WAP: Objectification or Empowerment

Sexual expression is always empowering when it is autonomous. Any autonomous expression of sexuality, like WAP by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, can be interpreted as empowering or objectifying depending on the viewer, but that doesn’t reflect on the inherent, empowering nature of the thing itself.

Britney Spears, for example, spoke out about being “forced” to be sexier by a handler. This is, of course, a huge problem, which is why sexual empowerment has to be autonomous. The argument I’ve seen many make is that all celebrity women are being coerced to be sexier. Although this is a problem in culture, the existence of this pressure does not negate the importance of those women who choose to celebrate their bodies in sexual ways.

Another caveat to female empowerment is when one is degrading others in trying to celebrate their own bodies. One example of this is in Meghan Trainor’s controversial lyric about “skinny b*tches”. Even here, however, there is compassion when comparison is done in defence of something that has ritualistically been disempowered by said “others". I’m not always a huge fan of when this happens because I regret when things become dualistic, or “us vs them”, but I have also witnessed comparison done with a brave honesty in overcoming immense, inflicted pain. So I don’t judge.

My last note on the nuance of sexual empowerment, before I get into WAP, is when it is done on behalf of another. An ode to a person’s own sexuality is always empowering. An ode to another person’s sexuality is much harder to determine whether it is empowering or not. One could have good intentions but still be directly objectifying a person, especially if that attention is focused on the body, not the person, and is unwanted.

WAP by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion has caused many to ask about the distinction between objectification and empowerment. The assumption that something like WAP cannot be empowering stems from the premise that explicit sex and nudity are degrading, at least when done in a certain, non-white way. I firmly believe explicit sex and nudity are not inherently degrading, especially when it is an autonomous, artistic expression.

I understand that if ones palate is not used to explicit sex or nakedness (because of its unfortunate, cultural stigma) then it could seem degrading. This is why people prefer abstract, lyrical innuendos in modern songs about sex. One example of this, among thousands, is Taylor Swift’s lyric, “tangled up with you all night, burnin’ it down” in her song, “Wildest Dreams”.

Perhaps to widen your palate to explicit sexuality, consider going to the Vagina Museum in London. Or, if you’re not ready for that, go to a museum like the V&A, British Museum, or the Louvre and contemplate The Nude. The Nude is a visual art form that depicts the unclothed human form and sexuality. It has existed from pancultural prehistoric times to present day. Take a moment to revere the nude sculptures of Ancient Greece and erotic paintings of the Xing Dynasty. Read ancient erotic poetry and literature. The more cultured you are to the artistic expression of sex and nudity the more readily you will see and appreciate that WAP is an excellent, modern, Black American expression of these very things that are deemed socially respectable in white, western society.

If you find yourself not appreciating Black American art at level with classical or historical art, you are missing out on a rich and incomparable culture that has had the most significant and encompassing influence on Western culture and art over the past 150 years, especially in music.