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I know what you're thinking: the girl's a skank. And it's true that over the last year and a half, Christina Aguilera has offered up a truly spectacular example of what is, for a celebrity, the equivalent of a nervous breakdown — the image change gone horribly, horribly wrong. But God help me, I love her for it.
Once upon a time, she was was little more than Britney's alternate, the Barbie with skin a micron thicker, eyes a flash harder, voice a shade stronger. Her hit single "Genie in a Bottle" made the neatly multilayered demand that her lover "rub her the right way." She could dance. She hit the high notes. It was nice that she didn't claim to be a virgin. But she was oddly invisible: the latest dance-pop doppleganger, Booty Call Britney.
Well, at least she's not invisible anymore.
First came that "Lady Marmalade" video, in which Christina sported a look that might be described as Twisted Sister meets clown whore: fishnets, rotini corkscrews, Joker lipstick. A year later, her confessional album Stripped was released — or rather opened, Pandora's-box style, unleashing a thousand bits of misbegotten PR. Suddenly "Xtina," as she redubbed herself, was on the cover of every magazine, nakeder than any star of her caliber. On Rolling Stone, she clenched a guitar between Photoshopped thighs. In Maxim, she appears to have been dipped like chicken in a dark, oily coating, her hair dangling down in dingy quasi-cornrows. In pic after pic, she's been flaunting cleavage where most people didn't realize there was a crease. Mustard drips off her chin; her breasts are shrink-wrapped in terrifying macramé; her pelvis is thrust forward in a perpetual grind.
It was clear that the new image she had chosen was, well, porn. She was a kind of reverse Traci Lords, sloughing off layers of Mouseketeer with a photographic loofah. And just like that, she became a walking punchline. On Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey said that Xtina's video for "Drrrty" gave her TV set venereal warts. Everyone laughed, me included.
But someone's got to stand up for the girl! Yes, it's true that Christina's "Boy Toy" belt buckle lacks irony. Sure, she makes unfortunate, bragging remarks about rough sex to reporters. Yes, at times she comes off less like a "wild girl" than a girl-we-are-all-very-worried-about — the lost member of The Real World: Las Vegas. But in my eyes, at least, she's a more vulnerable version of that primordial skank, Madonna. There's a strange honesty to what she's doing.
Christina's message has always been less "Little me, a sexy singer?" and more "I don't care how many beauty pageant judges I have to blow, I'm getting out of this town." Her new image may seem like pandering, but it looks to me like the outburst of a girl who's been called a slut so many times that she's gone all third-wave feminist: Okay, then, I'm a slut! Hell, I'm SuperSlut! If you can love Peaches and Ani DiFranco, why not the new Christina Aguilera?
For one thing, she's all about grabbing her own sexual pleasure. This actually began with "Genie in a Bottle," which stated "Get me off first, then maybe we'll fuck" — perfectly decent advice for your horny teenage girl. Her new album is full of paeans to female orgasm. Like Madonna before her, she's begging to to be pushed over the borderline: "Put your hands on my waistline/want your skin up against mine/move my hips to the baseline/let me get mine you get yours." On "Dirrty," she moans, "Wanna get drrrty/It's about time for my arrival," and I don't think she's talking about train schedules.
In a world full of "Oops, I did it again," there's something to be said for an unmixed message. Christina's "Dirrty" world might be gritty and gross, but its portrayal of sexual gamesmanship rings true to the world she's hanging out in: nightclubs, twentysomething hookups, sketchy quasi-business relationships. The first song on Stripped is about dirty gossip, and it seems to be directed at Eminem, who famously turned Christina into a blowjob-dispensing blowup doll in a video: "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 you call her a whore." In "Fighter," she thanks a betrayer who inspired her to "Make me that much stronger/Make me work a little bit harder." Most of the tracks are classic '70s-soaked R&B, but they're about wanting sex, not love, delivered with a slew of mock apologies: "Sorry I'm not a virgin!/Sorry I'm not a slut!/I won't let you break me/think what you want." After all, isn't this really what being an ambitious teen product is about, deep down? Not doe-eyed yearning, but hard need. Not sorrow — rage.
And that rage doesn't come from nowhere. Christina has always been open in interviews about her screwed-up family and the general sheen of stripper-damage she radiates (it's what her soul sister Jen from Dawson's Creek once earnestly called "being sexualized way too early.") There's a dreadful number on Stripped about Christina's physically abusive dad: it's her version of Madonna's own awful "bad dad" song. But the rest of the album is solid. And although it may seem absurd that Christina's claiming her new music and videos are authentic self-expression (how can the real anyone look so fake?), Stripped actually seems like a genuine rebellion — at least, to the extent that a female pop star embedded in corporate culture can rebel. From all appearances, it was Christina herself who chose those clothes. This is what her idea of freedom is. Her record company fought her insistence that "Drrrty" be the first single from Stripped, and honestly, they had a point: no one likes a proud slut. Do they? n°
©2003 Emily Nussbaum and Nerve.com, Inc.
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Commentarium (43 Comments)
WOOOO HOOOOOO! I've been waiting what seems like forever for the next Emily N. piece on Nerve! And this one was jut what the doctor ordered. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Those summaries on Slate aren't enough to slake my thirst.
For someone in the "business" of writing things for others to read, your command of the language is terrible. Don't you have anyone "proof" your material?
It takes away from the message you are trying to convey.
but what about iraq?
great piece....so true.
good article, but it'd be better if you actually had the correct name of the single: "dirrty." there's an "i" in there.
Emily, I think you're right about a lot of things. Or at least you have a really good point about the girl, especially her music and her own statement. I love her for it too, I just feel sad because she looks really sad, trying to be louder and sexier and more daring than Britney, trying to beat down previous and on-going criticism. I just wished she would find peace some day and sing about it.
Go Christina.
ps. in response to What about Iraq?: We already had an Arabic-Columbian Shakira, so where's the cute slut from under the stinky armpits of Saddam to tease us and Bush a little?
Wonderfully written
say what you will about sluts, but i love 'em.
I dig this article. Balanced perspective.
Doesn't seem that either she or Madonna are "skanks" as far as I can tell, they just allude in public to what the rest of us have or hope to experience in private...can't see anything slutty about that...their detractors sound more envious than epicurean...
hellow christina
It may be bold enough to celebrate the Xtinaness of Xtina,
but it really takes gall to ratchet that Xtinaness into a 9/11 epic...
http://www.omnitecturalforum.com/wtc/pt.html
Words fail.
I, too, am a Christina convert. No, convert is too strong - but I have definitely gone from reacting with disgusted awe to reacting with somewhere-deep-down-i-wish-i-could-be-like-that awe.
Admitting to my friends or family that I am a Christina fan would be almost as problematic as declaring my love for Dubya: I'd probably be rushed to a doctor only after being heavily anesthetized by one household item or another. But nonetheless, I have recently begun to agree - privately - with you that Christina (unlike Bush) should be given a chance to live down her reputation-- that is, her pop reputation.
For me, she became more than just another pop/sex idol when I (accidentally) saw her video for Beautiful. The lyrics themselves, although repetitive, are thoughtful and helped me to overlook some of the superficiality inherent in having a music video on MTV in the first place. Her look was somewhere between cute and sultry, but not overwhelmingly ostentatious, as it could have easily been. The defining moment for me, however, was neither of these things. It was the displaying of a common act only beginning to make appearances in popular media. A bold act that was perhaps proof of the "third-wave feminist" in her of which you spoke.
Among various images including a woman scrutinizing her body and Christina sulking was one of two men making out.
This is a Chirstina I can publicly and wholeheartedly admire.
I love Christina, I don't care what people think of her, I think the new look is great. The new music is better. Now, she is my kind of girl.
Awesome, Thank you for this article. At least she owns her sexuality, whatever it may involve, its high time somebody did. There was something creepy about that whole faux-virgin movement. Kudos to her for being a young, talented, beautiful, sucessful woman who just happens to like to fuck!
In the last paragraph the first sentence is "and that rage doesn't come from nowhere." Just a thought, maybe "and that rage doesn't come from just anywhere" would have sounded better. Personally i thought that line sounded a bit weak and uneducated, but other than that I REALLY liked the article!
Fuckin' great. Love Christina you must. I find her much more interesting than ole whatshername.
Christina's been a slut since she was very young. Just ask the kids she went to school with in Rochester and New Jersey. But I'm sure you'll think they are all jealous of Xtina's wonderful talent like her psycho mother has drummed into her head.
I think the kick-in-the-ass praise of her behavior is frightening. No Xtina is not Satan, she isn't the worst thing since Hitler. However, when we continue to give her credience she becomes more powerful than she should.
She is inhuman in how she treats others. Everytime her image takes too many hard knocks she drags out her abused past. Abuse she was removed from at age 6.
Her album is filled with Pink sound-alike songs, stupid lyrics, overproduced tracks and more riffing then Mariah Carey in the throws of orgasm. Xtina imitates everyone's styles but can't come up with one she can call her own.
The ultimate sadness is that she will never be humble enough to understand the power her voice really has.
She's been filmed coming out of a bar falling down drunk, been observed at many other bars and admits to loving to go to clubs and drink. She said in US Weekly that she has panic attacks. Alcohol is a depressant. Not a healthy combo.
I predict that within one year she will be in rehab after pulling out of her tour with Justin Timberlake because her voice is shot.
Or at least I can hope.
I pretty much think Christina is a puppet of her label with her moves more calculated than she's een led to believe. The Madonna comparison is giving her too much credit, she's been folowing everybody since she came out, Madonna leads. Her album and Dirrty single saved an otherwise floudering career though. She'll need all teh PR tricks in the book to keep her afloat now, due in part to this new image change and bandwagoning on the "I"m real" thing that is so popular now. She'll have another album and also say "that's the real me." just watch.
I agree with every point on this article except for two, the use of the word "slut" and that fact that "I'm OK" is a good song. Slut is a pejorative word used to denigrate females by implying they sleep around. None of us have any idea who Christina is bedding, nor could I care less. As for her clothes, Usher wears less in his Twix commmercials, but we don't call him a slut. And so on. I think the biggest sin she's created is choosing tacky clothing, and like Ani Difranco, giving us way too much information. Christina's rebellion reminds me how glad I am that I didn't live out all of my embarrassing choices in my youth in the public eye.
Emily Nussbaum ROCKS!!!
Okay i think everyone is crazy!!!! I don't know how girls respect themselves these days dressing the way they do and putting on acts like they are the biggest skanks. I don't think girls are comfortable with themselves anymore to degrade themselves that way. I am 19 years old and i dress perfectly decent i can make an outfit that usually people look like a prostitute in and make myself look normal. Girls these days need to have more respect for themselves and not follow stupid skanks like xtina have no hair-a. They give girls like me a bad name.
Love your piece on Xtina. I never appreciated her till she started going wild, but what can I say, I love a woman who pisses everyone off.
i think christina aguilera is a honest person .she is a great singer and i believe that she deserve a respect . she really inspires me ,i like her cd's espescially the STRIPPED.
who cares about christina! who cares about iraq?
"Her record company fought her insistence that "Drrrty" be the first single from Stripped, and honestly, they had a point: no one likes a proud slut. Do they?"....
Um, could I hope that at least someone else finds that line leading? If you're going to do it, do it proud. Besides, what's a slut? I'll go along with "someone quite a bit horny, not overly selective, and... busy", this differs from most of the population how? And how often?
Anyone living in a glass house: You'd have a lot more fun if you realized that meant the perfect stage for a striptease....
I agree that you have to tip your hat off to Christina. She is just stating the truth about women and sex.I bought her cd and thought it was good especially to be consider pop music. I think to each their own.If this is they way she feels that she should express herself then all power to her.
Nice! I mostly agree-- "This artist"(!) speaks to something. And though you overstate things a bit---too long--- your piece is mostly right on and fresh. ( Nerve usually seems about hopping on the bandwagon.) Guess I just want to say: Keep up the good work!
I liked the article for being thought-provoking. Having never really ponderd the relevance of Christina Aguilera, or judged her either way, it's interesting to hear a positive note in a sea of the negativity.
But the deeper impact for me seems to be the subtle rendering of a 'third-wave' of feminism. It seems to be about a deeper, more complete iteration of the cycle of sexual liberation that surfaced in the sixties. If men can be sluts and glorified for it, why not women? Shouldn't women put their orgasm first, as men do? I'm all for seeing strong, sexual women be assertive in their needs for sexual fulfilment in a safe enviroment emotionally and physically, with or without commitment. The central sticking point in this ideology seems to be the risks associated with STD's.
Sexual liberation, and the freedom to have unbridled and fulfilling orgasm must be balanced with that risk. Christina seems to be exploring and fleshing out that boundary. Pun intended.
The appeal of Britney and Justin is their bizarre oscillation between sexpot and innocence. Look at Justin (or Leonard DiCaprio, for example): he oscillates in seconds from boy to man and back again. Likewise, Britney, who no matter how much of a slut you're sure she is, seems like a farmgirl. Or vice-versa--the Southern belle teenybopper who comes off as a slut. As Simply Another Blonde, like Jessica Simpson or Vitamin C, Christina didn't stand out. And vocal noodlers are kind of a dime a dozen. Now, with the whole misery and makeup thing, where she obviously cakes it on to cover her wretched feelings of inadequacy, we have a new dynamic that can actually grab attention similarly to Britney's and Justin's--the girl who is so ugly she's pure. When she sings "Beautiful," what kills me about it is you know, as a freakish slut, she REALLY needs to convince herself of those words: "Am I beautiful/no matter what they say." She knows they're talking, and boy are they ever. I don't think I've heard ONE PERSON say Christina's hot. It's all "dog" this and "Dee Snyder" that. Anyway, that's my theory. Either way, she's still not terribly interesting. Ani Difranco doesn't belong in this article, she's not a sex mascot, she's an artist. Dykes and overly antifeminist people are the only ones desperate enough to pigeonhole her that way. It's like saying Joni Mitchell is "just a hippie" because she wrote fucking Woodstock and Big Yellow Taxi--by far, not her most defining songs if you have half a BRAIN.
nicely done...i really dont think i could agree more, i just hope everyone reads this.
it's about fuckin time women got comfortable owning up to their sexuality without being labelled a slut.
maybe it's our problem, or the previous generation's.
i'm glad to see some change...
bonjour christina ca va je t'aime tres fort
bouedina.mouh@caramail.com
I love her and thank you for finally writing about her and beingon her side!!!
She is a great person.Hopefully she tour around San Antonio Tx. So i could see her in concert. She lovely and great .
Great article. Almost makes me like her.
I AGREE WITH YOU!!!! yeah, it may be that Christina Aguilera is baring a bit too much, but she's got sass!!!Britney could learn a little from her about being genuine. Aguilera's feminism is modern and tru. You can call a person a slut however many times you want but at least Cristina Aguilera is really about her wants and needs as a woman!
I absolutley agree on how usher and justin are always half naked! Also How can people call her a slut? When J.Ho and Julia Roberts get praised all the time? How many men have they took into the public eye, guys they only lasted with for like 5 minutes! X-tina has only took one and the relationship lasted 2 years. Beside X-tina is only dressed to match what shes doing at the moment, so she wasnt covered much for the Mtv awards or the preformance of dirrty well people have worn less on Mtv before and dirrty is a club joint anyways its called dirrty not cleean. Everytime she sings beautiful or imposssible she is made up nice and clothed. She put out a good album for everyone not just pop fans its got all kinds of flavor on it, some songs are even role model-y-! She still sings her voice out too! If someone tryies to tell me she only sells sex, Well then no artist out right now is selling music! Eminem sells his attitude justin timberlake is selling himself off as britney spears Ex and obviously avril lavienge is selling her big mouth!
thanks for an untainted article on christina... musically, im not much of a fan, but i definetley respect her fuck-the-bullshit attitude. and yes, she's definetley a femenist, albeit an over-sexualized one. (but who isn't?)
I thought your article was fantastic!!! i couldnt stop laughing! Im a fashion designer living in Pakistan and often watch her videos and have wondered if she has finally lost the plot... your take on her made me understand her work a bit more, Thanks.
she couldn't dance when she first came out. say whatever you want about christina then or now, but you can't say she could dance. go watch that genie video again. the reason she was in britney's shadow was she couldn't MOVE her body, and there was so little of her. how sexy is a stick?
i guess you are congratulating her on the honesty of her music, contrived hair, and boob job. i think she is just a girl badly in need of a big sister.
i like this proud slut. i think Christina is incredibly vulnerable, esposed, dealing with horrific pressure, had a volatile family life in which she was so lonely she sang to the radio over and over, i have loved her over-the-edge, truly lush and expressive fashion style for a while, and i think as a fashion hero she serves as a boundary between the comic-book characters that men and women both enjoy, and our miserably androgynous "normal" day clothes. She is right the fuck on and she is the biggest superstar of our century. I cry so hard at the beginning of "Beautiful," she says, don't look at me, I am just coming out of a nervous breakdown and I know damn well how she feels. "Every day, is so wonderful, then suddenly, it's hard to breathe" - damn straight, Christina! yeah, i guess you could say I'm a fan . . .
You had me at "that primordial skank, Madonna." HOTNESS!
Now you say something