Yeah, the first time I saw this video it GREATLY creeped me out.

All the violations of privacy, spying on all the women, b/c "she's sexy and you know that she wants it when you want it" makes it OKAY!

eww, eww, eww, get it off my brain!

I have many problems with this song, but this, "Think she double jointed from the way she splitted" really revolts me.

I had that immediate gut reaction, too. When I first saw it I had to rewind and watch again to check out the lyrics and I was just disgusted. There's also some lyric about "her hips, her thighs" and I was yelling at the TV, "Women are more than body parts, you asshole!"

Ugh.

It creeps me out, as well. It's pretty sad that we're getting off on lyrics like these ...but really, isn't most of the music that the likes of 50 Cent make mostly very misogynistic and objectifying?

Brings up a point, though: is it just music, or is there something deeper than that? Do we, as feminists, have an obligation to reject and boycott such music?

To be sure, I think the lyrics and beat are both shitty - but if a feminist enjoys this song, does it make that person less of a feminist?

"To be sure, I think the lyrics and beat are both shitty - but if a feminist enjoys this song, does it make that person less of a feminist?"

Hmmm...tough question, but I still consider myself a feminist even though I like me some Eminem every once in a while. (It kicks my ass when I'm at the gym, what can I say?)

What weirds me out about the video is the whole spying thing--like, it's 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake. Don't women just throw themselves at them because they're just so hot and talented and original? Why the need for the sneakiness, boys?

Both the video and song are gross, creepy and misogynistic, without a doubt.

As to whether it's a rape apologist anthem, I'm not convinced. But I think that there is plenty else to hate about it.

I've been icked out by everything 50 Cent has ever done, without fail. I find him and his songs absolutely vile.

The lyrics give me the impression they're singing about a stripper -- he's "throwin' money 'round" while she's "workin' the pole" and "doin' her thing out on the flo'" -- makin' money, the double-jointed thing, and then later they say the "spotlight doesn't suit her." They assume that a woman who takes her clothes off for money is a "nympho" and "wants it" when really all she may want is to make a living. I think speaking of a stripper this way is even more terrifying than just speaking of women in general, because it shows how idiotic these guys are (as if you needed more proof) that they can't seem to differentiate between true seduction and sexuality and feigned sexuality-for-pay. I guess they're aware that no woman will sleep with them for anything BUT their money. So it's really just a commentary on their own insecurity. And isn't that what misogyny is all about after all?

Of course, I could have it all wrong -- maybe they do know the difference but just appeal to men's idiocy because it sells records. I'm not sure which is the worse, though.

I heard this song blasting out of a van just yesterday and was quite disturbed. There are a lot of misogynistic songs out there these days, but this one I think crosses the line to frightening.

I didn't think much of Timberlake's performance with Janet at the Superbowl. It wasn't the flash of breast that bothered me, but the aggressive nature of his attitude and the lyrics he was singing at the time. To my mind, they had gone into rape mode.

So, it comes as no surprise, but a bit of sadness to see this new video and hear the song. Hopefully, people will stop giving Justin a pass.

"So it's really just a commentary on their own insecurity. And isn't that what misogyny is all about after all?"

That's a very good thought. I think hatred is about insecurities and fears. Definitely.

The video is creepy. Justin Timberlake, Mr. Squeaky Clean White Boy just showed a bunch of pre-pubescent boys it's cool to stalk chicks who are always ready and waiting. Gotta wonder how he treated Britney behind closed doors.

Elle - maybe I am just saying this because I am straight, but Timberlake and 50 Cent are NOT hot. Even if I were a woman, I wouldn't go near that.

Kae - I agree - the lyrics come across as defining women as golddiggers, which is a usual MO for misogynistic men who fear women only date them because of their money.

If that were the case, I wonder why some of these rich men are having to go to prostitutes and strippers, instead of having a steady girlfriend. Oh, yeah, because their misogynistic attitudes suck!

The excerpts make no sense to me, but I'm going to convert them into refrigerator magnet words and arrange and rearrange them until the secret code unlocking all of the mysteries of science and philosophy is discovered.

Hmm, I see what you're saying, but I'm not seeing how this song is any more objectifying and disgusting than every other song out there. It's not like they're saying that they're going to take it from a woman who's saying no, "but really wants it." It's just general run-of-the-mill misogyny, and completely un-sexy.

Even better are his lyrics from "Love Stoned," which are:

"She grabs the yellow bottle,
She likes the way it hits her lips,
She gets to the bottom,
It sends her on a trip so right,
She might be goin' home with me tonight."

So basically he thinks she is going home with him tonight because she is so completely trashed from drinking, she will not even know what is going on.

yeah, I gotta agree with ccchild. I think this song is a male fantasy (she's a nympho, she can't get enough sex, she wants it whenever I want it), and that fantasy has been pressed into the service of justifying rape, but that it seems more to be a symptom/element of a general rape culture in which heterosexual sex is mapped onto rape than a pastiche of rape threats.

Profeminist Male, we had a thread a while back about reconciling one's enjoyment of sexist music with one's feminism. Lemme see if I can find it for you. Ah, here it is. My short answer is that art works on a number of different registers--i.e. the lyrics to Brown Sugar are revolting but the riff is sensational--and as human beings, we're going to react to those registers. I don't think it makes anybody "less of a feminist."

"So basically he thinks she is going home with him tonight because she is so completely trashed from drinking, she will not even know what is going on."

So again, these guys can't get laid unless they're paying for it or the girl is too wasted to know where she is. Poor poor 50. He must be really lonely.

ProFeministMale and EG, I'd like to chime in on the "does it make me less of a feminist" question. I think that by listening to the song when it comes on the radio isn't so bad. (Although I wouldn't. I had to change the station twice on my drive to school this morning, because of the anti-woman crap the DJs were spewing.) I do think that buying the album, in a sense rewarding the artist(s) for writing a song like this, is a harmful action. It's a positive act of seeking out a harmful message like this. I would no more download/purchase this song than I would go out and buy a Girls Gone Wild DVD.

Thoughts?

You know, this is all the more disturbing in light of the post after this one, about the acquittal of a domestic abuser by a judge who thought that the woman "wanted" to be hit . . .

DarkEyed - I think you're on to something there - so long as we understand the lyrics are misogynistic and recognize that what's a fantasy in a song isn't real life, we should be fine.

But to buy a CD as a method of positive reinforcement to the artist, for making more of said music, then I think we become responsible for the very things we're fighting against.

Yet, at the same time, I cannot help but ask: how is it that we're not affected by the lyrics, and only see them as fantasies, but others don't?

Said lyrics aren't inspiring us to treat women like pieces of ass, not because the artists intended for that not to happen, but because we chose not to let it happen. What's to say, then, the the action of a misogynist is his (her) own and was not inspired at all by the artist?

Marc

Parts of this video reminded me of Snuff film....did anyone else get that? Also this is just bad bad bad music. Not only because it is offensive but because both 50 cent ad Justin Timberlake suck.

Most of Mista JT's videos are kind of disturbing. Remember way back when he started his solo career- Cry Me a River? I remember watching the video with my friend and discussing how much he looks like a stalker in it. Looking through most of his videos, he often has this creepy vibe in them.

That said, and I know it sounds horrible, but I try not to take someone who's lyrics include, "You're out of this world, but you're not green," (which I take it he's likening someone to an alien. Yes, really) too seriously. I know, I know, bad feminist. But sometimes a girl's gotta dance? I didn't buy his CDs if that helps... :x

I did once know a girl who had the same issues with dance/pop music- she hated the harmful messages of the lyrics, but loved the music. So she stripped some of her CDs of the vocals and just listened to the music. I wish I could find her for such things!

Quick correction: the song's name is "Ayo Technology", not "She Wants It".

I read the lyrics to the entire song and while I was watching I have to say that I kind of got the idea that he was talking about a call girl or a stripper.
The whole first part of the song gives you the stripper feeling because they're talking about the money she's making, the pole, and the part where she's dancing in his lap. The JT part makes it seem like he's looking up porn and was tired of it so he went to a strip club because he just says "why don't you sit down on top of me." which gives the thought that maybe he's getting a lap dance.
If they were in a strip club it would even make sense that they put the lyrics "your hips, your thighs" in there because lets face it, people in the sex industry are objectified. People don't go to strip clubs because one of the dancers likes JD Salinger.
But what's disturbing is that its not a sex worker that he's talking about because he goes into "her fantasies" and how he's just going along because "she wants it." The whole song is treating a girl in a club like a stripper. Even if he took home a sex worker, I doubt that "she she want it" unless "it" is getting paid.
This whole song is throwing around mixed signals and I don't like it. If he wants to make a lovely song about going to a strip club then change it to "I I want it so I had to pay for it."

Could someone please tell me what's going on in the middle of the video where Justin Timberlake is sitting in the car and punching something? Is he punching the seat? Is he punching the headrest of the driver? Is he hitting the woman in the room he's spying on? What's going on?

I don't really know what to make of that part other than the violent motions I'm seeing.

I don't know, I think it's pretty generous of 50 Cent to be willing to fulfill my needs any time, day or night...

Didn't bother watching the video. I'm just offended that 50 and Justin Timberlake are still making music at all.

ProFeministMale, I don't listen to stuff like that because I do feel harmed by it. I feel belittled and objectified as a woman when I see and hear stuff like that. I guess I'm saying that I don't feel immunized from misogyny by realizing that something is misogynistic. By writing and promoting this, JT and 50 are normalizing misogyny.

"What's to say, then, the the action of a misogynist is his (her) own and was not inspired at all by the artist?"

I think it's harder for people to accept personal responsibility for doing/saying harmful things that our culture deems socially acceptable.

I normally like Justin Timberlake's solo music, even if it only sounds good because it's well produced. From a music standpoint this just doesn't do it for me. Add the sexist lyrics and violent imagery in the video and I just can't imagine why anyone would by this music.

What scares me is the context. This is not a song about a couple in a relationship, a woman who is showing that she does "want it", but rather men assuming by the way she dances that she must want it. The lyrics "I'm tired of using technology, why don't you get on top of me" are really scary. It really reminds me of guys who use the Internet, phone etc to harass women into dating them or having sex, not a consensual relationship. What really lacking from this relationship is any sign on consent, any sign of the woman really desiring these men. Also did anyone else notice the woman of Justin Timberlakes desires is white, while the one of 50 Cent's is black?

That's the worst video/song I've ever seen/heard. Aside from the lyrics- which I don't think I need to tell anyone are obviously rape excuses, without any attempt to disguise them- the video is ridiculously creepy. They're stalking women, watching them with night-vision devices that look like bazookas, saying that they've "got to give it to" her, and sort of... touching the women through telepathy?

I can't even describe how angry this makes me. If someone sees me undressing inside my house through binoculars? I want it. If someone sees me getting into my car dressed skimpily? I want it. If someone sees me dancing sexually? I want it. It goes on and on.

This is why I don't watch MTV, VH1, and BET. And I don't support artists like these. None of us should.

"Splitted"? That's not even a word.

I hope they all die a long, painful death, well humbled by utter indiference from the very people who put them there.

Oh, and I hope they are gang raped too.
Too late, I've already said it.

First of all, these hip hop "artists" are some of the least creative people to have ever called themselves musicians. They've been putting out the same misogynistic, drug-promoting, gang-banger crap for the past ten years. I don't see why anybody is particularly outraged or surprised about this video--it's the same sort of unartistic garbage they've been doing for awhile now. Every hip hop video I see has bouncing buxom women in a club, at a mansion, on top of a Ferrari, or some variation thereof. Furthermore, spying on a scantily clad girl in the window is a very common theme in movies (Disturbia, The Girl Next Door, etc). Do those films outrage you too?

Joseph Kahn, the director of the video, deserves just as much, if not more, blame than 50 cent and JT. The concepts behind music videos usually come primarily from the director, with up-or-down input from the musician. The fact that hip hop musicians can sell music using the same rehashed lyrics and videos is also a sad commentary on the intelligence or tastes of the average music consumer.

I think some people have misunderstood the meaning of the lyrics. "Ayo, I'm tired of using techology. Why don't you come here and sit on me. I need you right in front of me" That is, he's tired of looking at porn, he wants a real-life woman, hooker, stripper, whatever. This is supported by the fact that the song's original title was "Ayo Pornography", not "Ayo Technology". I don't see how you people could have inferred RAPE out of the lyrics or video--it's simply not there, and if you did see it, you're probably guilty of confirmation bias. Somebody tell me where the implication of rape is. It may be a crappy music video, but I doubt even the gigantic tools at MTV would allow something that promotes rape on the air.

Oh man, badnfluence, you're about to get a lesson in rape culture something bad.

Well, I thought you were. Maybe everybody's at lunch...

Meh. I think it's misogynist male fantasy stuff, but I would be exaggerating if I said it glorified/justified rape. None of the "her lips say no, but her body says yes" type stuff that you hear in a lot of music. I agree that it sounds like a call girl or something.

Kaichester: I'll be the first to admit that I may be desensitized to the sexual objectification of women, but that's ALL I see in this video; no implication of rape. If somebody can convincingly tell me what this video has to do with rape, I'll gladly recant.

"Elle - maybe I am just saying this because I am straight, but Timberlake and 50 Cent are NOT hot. Even if I were a woman, I wouldn't go near that."

Hee! No, I totally agree--I was just speaking as someone who knows quite a few girls who wouldn't mind, uh, being in this video with these guys. Heh.

Chicago Foundation for Women wrote about this in August - the video came out early that month, in advance of 50 Cent's album.

I made my name a link to the Foundation's write-up. (Disclosure: I work there.)

It's near the bottom of the page, in the "What is missing?" category. (And in this case, what's missing is the fact that "stalking and harassment are not sexy--they are illegal.")

Hmmmm. To be honest I'm not offended by that video.

I see what you guys are saying, and usually can get behind these sort of thought processes.

But to me it did certainly seem like those ladies were putting on a show for the guys and camera...And I liked the shots especially with JT at the door where they were responding to each others movements, that was kinda cool. I also got the impression that they were talking about call girls and/or strippers. In which case, they make their money off making guys like 50 and JT believe they want it...(Also, did anyone else notice there was no sex in the video?)

It did seem a bit stalkerific at points, but as has been addressed here before there is a fantasy element to movies and videos like this, as an audience we take the story tellers word for it that they do in fact "want it." Of course, how that translates to real life can be dangerous, but I don't really see how this video in particular emphasizes that. The danger FOR ME lies in how prevalent those scenarios are with little to no rebuttal of "no, stalking the people you love isn't ACTUALLY cool because you're not in their head and don't know if they DO really "want it""

But I don't think this video is any more guilty of that than Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Spiderman 2 and a million other tv shows and movies. And honestly doesn't even seem to me to be the worst offender.

Also want to agree with the others who said there was blissfully absent the "her lips say no, but body says yes" bullshit. Meant to point that out in my post as well.

The video really makes these guys look like predators, with the way 50 is viewing a woman through a target-viewer of a gun, and how Justin is looking into a window with binoculars; it really doesn't help when those shifty lyrics are added.

I'd feel more comfortable with the song if it mentioned that she SAYS she "wants it," and the women were making moves on the men, instead of being watched and targeted.

Oh, and don't forget the rest of the lovely lyrics...

"I'm tired of using technology, why don't you sit down on top of me"

I'm not surprised at this from 50 Cent (I think all of his songs are equally awful) but I expected better from Justin Timberlake.

Yikes!

badnfluence, Let's NOT pile onto hip-hop artists,please? Let's not ignore the country and rock artists who say similarly horrid things, aright?

"I don't want to be your friend/ I want to fuck you like I'm never gonna see you again,"--Kid Rock

I think Timberlake's recent album has a lot of sexism. Check out the lyrics for "Be My Love" and the lyrics and the video for "What Goes Around Comes Around."

From Be My Love:
- the idea that a marriage proposal is everything a woman's been waiting for.
- the song goes on and on about how important the woman is and how they want to get married- but when TI comes in for his interlude, he says that if the woman doesn't leave her boyfriend to go on vacation with him, he'll forget all about her and take two other women with him instead.

From "What Goes Around: there's a scene with Scarlett Johannssn where Justin's character is telling his friends how much he likes her and that if she plays her cards right (or some such) he'll give her "the keys to the castle." She says "I don't want your keys," and he tells her to shut up.

Also, from his previous album, the video for "Cry Me A River" is pretty creepy too. He's in a woman's house, touching her things, making films, walking around right behind her where she can't see him, etc.

As a mom of an 8 year old who just started listening to Top 40 (which means I'm now subjected to it) I'm appalled by the lyrics of some of these songs. Guess I miss the days of our nonsense lyrics of the 80's (Man Down Under, Wake me up before you go-go). However, after having to explain to my son why I didn't like the lyrics to first "Rehab", then "Rock Star", this song came on by Timberlake/50 Cent. My son says "See mom, this one's not bad. The girl wants something and the boy says he wants to give it to her. Although, I have no idea what she wants." Let's hope I have a few more months/years before he finds out. I'm really worried what such early exposure to all this will mean for future generations.

Lol, Diane! I think you're safe for a few more years. I remember riding in the car with my dad listening to the "light rock" of the early '90's, and being blissfully ignorant of what the phrase "I want to make love to you all night long" meant. I thought it meant they would tell each other they loved each other all night... hee...

This is disgusting. Looks like some sort of porn video or something.

I wanted to like Justin Timberlake but he doesn't make it easy. This isn't the first time he's made me cringe, but this is the worst I've seen from him yet. I think I'll have to give up my efforts and go ahead and hate him. Not that I would have bought his CDs anyway.

You weren't naive, DrkEyedCjn, you were just being archaic. There was a time, after all, when to "make love" to a woman meant flowery declarations of love and admiration.

Yea, I actually saw a write up about this in August on the "Young People For" site, in the YWTF blog. Definitely worth checking out...the whole issue is disturbing...

http://blog.youngpeoplefor.org/story/2007/8/27/23527/8884

I was disturbed by the easy, almost lazy mannerism of 50 and JT compared with the violent writhing undulations of the women. What a crock.