The difference between female sexual empowerment and female sexual sexual self-objectification

This music video, Dip It Low by Christina Millian features a light skinned, blond haired black woman dancing around in erotic costumes on a table in front of well dressed men at a party. While it appears that she may be in control of her sexuality, it's interesting that in early hip hop music, women would sing about men pleasing them, whereas in recent hip hop, women sing about pleasing men, such as in this song, where the punch line of the chorus of "dipping it down low" and "picking it up slow" is "I'm going to teach you how to make your man say oooooooooo".

The message in the music here is that women's sexuality is about pleasing men. While of course pleasing your partner is an important part of sexual relations, in a pornographic patriarchical post-feminist society which privileges and promotes men's sexual desires, it is vital that women promote messages about pleasing their own unique female sexuality, that women's music encourage men to learn to please women. It comes down to balance in the end. We need a balance of messages that promote sexuality in a rounded and complex way, instead of all mainstream music being about pleasing men. For example, have a listen to MC Lyte's s Keep on Keepin on...


IN this song Lyte raps about an incredibly sexy erotic encounter with a male partner, but it's about him pleasing her, about keeping up with her sexuality, about men vying for the privilege of enjoying her sexuality, as opposed to Millian's video about women working to be sexy enough to please your man. Lyte on the other hand has no question about the worth of her time, it's the men who need to earn her, not the other way around.

B-Boy, where the fuck you at?
I been looking for you're ass since a quarter past.
Hot peas and butter, baby, come and get your supper.
Before I make you suffer That's when you had enough-a
Can I get hot when you hit the jackpot?
Surely I can, if you the man.
I get loose and produce large amounts of juice.
Can you get used to that or do you need a boost of energy to enter me ang
get it on.


More on this later..

xox