If you tuned out of the tediously self-congratulatory radio-invader ceremonies before the end of the American Music Awards on Sunday, you undoubtedly missed a 45 year old former pop superstar and one of the main dudes from the White Girls movie getting their asses out and performing “Booty” to close the show. Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea‘s AMAs performance of the track, popular specifically for the rear ends contained in the accompanying video, was… uhh… well, it’s hard to say just what it was in today’s cultural climate of hysteria and hyperbole surrounding every social topic. Was the performance empowering? Was it fierce? Edgy?
Full List of 2014 American Music Awards Winners
No. Shit was boring and weird, pivoting on chaos and the very same hypersexual fog of double-talking empowermentsploitation that has the entire nation debating the rapiness of a woman getting compliments on the street for ten hours. We’ve gone from the herpetic taboo of bisexual cross-generational fantasy with Britney and Madonna’s 2003 tongue-fest makeout session, to the supposedly empowering butt parade of 2014 featuring Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea writhing and jiggling their main selling points for four and a half minutes.
JLo’s still holding it together, but damned if she didn’t look breathless and all over the place. And danger? Oh you want danger?! We’ll assume you mean more danger than a mother of two, pushing 50, grabbing her ankles like vice grips (seriously, look at that lock she has above) and wiggling her ass to reignite her (very) faded limelight. Get ready for the song’s biggest throwdown moment, brought to you by the Latin Liza Minelli:
“You want me to throw my hair back?! Alright!”
This, of course, was before the “booty call” cellphone moment that a frantic JLo isn’t trying to take.
Azalea was the night’s most-nominated artist with six nominations, winning for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist. “Booty” appears on Lopez’s album A.K.A. and features Pitbull, with a video directed by Hype Williams depicting Lopez and Azalea rubbing their greased up asses against each other.
It’s not exploitative and art-degrading objectification if you do it to yourself, right girls?
…right?
What about this is empowering to women? Extreme self-objectification in a climate of hypervigilant efforts to establish equality and respect is the very definition of cognitive dissonance.
Photos: Getty
