It's been awhile since I tapped into the real world and had a look at what was happening outside of Sri Lanka. Terrorist activity, government shutdowns, Kimyae stepped out post baby, but all of this news was overshadowed by the most important issue in the world right now...Britney Spears' new video.
Now I know that I should have known from the catchy title: "Work Bitch", that I wouldn't enjoy the song. And I don't. But the naive part of me expected the video to be about strong, powerful women excelling at their professions. I wanted to see mothers, farmers, CEOs and a damn female president in this video getting shit done. I should have known better to expect any kind of feminist statement from someone who once declared herself "not a girl and not yet a woman."
Now I have no beef with Britney as an artist usually. I've even paid good money to watch her lip-sync her greatest hits, but the images in tis most recent video skipped past sexy and landed in "ring the alarm" territory for my feminist sensibilities. In order to "get a Lamborghini and drink martinis" you gotta "work bitch." And the suggested profession in the video is that of a prostitute. A woman who is blindfolded writhes around in a glass box up lit with red light a la Roxanne.
Anyone who has been to Amsterdam knows what this image suggests. The Red-Light-District is not the place to gaze at affluent women who "party in France" as the song would suggest. It's where the most trafficked women from Eastern Europe end up after being promised things similar to Britney's lyrics. Most of them are held against their will and living in hell. But hey, Britney's advice remains the same "You gotta work bitch."
I'm sure Britney will defend her creation by claiming it empowers women, but how is it ever empowering to be called a bitch? I get it, we're reclaiming the word, it's ours to use, blah, blah, bullshit. It is a word that we should be trying to eradicate, not perpetuate as some pet name for all women. It's a nasty, negative word and we shouldn't be using it to describe each other, especially not to encourage each other. Call me a bitch, I feel vindicated in giving you a bitch-slap. Hey, you earned it.
My issues with Robin Thicke aren't to dissimilar from those I have with Britney at the moment. Why do we have to degrade women to sell records? Calling women bitches, parading them around bare-breasted or whipping them as they choke on a Dr. Dre Beats speaker system is the new normal; and all of it is gagging me on it's misogynistic stench. More so it's worrying that this is trendy. Miley Cyrus can ride butt-nekked on a wrecking ball all she likes. It's her body. But Britney whipping the already barely-there panties off a woman who is crawling on her hands and knees doesn't say empowerment to me. Yet this shit song will be a floor filler. Can you imagine a band putting out a song called "Work Dickhead" and all men flocking to the stores to buy it or knock people over to dance to it in a club to prove that they will work, because they truly are the biggest dickhead of them all? No.
Ladies. Let's cut this shit out. Don't call each other bitches, even to sell records. Going to work means a lot more to most of us than getting spanked or sold, so let's keep it real. This shit is eroding the position in society we have fought so long to achieve. And before anyone accuses me of overreacting, I'm not. I'm reacting full stop. Something many of us have stopped doing when we believe something is wrong. I am reacting to a world-famous pop star calling every other woman out there a bitch. I am reacting to her video that perpetuates the idea that women are objects. Objects to be sold, beaten and called names and if we buy this record or dance to it we are telling her that it's ok.
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