#all376

on this day.....

you’ve probably heard the song w.a.p by the queens cardi b and megan thee stallion AT LEAST once since its release in 2002 (over a hundred times in my case, i love a good shower-belter). the song itself has sparked debate amongst various groups, of whether the song is a feminist anthem or a compete setback for the feminist movement in general.

the views help by deeanna lorraine, as well as other well-known individuals (such as russel brand and ben shapiro) state that the song has set feminism back, and that it is not empowering to women at all. megan thee stallion, when interviewed by GQ stated that a lot of controversy surrounding the song was a result of people not knowing what to do when a woman is in control and taking ownership of her own body, saying that “i feel like for a long time men felt like they owned sex and now women are saying, ‘hey, this is for me. i want pleasure. this is how I want it or don’t want it.’ it freaks men the hell out.” (heaf 2020). hell yeah megan!!!!!!

one quote from the song that i feel really helps understand w.a.p and women taking control of sex and their bodies is:

i don't cook, i don't clean but let me tell you, i got this ring (ayy, ayy)

i feel like with this passage, cardi b and megan thee stallion highlight the fact that women can still have successful relationships by being sexual and owning their bodies, as well as stepping away from the conservative ‘traditional’ role of women being housewives - there is more to women and female identifying persons than just cooking and cleaning, or pleasing the opposite (or the same) sex. women are their OWN PEOPLE with their OWN DESIRES.

put him on his knees, give him some' to believe in

is another passage that i believe highlights the pro-women theme of the song. the fact that it would be a woman putting a man of his knees, a widely recognised stance of submission, expresses the strength and possibility of women being able to be dominant, both sexually and generally, whereas for centuries in the past women have been subject to being ‘submissive’ to succeed in life. NO MORE I SAY (as do cardi and megan), women can be dominant if they want to be!! women can be submissive if they want to be!! women can express themselves sexually in any way they feel inclined!!! i feel like this passage really highlights this, women no longer have to fit a certain model to please society, they can be dominant and shouldn’t be frowned upon for it!

finally, the last quote i will look at this evening is

in the food chain, i'm the one that eat ya if he ate my ass, he's a bottom feeder

i feel as though when discussing sex, men are often rewarded and praised for sexual activity and women tend to be shamed for it. in this pasage of the song, i feel as though it represents women being on top and being proud of their sexual activities, instead of being belittled and insulted that is all so common in todays day and age. for a woman to take all the praise that men typically receive in this sense is a huge set for feminism. the artists then go further and call the men a ‘bottom feeder’ for performing sexual acts which is a complete roll-reversal of what is only so common.

overall, i feel as though w.a.p is a catchy, feminist anthem that doesn’t fetishise or demonise female sexuality. as megan stated, sex has been ‘owned’ by men for decades: they face praise for many sexual partners, not backlash, and men being dominant and powerful in the bedroom is something that has been seen as normal for a while. this song challeneges these social norms, staing that women can and want pleasure in a way that they like - not what is expected. women can be dominant, can make their own decisions and should be proud of their sexual side! 

at the end of the day, feminsim is about expressing femininity however you choose - some may agree with me and my views on this song, others might not, and thats completely okay!

gemma :) 

references:

genius (2021) ‘cardi b - wap lyrics’, genius.com, accessed 3 october 2021

A literary novel being branded as a ‘classic’ is a rare and, I would imagine, honouring feat. To be a classic, a novel has to be unique and creative, it has to say something meaningful about the state of society, it has to be...

entirely unlike Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton: The Duke and I. I’m sorry, Bridgerton fans, but this novel just really didn’t do it for me. Was it the portrayal of female pleasure in the bedroom? No! Was it the unashamedly steamy sex scenes that were clearly aimed towards indulging a female audience? Of course not! Was it everything else?...Maybe. 

Despite the recent surge in women realising that “you’re not like other girls” is not a compliment, Daphne ‘I’m-not-like-other-girls’ Bridgerton seems to have captured a number of hearts. In one of the first pages of the novel, we’re conveniently informed of Daphne being told, ‘you’re just not like regular females. You’re positively normal’. 

Yeesh, it’s one thing to position your protagonist as interesting and desirable – it’s another thing to simultaneously insult every other female character that exists. But the predictable tropes don’t end there! Simon ‘I’m-constantly-threatening-to-kill-peole-including-my-love-interest’ Hastings is your typical bad boy who can only be cured by the innocent and naïve Girl Next Door. ‘Women positively shivered’ at the mere sight of him, because a point must be made about his shockingly good looks, and that point apparently can’t be made without the generalisation that all women are lustful beings awaiting nothing more than a good-looking man. 

Quinn’s novel is full of tropes that I’m sure we’ve all read before in many, many FanFictions – the fake dating AU, the oops-there’s-only-one-bed AU, and best of all, the sex-is-a-magical-and-never-painful-experience AU, where men can simply use ‘one powerful thrust’ to enter a virgin woman’s body and, what do you know, it didn’t even hurt her! As a side note, who are these potentially dangerous unrealistic portrayals of sex really helping, anyway?

I believe it is because of all these reused and predictable tropes that Quinn’s novel has repeatedly been labelled ‘shallow’ and ‘vapid’, with Aja Romano even calling it a ‘historical Gossip Girl, with even less depth’. Ooft.

Now, I’m not saying the book is all bad. Its drama can be noteworthily page-turning, but a classic novel must contain more than that. To be labelled the modern Jane Austen for a novel that contains little more than already-seen tropes and cliché character archetypes? Sorry again, Bridgerton fans, but I can’t imagine myself ever placing this book into the same category as works like Pride and Prejudice – this one is heading for the trash pile. 

References

1. Romano, J (2020) ‘Netflix’s New Regency Drama Bridgerton is as Shallow as the Aristocrats it Skewers’, Vox, accessed 20 September 2020.