Sexy Song of the Week: I’m a Slave 4 U

Posted by on September 4, 2008 
Filed Under Sexy Song of the Week

britney Before the babies, the baldness, and the breakdown, no one can deny Britney Spears was the Princess of Pop. If there was any modicum of girlhood innocence in her early hits, all the, uh-hm, gloves came off with her 2001 Britney album. The frustrated pop star was publicly and professionally articulating that she had matured into a self-assured woman. The first single off the album was the dance track “I’m a slave for you.”

Spears opens the song with “I need to do what I feel like doing, so let me go.” She croons about being unable to control herself around her paramour and expressing her sexuality through dancing. The chorus extols: “I’m a slave for you. I cannot hold it; I cannot control it. I’m a slave for you. I won’t deny it; I’m not trying to hide it.”

The original video is set ambiguously at sunset or possibly at dawn in a very steamy, urban high rise building. Britney, glistening with sweat and wearing a pink thong on the outside of her leather pants, dances suggestively with a scantily clad, equally sweaty troupe. However, it was Britney’s unforgettable 2002 VMA performance that took the primal theme of “I’m a slave” to the next level. Repositioning the setting from the urban jungle to the tropical jungle, the stage production features a lion, dancers in tribal costumes with body paint, and, at one point, Britney gyrating with a giant, yellow anaconda.

Aside from being visually and audibly sexy and sensual, this song can be linked to the themes in this week’s readings. In your textbook Carroll describes a number of theoretical approaches to understanding human sexuality, from social learning to psychological to biological. (You can refer to the chart on pg 38). And de Waal and Diamond interestingly compare the sexual habits of non-human primates.

Discussion: Use this blog post to comment on the content of the song and videos, but also ponder themes in the reading. Why is the nature-based, primal analogy Britney presents so convincing and pervasive? (Think Duran Duran’s “Hungry like the wolf?”) Are we a slave to our biology? To our needs for reproduction and resources? Why are we attracted to certain types of partners? Or are we a slave to something else that is culturally learned or cognitive? Which of the theories examined do you find most interesting or convincing and why? (Also, aren’t you just pulling for Britney to finally make a great comeback?)

Comments

6 Responses to “Sexy Song of the Week: I’m a Slave 4 U”

  1. Kevin Sargent on September 4th, 2008 8:42 pm

    very sexy haha. did anyone else see the guy licking her face in the music video? a little weird but the video was definitely sexy none the less lol

  2. Candace Kuphal on September 4th, 2008 8:55 pm

    I didn’t find the music video to be all that sexy…The content of the song came off as though she’s just talking about dancing. Any night club in Gainesville is like that. How teenagers dance in clubs today makes this music video seem a bit weak. On the other hand, I found the VMA performance to be a little more sexual…I think humans do connect to their biological instincts, where the sexual drive comes from…but today we can just make it more interesting…

  3. Emily on September 4th, 2008 9:54 pm

    I’m totally with you on the Britney comeback. She used to be so hot. I miss her..

    And in response to Candance, it’s pretty freaking sexy. What do you want from her? Porn? Yeah it is the amount you would see at any old club…but club dancing is still realllly sexual. It’s basically sex with clothes on. Very. Little. Clothes. On.

    I do think biologically we have those urges that is just healthy to act upon. People were having sex before media and they will for many years to come.

    Oh, man. I forgot how hot Britney used to be. And Christina Aguilera, too.

  4. Kawani Hill on September 4th, 2008 11:26 pm

    If you want to look at this whole primitive 2002 VMA performance from a Freudian perspective (also mentioned in this week’s assigned reading), the snake can be seen as a phallic symbol. The term “trouser snake” comes to life in this performance. The fact that Brittney is wearing it, in a sense, could serve to justify penis envy… if you believe in that.

    Going a step further into religion, we encounter biblical allusion by the idea of original sin, taken place in the Garden of Eden (jungle setting), with Brittney as an Eve figure and the snake tempting her to give into desire, i.e. becoming a slave to desire.

    If you take a look into the words of the song and the composition you find everything is spoken in a manner that gives off a tantalizing effect. Breathing, moaning, and groaning are all used to compose the vocals. Brittney states “I can’t control it”; “I just can’t help myself”; and “It just feels right/It just feels good”. All of these statements constitute the theme of the song which is her becoming the “slave”. Slave, here, is an addiction to “dancing”, which is the claim that the song makes that she is a slave to. Again, using another literary device, dancing can be seen as a double entandra for not only the literal meaning, but also seen in more sexual way referring to ‘the art’, per se, of having sex. The latter is what the song seems to imply the most.

    Incorporating the media into this and its effect on sexuality, we can see exactly who Brittney’s target audience is by her frequent reference to herself as a “little girl”. In fact this can revisit the argument of the media’s morals’ and ethics’ impact on a younger population of listeners and viewers. What kind of affect is this imposing on younger generations concerning both behavior and self image?

    It is amazing how many times sex is paralleled to primal urges and instincts. I believe this is because engaging in intercourse puts an individual in their most vulnerable state. By this I do not just mean nudity, but also in an emotional sense. But going along this thought line; nudity can be seen as primal because modern civilizations do not usually condone public nudity. It is a more private, personal, and “behind closed doors” notion. It is almost animalistic in a sense to be nude, because ‘civil human protocol’ calls for wearing clothing.

    Ok… I think that’s all I wanted to say… I hope I made sense =-].

  5. stephanie on September 5th, 2008 10:06 pm

    i agree with candance the video is not sexy at all, there are dances that can be seen in gainesville that is a lot more sex provoking than what britney is doing. i do think however the video is more sexy than the vma preformance the sweat, licking, people piled on top of each other..seems to be a lot more sexual than the jungle scene.

    and she may have very little clothes on but have you seen what kids are wearing these days it covers half their butts, and chest and leaves very little to the imagination.

  6. James on September 16th, 2008 1:38 am

    my vote for sexy song of the week for next week is bad touch by the bloodhound gang