What’s Trey Songz really up to?

I have been hearing the song “bottoms up” on my way to and from work every day for the last… 4 days. And I only have it on a station that plays mainland music when Island 98.5 is on commercial. Admittedly, it’s better than “toot it and boot it” but that isn’t saying very much.  This song is hot right now. Example:  I went to look up the lyrics on The Google… All i typed in was “lyrics” and “lyrics to bottoms up” appeared on the drop down menu. Of course I have my feminist lens on everywhere I go (blessing and a curse) and listening to this song has me asking A LOT of questions about the messages it’s conveying. So i’m just gonna dive in and divulge everything this makes me think of. Hopefully this cathartic exercise will allow me to stop thinking about it and move on to something else.

The song STARTS with “It’s mister steal your girl”… heeeree we go….because girls (not women or ladies, female children) can be stolen like any other commodity or THING of value. We don’t make legitimate choices of who we date, or dance with, or fuck for that matter. We are passive and males are the agents. Typical subject-object relationship under patriarchy.

Now the chorus is tricky and convoluted in my opinion, and it’s actually what caught my attention and got my gears in motion first:

Bottoms up, bottoms up, ey, what’s in ya cup
Got a couple bottles, but a couple ain’t enough
Bottoms up, bottoms up, throw your hands up
Tell security we bout to tear this club up
Bottoms up, bottoms up, pocket full of green
Girl, you know I love the way you shake it in them jeans
Bottoms up, bottoms up, throw ya hands up
Bottoms up, bottoms up, bottoms up (up, up)

Obviously they’re supposedly talking about drinking (but i’ll get to that point later), yet something about the phrase “bottoms up” makes me think of sex and how men like to talk about having women “face down ass up” – I’ve heard this a lot but the most prominent example is from Ludacris’ song ” What’s Your Fantasy”.  or how about last summer’s big hit from LMFAO “I’m in Miami, bitch”:

It’s Mornin’ time and the girls still there
They lying naked with some Asses in the air…

Get your hands up
Put that ass up
Get you hands up

I think i’m having dejavu. Bottoms and hands up all over the place. And how about “Tell security we bout to tear this club up”… now, I could be mistaken here but don’t (usually) hypermasculine men talk about how they’re gonna “tear that ass up” when they see a woman who is attractive that they’d like to engage in intercourse with? (And do i even need to get into brutalizing women as a form of sexual pleasure?  Let alone the euphemisms for sex and how brutal and violent they are. I love sex. I don’t love my ass being torn up, personally).  And of course the fact that Trey needs to point out that he loves the way she shakes it in them jeans… which has nothing to do with the rest of the chorus if you’re taking it at face value as a song about gettin crazy in a club…

Can someone explain to me what a goose and a chicken have to do with anything, because i’m truly baffled on that one.

There’s the more obvious themes of men having money and flaunting it in an effort to be appealing to women and binge drinking, which I dont even feel like getting into right now. Except to say that binge drinking is a breeding zone for “unintended” sexual assault and coercion. I say unintended with parenthesis because if a man is giving a woman alcohol to lower her defenses, that’s not consent. which means it’s coercion or assault.  But I have the parenthesis because it’s not intended assault, most people don’t even realize what they’re doing is morally questionable. It’s completely normal for a girl to have a couple shots to “loosen up” before hooking up, and it’s completely acceptable for men to talk about getting women drunk to sleep with them. Affirmative consent follows the model that a sober yes means yes, and that’s it. How realistic is that with our current culture? Yeah.. well things need to change.

and then there’s Nicki’s solo… Now I know a lot of people like her. A lot of my enlightened social justice motivated friends like her. and I don’t get it; i have yet to ask someone to dialogue with me about this, but i need to because I think i’m missing something. She’s hypermasculine AND sexualized in an attempt to gain more control and power (which i get, it’s some sort of resistance to being the passive woman, and it’s worked out well for her), but she’s still perpetuating the same stereotypes.

Trey, I was like “Yo Trey”
Do you think you could buy me a bottle of Rose’?

The way she says this in the song is like a little kid. it’s kind of creepy. She’s Nicki fucking Minaj – she could buy the whole damn club if she wanted to. Here’s a very powerful woman playing the part of a doe-eyed female. Yes i’m inferring all of this from her voice, which might seem absurd if she wasn’t so good at altering the ways in which she uses her voice. later in her solo she uses really low, guttural sounds which convey strength and power, and follows it with

Excuse me, I’m sorry, I’m really such a lady

in that creepy kid-voice again. *sigh*

Now what interests me A LOT is the fact that this isn’t the first song by Trey Songz parading as a “have a crazy fun time in the club” song with undertones of degrading women sexually.  Remember the song “Say Aah”?

Since we in the club
For now (for now)
Might as well get another round (round)
Notice there ain’t nothing in your cup
So get here baby let me fill it up (fill it up)
Go girl
Its your birthday
Open wide
I know your thirsty
Say aah (aah aah aah aah)
Say aah (aah aah aah aah)

Open Wide? Say Ahh? Either he’s playing doctor or he wants to empty his gasket into her mouth, if you know what i’m sayin. (also another song blurring consent, coercion and binge drinking).

So what is Trey Songz really up to? I think we need to keep an eye on him.