with a coherent arguement from @GreytExpectations you make out your primary concern is for young girls and teens.

Don't listen to Sex With Me by Rihanna OP 😂

Most pop and rock songs are about men wanting to get their ends away, so unless you're going to censor that as well... There's worse out there. I admit it isn't to my taste nor do I think it's empowering. An awful lot of music and rap comes under that heading.

If you want to try something more empowering, and if it's allowed under Mumsnet rules you could try this

She’s worth $24 million and identifies as a feminist, more power to her.

She’s extremely political and encourages people to register to vote, worked her way up from being a stripper to one of the highest selling female rap artists and the only female rapper with multiple billion-streamers on Spotify.

She shuts down body shamers and talks about loving who you are.

She has given away $1million direct to families hit by coronavirus. Royalties from a song will be going to charity to help more people.

Surely be pleased a women is making bank and using a platform to empower, support and uplift women, it’s hard enough being a black women in America but look at what she’s achieved.

This is fairly common in rap isn't it? I'm sure Lil Kim was doing this back in the early 90s.

And rap music is surely never going to have the correct terminology for genitalia; imagine Eminem rapping about his penis and testicles

@MorganKitten

She’s worth $24 million and identifies as a feminist, more power to her.

She’s extremely political and encourages people to register to vote, worked her way up from being a stripper to one of the highest selling female rap artists and the only female rapper with multiple billion-streamers on Spotify.

She shuts down body shamers and talks about loving who you are.

She has given away $1million direct to families hit by coronavirus. Royalties from a song will be going to charity to help more people.

Surely be pleased a women is making bank and using a platform to empower, support and uplift women, it’s hard enough being a black women in America but look at what she’s achieved.

Very well said! Women have been so quick to dismiss her for the lyrics she chooses it's ridiculously anti women. Telling women how they should behave and what words they shouldn't use, no wonder it seems like we are going backwards with feminism

I get what you're saying OP. Being concerned about it isnt 'telling other women how they should behave and what words to use'. It's being critical about the impact of a popular art form on culture. A woman who has worked her way upwards by being sexual and obviously savvy may be a role-model in that sense. But advocating sucking dick all day long to pay rent while encouraging men not to support their wife and kids isn't a good thing for most women.

My pussy, my pussy
Is sweet just like a cookie
It goes to work, it makes the beats
It's C.E.O., no rookie
From senator to bookie
We run this shit, got lookie
You can turn any page, any race, any age
From Russia to the States
We tearing up the place
I rip shit like Sinead O'Connor
I wear my vag as a badge of honor
I take pride in the way we rise
One love to Maya Angelou, the 8th world wonder
How we do it all, sometimes I wonder
I could play nice or I can bring that thunder
So sad I gotta end right here
But this vagina gotta go make them numbers

My favourite song about vaginas. By Pussy Riot.

Straight Outta Vagina
g.co/kgs/3DQh49

HER BOOTY and HIS MAJIK BBC

I take it we're not talking about the British Broadcasting Corporation here?

100% agree OP.
Grim .... and hugely disappointing.

Would nobody be just a bit mortified if you heard those words pounding out from your pre teen/teenage DD's bedroom?

Considering what my parents let me listen to, no. As long as I wasn’t out imitating such action, my parents didn’t care what I listened to. I listened to some pretty heavy things (none of it pertaining to rap) and the most my parents did was raise an eyebrow and left me to it. This is probably because my parents parented me and didn’t blame entertainers for what their children decided to imitate. They reminded me that entertainers are adults and are allowed to do things that I cannot as a child.

If parents cannot do that or explain the difference to their children, they can only blame themselves.

Happily I'm becoming more deaf year by year and haven't clearly heard the words to any songs for a long time. It appears I'm not missing out.

@CrazyToast

I get what you're saying OP. Being concerned about it isnt 'telling other women how they should behave and what words to use'. It's being critical about the impact of a popular art form on culture. A woman who has worked her way upwards by being sexual and obviously savvy may be a role-model in that sense. But advocating sucking dick all day long to pay rent while encouraging men not to support their wife and kids isn't a good thing for most women.

I’m sure cardi B knows this most of us do... it’s not literally everything she speaks about she may do. She’s here to make money!! Like when you watch a film the storyline isn’t always true and told in a way to draw the audience in.

I agree with the other poster too it’s down to the parents to teach their own kids about role models.

They’re just copying the men in their industry.

I'm not sure that the way make and female rappers make these references is directly comparable most of the time.

Male rappers are usually mentioning their dick in the context of using it on a female - 'suck my dick' etc. Female rappers seem to be almost validating this as it's most often all about how desirable their booty is.

Who are the male artists talking about their junk in the same way, I can’t think of any?

The lyrics sound horrible and stupid and will mainly attract horrible and stupid people to listen to it much like the equivalent male going on about bitches, guns and money.

I don’t think it should be banned but it is totally fair and reasonable to judge art and the people that CLAIM* to like it negatively.

*the Emperor’s last latest hit sounds great!

what @MorganKitten said.

Coming at it from a (presumably white) British perspective is culturally inappropriate. I get that it's confronting, but we should maybe try to understand where it's coming from.

Black women in the US have very specific and painful histories of being objectified as "beasts" during slavery/sexual objects with zero voice or agency. A Black woman talking about her autonomy over her body, her sexual decisions and her money, is extremely empowering from a certain perspective. The fact she raps about blow jobs and celebrates her own beauty and power is a pretty good spectrum of what a lot of hetero women feel/aspire to. We enjoy sex with male partners just as we enjoy lots of other things in life that don't involve men.

Many working class Black communities in the US also have very specific sexual politics where women are cast aside and their children left unsupported by fathers of the children ( and that includes Black fathers). Many of these patterns were established during slavery when men - often white men - sexually assault or form relationships with Black women, then offer zero support when children were born. So again, a Black woman bragging that a man pays her bills might be seen as a demand for respect from sexual partners and that she refuses to be treated as badly as her forebears.

This takedown of one of her co-stars is epic. She carries on despite the misogynistic crap he throws at her.

I think it's best to talk about these historical contexts when chatting about these sorts of productions so our kids understand how power has worked through history and created particular viewpoints and behaviours. That is what I call a proper education!

@MorganKitten

She’s worth $24 million and identifies as a feminist, more power to her.

She’s extremely political and encourages people to register to vote, worked her way up from being a stripper to one of the highest selling female rap artists and the only female rapper with multiple billion-streamers on Spotify.

She shuts down body shamers and talks about loving who you are.

She has given away $1million direct to families hit by coronavirus. Royalties from a song will be going to charity to help more people.

Surely be pleased a women is making bank and using a platform to empower, support and uplift women, it’s hard enough being a black women in America but look at what she’s achieved.

So what if she 'identifies' as a feminist? Not all choices women make are feminist choices. Is it a feminist choice to fight for the right of girls in developing countries to have equal access to education? Yes, probably. Is it a feminist choice for a woman in the UK to go to a coffee shop and order an espresso? No. Nor is it anti-feminist. It's just a choice that is utterly irrelevant to the feminist cause. Is it a feminist choice to sing about giving blow jobs to men for money? I highly doubt it.

Encouraging people to register to vote is a good thing. However, let's be honest - if in 2020 we consider that women voting is the pinnacle of female empowerment then we really haven't got very far in 100 years.

Who are the male artists talking about their junk in the same way, I can’t think of any?

I’m guessing you don’t listen to rap.

To be fair maya Angelou also wrote about what's between her legs

Encouraging people to register to vote is a good thing. However, let's be honest - if in 2020 we consider that women voting is the pinnacle of female empowerment then we really haven't got very far in 100 years.

@EdgeOfACoin maybe look at American politics and who doesn’t vote...

No-one has a responsibility to be a role model for your daughters, apart from you. Have you ever called a male star a 'bad role model for young men'?

Cardi B has carved out a massive success in an industry which treats women like shit. She's a feminist, a mother, a business woman and if my future daughters wanted to be like her, I'd be chill with that.

My favourite of her lyrics, - 'I drop an album, drop a baby, but I never drop the ball'.

There are loads of males i consider to be bad role models

I loathe the word pussy used to describe female genetalia. It doesn't make it right for men or women to use it and I always feel let down when I hear a woman use it as well.

So because you don't like it, it means it's not right for anyone to say it? I don't think policing how a woman refers to her own vagina is really necessary.