Postfeminism suggests that something has indeed changed from decades past when women weren’t allowed to divorce, or vote, or wear pants. It accepts that some progress in the women’s rights arena has been made. Postfeminism also points out that there are men in the world who aren’t oppressive, and that maybe the gender divide is becoming archaic and stale. However, postfeminism also believes that “constructive dialogue and structural change” (Barker 284) would further facilitate the role of women in society.
All of the above understandings about postfeminism make a pop culture celebrity like Christina Aguilera an ideal subject by which one can recognize the way postfeminism radically drives forward the feminist need. Christina Aguilera is a current, influential raunch culture icon but she didn’t always present herself in such a manner. Her first album created an image for her that was reflective of the girl-next-door, teen-age, nice girl. All of which are acceptable and considered appropriate by mainstream society. On her second album however, Christina embraced an image that “advocate[d] sexual provocativeness and promiscuousness by women as women… [that] spoke of … rights to objectify sexuality like a man” (312). When asked about her recreated, fractured identity in a 20/20 interview, she claimed that people didn’t have such a negative reaction to music videos in which men portrayed hyper sexualized and often times, anti-feminist messages. She said, “I think it scares people when a woman is comfortable with herself, her sexuality” (Aguilera). Not only did she become comfortable with herself and her sexuality during the process of preparing for her second album, but she also prepared herself to project lyrics that pointed out inequalities in the male, female master/slave relationship. A prime example is her song entitled “Can’t Hold Us Down.” The video and lyrics are shown below:
So what am I not supposed to have an opinion
Should I be quiet just because I'm a woman
Call me a bitch cause I speak what's on my mind
Guess it's easier for you to swallow if I sat and smiled
When a female fires back
Suddenly big talker don't know how to act
So he does what any little boy would do
Making up a few false rumors or two
That for sure is not a man to me
Slanderin' names for popularity
It's sad you only get your fame through controversy
But now it's time for me to come and give you more to say
This is for my girls all around the world
Who've come across a man who don't respect your worth
Thinking all women should be seen, not heard
So what do we do girls?
Shout out loud!
Letting them know we're gonna stand our ground
Lift your hands high and wave them proud
Take a deep breath and say it loud
Never can, never will, can't hold us down
Nobody can hold us down
Nobody can hold us down
Nobody can hold us down
Never can, never will
So what am I not supposed to say what I'm saying
Are you offended by the message I'm bringing
Call me whatever cause your words don't mean a thing
Guess you ain't even a man enough to handle what I sing
If you look back in history
It's a common double standard of society
The guy gets all the glory the more he can score
While the girl can do the same and yet you call her a whore
I don't understand why it's okay
The guy can get away with it & the girl gets named
All my ladies come together and make a change
Start a new beginning for us everybody sing
This is for my girls all around the world
Who've come across a man who don't respect your worth
Thinking all women should be seen, not heard
What do we do girls?
Shout Out Loud!
Letting them know we're gonna stand our ground
Lift your hands high and wave 'em proud
Take a deep breath and say it loud
Never can, never will, can't hold us down
[Lil' Kim:]
Check it - Here's something I just can't understand
If the guy have three girls then he's the man
He can either give us some head, sex a roar
If the girl do the same, then she's a whore
But the table's about to turn
I'll bet my fame on it
Cats take my ideas and put their name on it
It's airight though, you can't hold me down
I got to keep on movin'
To all my girls with a man who be tryin to mack
Do it right back to him and let that be that
You need to let him know that his game is whack
And Lil' Kim and Christina Aguilera got your back
But you're just a little boy
Think you're so cute, so coy
You must talk so big
To make up for smaller things
So you're just a little boy
All you'll do is annoy
You must talk so big
To make up for smaller things
This is for my girls...
This is for my girls all around the world
Who've come across a man who don't respect your worth
Thinking all women should be seen, not heard
So what do we do girls?
Shout out loud!
Letting them know we're gonna stand our ground
Lift your hands high and wave 'em proud
Take a deep breath and say it loud
Never can, never will, can't hold us down
This is for my girls all around the world
Who've come across a man who don't respect your worth
Thinking all women should be seen, not heard
So what do we do girls?
Should out loud!
Letting them know we're gonna stand our ground
Lift your hands high and wave 'em proud
Take a deep breath and say it loud
Never can, never will, can't hold us down
Spread the word, can't hold us down
Noting that Aguilera sings about the double standards that society forces upon us while strutting around in a purple tube top and short-shorts number, with heavy make-up and suggestive movements further emphasizes the point she attempts to make in her 20/20 interview. Women should not be ashamed of their sexuality, nor should they be subject to the male gaze just because of their physiology. Perhaps rejecting the traditional female role in favor of a more risqué appearance is only feared because it places the still well accepted notion that “all women are linked by childbearing bodies and innate ties to the natural earth that support egalitarian, nurturance-based values” (288). If a woman begins to assert her power and sexuality, if she allows herself to enter what Luce Irigaray theorized as “a presymbolic space or experience for women that is unavailable to men… constituted by a feminine jouissance or sexual pleasure, play and joy, which is outside of intelligibility” (288), then what becomes of the familial role? What happens to the cultures idea of womanhood and motherhood? Who raises the children to be ‘proper’ citizens? If women are asserting and wildly expressing their sexuality, then the voices of society would seem to beg, will every aspect of the family as we know it crumble? People like Christina Aguilera are willing to challenge these cultural fears in favor of a freedom from the oppression that follows any person with breasts and a uterus.
What becomes problematic is the way in which society views the women who are brave enough to step outside of their presubscribed roles. Even the way Barker’s text presents it’s section on raunch culture reads as connotatively negative. It claims that women of the raunch culture believe that “they are entitled to rejoice in their own sexuality and to act on it in just as assertive, and even predatory, a way as men. One might describe raunch culture as postfeminist party-time” (313). If acting just as assertive and predatory when rejoicing in their own sexuality becomes postfeminist party-time for women, then it is the subtext that becomes interesting here. Perhaps it’s suggesting that rejoicing in sexuality and in the physical body that genetically makes one a female is party-time and thus frivolous or irrelevant. However through comparing a woman's rejoicing to a man’s already established way of life, as is suggested, it becomes evident that for a male the ability to be assertive is normal, and in fact respected.
Maybe Christina Aguilera is on to something. Pushing against the societal norms is the only way to project ideas and beliefs that aren’t widely accepted. A more appropriate title for raunch culture would be ‘postfeminism x-treme’. Postfeminist party-time reads as quite tame.
Word Count: 729
Works Cited
20/20. Perf. Christina Aguilera. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 10 Mar. 2009. Web. 27 July 2011.
Barker, Chris. "Sex, Subjectivity, and Representation." Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Sage, 2008. 288+. Print.
Can't Hold Us Down. Perf. Christina Aguilera. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 17 Nov. 2009. Web. 27 July 2011.
"Christina Aguilera Lyrics." AZ Lyrics. Web. 27 July 2011.
