Whose Body?: Christina Aguilera Reflection
Ah 2012, what a year. It was the year that we watched in pain as Zac Efron got himself a YOLO tattoo, stared mouth gapingly at Nick Jonas’ barren purity ring finger, and danced in our bathrooms to Christina Aguilera hit after Christina Aguilera hit. One notable moment from our dear friend Christy’s musical career from the year of the end of the world was her song Your Body.
As Dr. Kristin Lieb so accurately points out, many female pop stars (Aguilera included) make their way through stages of stardom—the first being the “good girl” and the second being the “temptress.” Your Body catches Aguilera in the prime of her temptress phase, featuring skin tight outfits, bedroom choreography, and even an iconic chin wipe. Lieb describes the time of the temptress as “the phase in the pop star’s life in which her clothes begin to fall off”—a time of increased sexuality and sexual ability.
The video opens with a disclaimer that reads: “No men were harmed in the making of this video.”
Immediately, within the first ten seconds of the video, Aguilera has proclaimed her sexual prowess without even appearing on the screen. She then quickly becomes a symbol of sex and promiscuity after the opening sequence.
If you can tear your eyes away from the minimal clothing and sensual hip movements long enough to scroll down to the comments, you’ll find amongst the slew of posts about her immense talent quite a few praising her body as well. Faith thinks Aguilera is, “the sexiest she’s ever been” while B. hunt says she is, “improving with age in all areas.” Even more interestingly, Angel Choatix is reminded that since he/she/ze does not necessarily look like Aguilera, he/she/ze is a “potato.”
As the video progresses past the opening, Aguilera continually appears in tight skirts and low-cut tops. Even when she is in her most conservative outfit, she is far from modest as she sits at her kitchen table licking a spoon (0:43). The video moves quickly toward the narrative of Aguilera meeting and devouring men. The first of her video’s victims sits underneath her in his car while she sings, “Tonight’s your lucky night, I know you want it” (1:19). Not only is she singing about giving herself to men sexually but she is also physically doing so on camera, leaving no room for interpretation.
Between the clips of the story behind the song, Aguilera leans against the outside of a trailer running her hands up and down her physic as well as flashing body parts that are associated with promiscuity to the camera (1:58).
As Aguilera’s character stares down another man, she obviously intends to take him away from the woman he is with. The concept of her doing the nasty in a bar bathroom with this man is in itself quite a sexual idea; however, the fact that she proceeds to do so after clearly enticing this man to cheat on another woman adds a whole second layer of promiscuity, as she physically assumes the role of the temptress. This time, the bridge says, “I don’t need to know where you been all I need to know is you and no need for talking” (2:02), which describes the very association between sex and the pop temptress.
Whether or not Christina Aguilera purposefully subscribes to any of Lieb’s categories, we should all be concerned by the fact that each and every one of them achieves their goal of selling millions of records to us—the same people putting her in these neat little boxes.
