Female Sexuality Only Scares Weak Men

If you get uncomfortable when women discuss their sexuality, or rap about sex, then you're a weak man and you need to check yourself

In case you've been living under a rock the past few hours, you've probably seen Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion drop a killer song called WAP. In fact, it broke the record for the most watched female collaboration in 24 hours. Its lyrics are sexual and iconic, its beat is addictive, and the music video is a work of art. So why is it facing backlash?

Well, because weak men exist in the world. Because men who are uncomfortable with their sexuality and who are uncomfortable with women expressing their sexuality think it's wrong to sing about having a 'wet ass pussy'. After all, rap is only a space for men to talk sexually, right?

R. Kelly has 'Bump N' Grind'

50 Cent has 'Candy Shop'

Lil Wayne has 'Lollipop'

And there are countless other songs which talk about sex - whether explicitly or 'subtly' - and have been successful because of it. You can probably think of several male rappers who have built their careers out of objectifying women and singing about how badly they want to fuck them. So why aren't female rappers given the same allowances?

Female ownership of their sexuality has been a contended topic for too long. It seems that in the eyes of some men, they take issue with a woman reclaiming her sexual agency and taking ownership of it. Historically, female sexuality has been tied to their male counterparts. It was only until 2003 that it was legal for a husband to rape his wife in the UK. It stemmed from the notion that she was his property, that she didn't have the right to say no to her husband, and that he owned her sexuality. It took this long to undo the notion that female sexual agency didn't belong to themselves, and put in place a law that protected women.

Growing up as a woman you are constantly fed conflicting and hypocritical messages. You must be sexually desirable for a man, but not too sexually explicit so as to maintain an image of 'purity' or 'innocence'. You must have enough knowledge about sex to entice a man, but if you've slept with more than 3 people then you're a slut. You have to narrowly walk the line between being a prude and being a whore, and it's not a walk which can be easily done. It's the Madonna/Whore complex (aka the Virgin/Whore complex). A theory put out by Freud, that men percieve women only as innocent virgins or promiscuos whores. As Bare Sexology put it - "Men saw women as either saints or prostitutes: loving the first and desiring the second - though never intertwining the both." And this message is present even today. Hence the term 'wifey material', often seen as something for women to aspire to. You've probably heard or seen a man claim that the woman he was sleeping with was good enough to fuck, but not good enough to marry.

Artists like Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion reject society's expectations of female sexuality and flip it on its head. They send a message to young girls that you shouldn't be ashamed of your sexuality. You can talk about sex, you can enjoy sex, you can sleep with as many men as you want and it doesn't diminish your self worth or make you a slut. WAP is a sexual empowerment anthem - it's the 'Anaconda' of this generation. Cardi and Meg stand up for women all over the world and show the hypocrisies and different standards held for women in the music industry.

Cardi B has long spoke out about this. As an exotic dancer, she has often faced backlash for singing about her sexuality. "People have always accused me because I was a dancer" she said in an interview with Apple Music. "I was just dancing on them and taking their bread." She even spoke about it in her 2017 song 'Bronx Season', claiming "You're skipping on me just because I used to strip." She felt that her artistry wasn't taken seriously because of her previous profession, that her job as a stripper invalidated her rights to rap about sex.

It's about time that women felt comfortable talking about sex. Aritsts like Lil Kim and Khia have done it in the past and have undeniably paved the way for current artists to be able to do so freely. And hopefully Meg and Cardi are paving the way in turn for future artists to do so also.