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Entertainment July 11, 2017
Women of color deserve better.
Girl group Fifth Harmony’s single “Worth It” has been praised for exploring themes of self-confidence and self-worth. Some people have even called it a feminist song.
I don’t agree.
While I celebrate the idea of women of color taking instead of asking, the song strays from its supposed “feminist” message when a man’s opinions overpower women’s voices.
Confused? Keep reading.
The song has been described as “sexy girl power.”
An article by Salon describes the importance of the phrase “I’m worth it” in pop songs today. For an oppressed part of society that struggles with men taking them seriously, explicitly stating “I’m worth it” is an act of rebellion. Sonia Saraiya explains the role of the lyric in the Fifth Harmony song:
“But it’s really the ‘I’m worth it’ of ‘Worth It’ that makes the song into an instant pop anthem; the song’s unapologetic refrain claims power both in the bedroom and the boardroom. Seriously: The lyrics work almost as well for salary negotiation as they do for sexual empowerment, and in the music video, Fifth Harmony doubles down on that.”
I can agree that a song where women take outright ownership of their personal value is empowering. But what this song does wrong is it adds the opinion of a man.
Let’s make one thing very clear: women don’t need validation from a man.
What’s more, they certainly don’t need to measure their value through the action of approaching a man in a club.
Kid Ink’s verse creates a dialogue between a man and a woman. The woman doesn’t carefully approach, but directly tells the man she wants his body. This act of a woman being explicit about her sexuality is a powerful move towards feminism. It can fit into any situation where a woman is too nervous to ask for something she deserves. However, Kid Ink’s verse is a juxtaposition to the theme Fifth Harmony’s verse portrays.
When he sings “stop playin’ now you know I’m/ wit it wit it wit it wit it wit/what you actin’ shy for?” he narrates a situation where the woman is acting shy and uncomfortable.
I mean, how many times have women been in this exact situation? A guy is trying to dance with you and the minute you reject him, he tells you to “stop playin”? No, I’m not being a prude. I’m not trying to play hard to get. I just want to dance with my friends.
Thanks to Kid Ink, the song becomes less about a confident woman owning her sexuality and more about a man forcing a woman to be more confident.
The problem is, though, people are only hearing “I’m worth it” and automatically assuming it’s such a great song. When people focus on just three words of an entire song, it eliminates the other possible connotations.
A feminist song can and should stand alone without the voice of a man.
According to an interview Fifth Harmony did with Complex and an interview Kid Ink did with Forbes, the song was originally written by Kid Ink, Priscilla Renea and the Stargate duo Mikkel S. Erickson and Tor Erik Hermansen. But, Kid Ink gave the song to the girl group. And then Dinah Jane told Complex they changed the song to fit their own perspective.
Kid Ink’s verse was originally featured in the song “Wit It” featuring The Rangers. Instead, this time, the lyrics aren’t followed by women singing, “Give it to me, I’m worth it.” Rather, The Rangers are singing, “Bitch, please, you don’t wanna be no tease.”
Five women singing “I’m worth it” in terms of their sexuality is an act of defiance. A group of men singing “Bitch, please, you don’t wanna be no tease,” is a man making an excuse for why a woman wouldn’t want to dance with him.
When President Trump was accused of sexually harassing multiple women, his excuse was that they weren’t attractive enough for his attention. It was his way of getting out of an accusation. He put the women down to justify his denial of the allegations. This line in Kid Ink’s song does exactly that. He calls the woman a “bitch” and “a tease.” He puts her down for the sake of his own confidence.
Again, Kid Ink’s song “Wit It” describes meeting a girl so intoxicated that she’s “seeing double vision,” as he continues to say “but the way them hips move, damn you can get it.” He just keeps saying, “You can get it” although she’s clearly too drunk to consent.
His original song is far from a feminist song. It starts to uncomfortably fall into creepy and rapey territory by using phrases men say to take advantage of women. A woman’s body is not there for a man to deem whether she can “get it,” especially if she’s too drunk to see straight.
While “Worth It” had good intentions, Kid Ink’s verse did not. Fifth Harmony could have actually made his song work for them if they took his entire song, threw it away and started fresh.
Basically, keeping Kid Ink’s verse from “Wit It” is like allowing Bill Cosby and Chris Brown to speak at a women’s convention. It’s. Wrong.
Now let’s look at their video, which is only slightly better.
The song’s music video portrays the girls dressed in business casual attire while dancing in offices as male assistants tend to them.
In an interview with MTV News, Normani Kordei said, “We can also say that the gender roles were kind of swapped within the music video. That’s a point that we really wanted to make sure that stood out.”
The music video creates a scene where women are the ones in control. By setting the music video in an office, it creates a new meaning about empowerment in the workplace, as if to say, “Give me this job or give me this raise because I deserve it.”
But is it that revolutionary? Not really.
This idea of “gender-swapping” is just as “rebellious” as Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik’s Vogue photo shoot. They’re both wearing pantsuits. Although this breaks traditional binaries of gendered clothing, it wasn’t even close to a life-changing moment. Hadid wore pants and a jacket to a Vogue photo shoot. She didn’t break any glass ceilings.
So, while this music video claims to be “revolutionizing” the way women view their own worth in the office, it does the bare minimum.
Authors Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson wrote a research paper titled, “Validating Women’s Experience? Dilemmas in Feminist Research” published on Sage Journals. According to them, “In social science research, feminists have argued that men define reality on their own terms, to legitimate their experiences, their own particular version of events. Women’s experience, not fitting the male model, is trivialized, denied or distorted.”
Because of this, the goal of feminist social science has been to “address women’s lives and experience in their own terms” and to “create theory grounded in the actual experience and language of women.”
Fifth Harmony is taking a powerful stance by addressing an experience women have of unashamedly taking what they want. Unfortunately, allowing Kid Ink to also define their experience with his own goes against everything feminist social science stands for.
Kid Ink isn’t a feminist uplifting these women and supporting them to boost their confidence. Instead, he says they’re “worth it” because they’re worth sleeping with. And according to his song “Wit It,” he’d sleep with them whether they’re able to consent or not.
Beyoncé’s “Flawless” and TLC’s “Unpretty,” on the other hand, are feminist songs because they empower women without the voice or opinion of a man. If anything, Beyoncé adds the voice of renowned novelist and feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to input a literal definition of feminism.
That’s how it’s done.
And before you come at me with “Wow you’re not being very supportive,” I’m not trying to bash a girl group comprised of women of color. As a woman of color, I stand with these talented ladies.
But they deserve more.
