Every once in a while I flip over to MTV to take the pulse of pop culture. Gotta see what them kids are looking at these days. Guess what I learned? Britney Spears has a new video out. Culturally relevant again, I see.

The song itself is pretty catchy. It's called "Womanizer". A scathing critique of some dude who has a bunch of girl friends and uses women. Britney stands up to him. Lets him know he's not getting any attention from her. Really, it might be her best song in a long time. I mean, it's obviously a sliding scale, but still.

Things take a turn for the dumb with the video, however. This lady who is singing out against womanizers spends half the video...naked. I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but I'm serious. I would post the video, but it's essentially porn. She is laying completely naked in a sauna, covering only the most private of parts. Even for MTV it is pushing the envelope. The rest of the video finds Britney dancing around in her underwear.

Ok. Stop. This song could have stood on its own. But Britney's handlers come in and under the guise of creativity womanize her. In the process, they talk her into being complicit in her own objectification.

Now the video is on MTV. We all know that pop music is both a reflection and influence on pop culture. So now we are communicating to girls that they should liberate themselves from promiscuous men by cutting them out of the process. Why let someone else objectify you if you can just sell yourself and keep all of the profits?

But then I guess it isn't that different from what has happened in mainstream hip-hop and the black community. I mean, Robert Johnson (the founder of BET) is about as helpful to the black community as a plantation owner.

This is crazy.

Renew and Restore