Can someone help me understand how these lyrics are being seen as female empowerment?

[QuentinQuarantino]

WAP by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion.

Lyrics.

The video, predictably, is surgically enhanced T&A with celebrity cameos providing additional surgically enhanced T&A.

It's being lauded as celebratory of female sexuality and empowerment by lib fems such as Lena Dunham.

I am only(?) 40 and don't consider myself an old fart by any means but I just can't accept that this song (lyrics and video) is anything other than women perpetuating a toxic male view of women as nothing more than receptacles for their dicks.

Hypersexualised, pornified, emphasis on attaining material goods based on how well you perform sex acts.

I know, I know I can just ignore and not be affected but I've always been a huge fan of pop music and seeing this shit so mainstream is just depressing. And as a mother of a daughter it makes me feel queasy.

Really? Never heard of such a thing.

I’m a prude though.

This is the complete opposite of my kind of music anyway, but those lyrics are vulgar.

Grim. Why anyone would want to listen to those words beats me. I'm not even going to watch the video.

Oh and I'm 24. So definitely not an 'old fart.'

if this is empowerment, now i understand why feminism is good for (some) man.

this makes "we can't consent this" movement a joke.

The background to the song is “there’s some hoes in this house”. Nope this isn’t feminist . What , so women who like sex are “hoes” now? It’s just the same old dull, dull sexism and objectification. It’s boring.

I’m so bored of this shit tbh. Fed up of twerking and legs open dance moves borrowed from stripper culture. This video is quite extreme but milder versions are evident in many female pop acts. It is not feminist or empowering.

Can I see female artists who perform without their arse cheeks hanging out please?

Copying men's unhealthy behavior isn't feminism.

The background is a sample from an old house song by Frank Ski. I have been laughing all week by the over reaction to the song it's all a bit Tipper Gore parental advisory it's like everyone has forgotten Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Khia and other female rappers that were equally as "nasty".
Hip hop has always been braggadocious and Cardi & Meg are free to boast about their WAPs, fantasies, desires and more power to them. Also when analysing whether they are handmaids submitting to the patriarchy remember to take into account their race. Black women's sexuality has always been defined/interpreted and judged by the dominant culture.

@BelleHathor; I’ve been laughing all week at why there even is a reaction to this song. As you say , it’s old hat. Missy Elliot prayed her pussy didn’t let her down in 1999. Janelle monae has a very risqué video about vaginas ooh way back in ... last year, I believe.

I happen to see nothing empowering about a music video with half naked women that’s directed by a man. It’s just the same as “blurred lines” except it’s got the Lib fem “empowerment” label on it. Can’t we at least have a discussion about how female empowerment looks an awful lot like male porno fantasies (how convenient that our liberation happens to coincide with making men’s dicks hard !) When can we have hot male singers writhing around with their cocks out ? That would be equality.

WeBisom It's complex, I wouldn't necessarily call it empowering when viewed through the lens of the dominant culture. I am not a Liberal feminist in any sense but very libertarian politically so support their right to express themselves and am very protective of Hip Hop culture which has always been critiqued particularly since becoming mainstream. Good video by Russell Brand exploring it
m.youtube.com/watch?v=EdP9H60N2l8

To some extent maybe the problem is that you need to universalise a step up from a purely feminist analysis to really criticise the content.

People who said, you need to look at what it says in the context of where it comes from - it is suggesting a very similar attitude of male artists from the same perspective, so why not?

The problem is that it has zero respect for the self, for others, for the body. And that's not healthy and not what people are worth. Even if they think that's what they want.

Feminism is now doing exactly what men want you to do but pretending it’s your choice.

‘Liberal feminism‘ has a lot to answer for.

A truly empowering song about female desire would go something along the lines of: ‘ooh baby, could you set the dishwasher going and put the bins out, then finger me to climax while I’m lying on my side with one eye on Netflix? Once I’ve come you can stick it in as long as I don’t have to go on top or do any bending, (ad lib to fade...)’

@SeriouslyRetro

I think the support is coming from the place of ‘he can (and has for the past 30 years) so can she’

Is it tasteful? Probably not. But I think it’s about ‘equality’ in representing their version of their sexuality, when their male counterparts have been comfortable to do it for a long time.

It’s about the ‘as the mother of a daughter...’ message. Do you feel queasy for your son? For the fact that hip hop, rap and pop music has been sexual since the rock and roll revolution?
Why is Cardi B more responsible for being a role model to your daughter than Lil Wayne is to our sons?

I feel extremely queasy for my sons

It might be doing exactly what men have been doing but why does it have to be a race to the bottom? I find our hyper sexualised, in your face world a bit depressing tbh.

Feminism is now doing exactly what men want you to do but pretending it’s your choice.

This.

@SeriouslyRetro

I think the support is coming from the place of ‘he can (and has for the past 30 years) so can she’

Is it tasteful? Probably not. But I think it’s about ‘equality’ in representing their version of their sexuality, when their male counterparts have been comfortable to do it for a long time.

It’s about the ‘as the mother of a daughter...’ message. Do you feel queasy for your son? For the fact that hip hop, rap and pop music has been sexual since the rock and roll revolution?
Why is Cardi B more responsible for being a role model to your daughter than Lil Wayne is to our sons?

Oh please.

When was the last time you heard a male rapper, or any male artist, begging to be gagged and choked during sex?

Not sure about WAP, my reaction was more WTAF

I just need to say, Uvula- it’s a uvula.
A quick check on google would have helped.

I wouldn’t take anything Lena Dunham says about feminism seriously, or anything else for that matter.

[quote WeeBisom]@BelleHathor; I’ve been laughing all week at why there even is a reaction to this song. As you say , it’s old hat. Missy Elliot prayed her pussy didn’t let her down in 1999. Janelle monae has a very risqué video about vaginas ooh way back in ... last year, I believe.

I happen to see nothing empowering about a music video with half naked women that’s directed by a man. It’s just the same as “blurred lines” except it’s got the Lib fem “empowerment” label on it. Can’t we at least have a discussion about how female empowerment looks an awful lot like male porno fantasies (how convenient that our liberation happens to coincide with making men’s dicks hard !) When can we have hot male singers writhing around with their cocks out ? That would be equality.[/quote]
Exactly

Ive listened to plenty of music regarding men and sex and what they are going to do etc

And i can enjoy the music, like the band but still be a bit ew about some of the lyrics

Feminism is now doing exactly what men want you to do but pretending it’s your choice

I’m highlighting this as well! Because it’s so fucking apt! I honestly despair of what’s happened to women’s liberation over the past 20 years because it sure looks like women are encouraged to dick pander whilst telling themselves it’s ok because they choose to do it!

Agree With above

The biggest mind fuck the patriarchy has ever pulled off is convincing women that acting like this is their empowered "choice" and not at all focussed solely towards the male gaze.

Its so depressing.

I always quite liked that phrase (was it from caitlyn moran) saying if something is empowering then men would be doing it

I’m sure it doesnt work in every eventuality