When I was in third grade, Britney Spears was definitely the new hot thing after we all "outgrew" the Spice Girls. Little did we know that nearly a decade later, the woman would be an absolute train-wreck. Or maybe we might've predicted it since her first single was entitled "Hit Me Baby...One More Time." Yes, she'd already been "hit" at least once before and she wanted more. We could've delved deeper into an analysis of that if only we weren't 8 and 9 years old at the time. Britney's rival, though, was unbelievably talented and much more so than Brit Brit could ever be but Americans favored La Spears either because of our love of mediocre music or because she was lucky enough to release her album first. In any event, Christina Aguilera has spent much of her career playing catch-up and it's unfortunate because she belongs to a different universe in terms of singing ability.
All we have to remember is that when Madonna kissed Britney and then Christina (even in events of forced lesbianism, Xtina came second) at the 2003 MTV Music Video Awards, all the press could talk about was the Madge-Spears lip-lock. No matter how hard she's pushed a sexy image of herself or tried to transform her persona over the past decade, Aguilera has always received considerably less hype. And never has her desperation shown through quite as much as it has in her most recent video "Not Myself Tonight."
Let's try to track the evolution of Aguilera, shall we? Breaks out onto the scene in '99 with "Genie in a Bottle" from her album Christina Aguilera and shows off her pipes early on. If Britney is the sweet girl next door with a bit of an edge, Aguilera is the girl in high school who's spent time with more than a few players on the basketball team. She maintains somewhat of a teeny bopper image, though, until 2002 when she releases the album Stripped with the "hit" single "Dirrty." Even though I was twelve, I remember finding something tragic about the video that accompanied that song. I don't like to mince words so here it goes: her decision to dress and dance like a skank in the name of feminism and women claiming there sexual freedom seemed weak to me. Writhing on the floor around clothed men never felt like a demonstration of equality in my mind but if someone could explain that to me, I'd be really grateful.
Anyhow, that grew old and eventually she grew up. In 2006 she came out with Back to Basics and the main song from that album was "Ain't No Other Man." In interviews she claimed that she was now older and wanted to embody a retro, glamorous Hollywood style. Just like good ol' Goldilocks, she finally found a happy medium: not too cartoonish, not too confined, but just right. It was part of her move to project herself as the mature, young wife that she had recently become. Then she got pregnant, had a baby and things seemed to be picking up for her until this summer. Her new album is called Bionic and the first song she released is called "Not Myself Tonight." I read too deeply into things but I don't know if ever seen a video that both recycled as much of Madonna's material as possible while surpassing the Material Girl's own ability to play with the Madonna-Whore complex.
The lyrics of the damn song are "Tonight I'm not the same girl...I'm feeling hot...In the morning when I wake up, I'll go back to the girl I used to be." Whereas she was willing to be open sexually about whatever she wanted in "Stripped" before she had a baby, now she has to keep her naughty thoughts to herself and unleash them on particular evenings. But not to worry: she'll be back to the normal, safe girl after the relief that comes with enjoying her wild side for a quick nostalgic moment. Can't mothers be sexual all the time? For someone who's advocated women's sexual freedom and empowerment, it's interesting that now as a mother, she plays with the idea of containing herself sexually.
Additionally, as soon as I saw this video I thought back to Madonna's 1995 video "Human Nature." The similarities are striking: Black latex? Check. White girl cornrows and afros? Check. Groups of slithering dancers grabbing up on their persons? Check. Lyrics about women craving sex and wanting everyone to be shocked because of it? Check. Not only has this been done before, but it's actually an obsolete set of messages that Christina herself worked to advocate in the early 2000's. You mean to tell me that a woman can be a "bad girl" every once in a while? And that women actually still try to turn lesbianism into a gimmick to garner attention? And is it true, too, that people have tried to repress women's sexuality and that women are tired of it? Who would've thought? Well apparently many people are tired of women performing as if they're doing something groundbreaking by being incredibly sexual as Christina's tour was postponed/canceled due to low ticket sales.
Whereas someone like Lady Gaga, who is admittedly a new, fresh singer infuses her image and her use of half-nakedness with a sense of humor and creativity, Xtina is copying work of the past and it comes off as desperate. Yes Gaga is practically nude in "Telephone" but in how many other videos do women accidentally poison people, skip on their way out of jail cells, make light of Americans' overabundance of food and drive off in a "Pussy Wagon." Gaga is never serious but Christina, unfortunately, is. She's not making fun of the way women need to sell themselves: she is part of that game herself.
The reason this frustrates me endlessly is that it demonstrates that women are often compelled to recycle this image of what the sexually liberated woman is. By this point in history, we know that women like sex and so to pretend that there's something new or shockingly appealing about holding whips and chains for the purpose of thrilling and testing an audience is both outdated and tiresome. Xtina, you're simply too talented for these shenanigans and I just don't get why it's now come to this? Girl, what's up with that?
