Britney Spears’ “3” Endorses “Post-Feminist” Ideas of ‘Liberated’ Women and "Raunch Culture"

        Presently, Americans are bombarded by popular images and messages that condone and propagate "raunch culture” more than ever before. In Feminism and Pop Culture, Andi Zeisler discusses feminist scholar Ariel Levy’s definition of “raunch culture”; Zeisler describes, “what [Levy] called ‘raunch culture’—strip aerobics classes, T-shirts printed with the words PORN STAR, [and] Girls Gone Wild…[have] been adopted by women themselves. But rather than leading to real freedom, women’s adoption of ‘raunch culture’ simply duplicated patterns of disdain for and objectification of women” (138). Within the last two decades, American society has embraced a new 'modern' view of the "independent woman” which reinforces “raunch culture’s” influence on society. What was once seen as "loose" or "risqué" feminine behavior less than a century ago has been embraced by American popular culture. Societal reinforcement of “raunch culture” affects all women, but more specifically younger generations that will shape future conceptions of sexuality and femininity (until society no longer recognizes gender difference) for generations to come.
         Reigning queen of pop Britney Spears' latest release, "3," exemplifies this mass projection of "raunch culture" in that it promotes sexual promiscuity, or exploration, but neglects to promote true sexual ‘liberation’ of women. Along the lines of “post-feminist” thought, if women are already ‘liberated’ and equal to men in the eyes of American society, they should have an equal right to experiment sexually. One could deduce that the “male gaze” wants to control how women choose to experiment. “3” illustrates how this “post-feminist” ideology that supports “raunch culture” has been adopted by the forces behind the “male gaze” to introduce this ‘new’ female sexual identity that encourages sexual promiscuity yet lacks intimacy and any emphasis on personal pleasure. Embracing the mentality behind “raunch culture,” “3” endorses the idea that increasing levels of female promiscuity are equivalent to feelings of self-liberation.
        In order to understand how “3” reinforces American societal endorsement of “raunch culture,” one must look at the visual and underlying messages or signs at work in the music video. In the opening lines of the song, Britney coos: "Merrier the more, triple fun that way, twister on the floor, what do you say?" Here, Britney equates threesomes to an actual family game and wants to project the idea that motivations behind such sexual acts are completely innocent. In the chorus Britney proclaims: “Livin’ in sin is the new thing.” Hardly. Threesomes have always been depicted as the mainstream ultimate male fantasy; this is nothing new. Britney and the “male gaze” want to make her hyper-sexualized behavior and image a common trend among her female audience. When the song reaches its climax, Britney sings: “What we do is innocent, just for fun and nothing meant, if you don’t like the company, let’s just do it you and me...or three, or four…on the floor.” Presumably under the direction of the “male gaze,” Britney is emulating a persona that she is sex-crazed or insatiable; one sex partner is not enough. “Peter, Paul, and Mary” is a somewhat surprising repeating line in the chorus of the song considering that it implies the intimate pairing of two men and one woman. This comes as a surprise because most mainstream references of threesomes involve the pairing of two women and one man. While this sexual grouping plays into the heterosexual "male gaze," there is no visual example of the socially 'normalized' two women for one man gender pairing in the video.
         Let us now focus on the interplay between scenes involving Britney with men and others involving Britney with women. Genders remain segregated throughout the entire music video with Britney being the exception; Britney bounces back and forth from surrounding herself with only men to only women. The first scene that does not strictly focus on Britney involves female dancers. Britney stands in the center surrounded by two women on each side; excluding Britney, all four women have their backs to the camera, are protruding their butts in the air behind them, and have their hands linked around a stripper-like pole above them. These women hold a submissive stance that is reminiscent of something one might see in an S&M flick. If we took this visual message to the extreme, it implies that all women who enjoy sex or sexual experimentation are sex workers or enjoy acting like sex workers. Britney is dressed in a white leotard while the women surrounding her are wearing contrasting black leotards and sunglasses. Britney is the center of attention, the women surrounding her are there to be seen, to be sexy, and to reinforce Britney’s playful bisexual image; this is the “male gaze” in play. The minds behind the “male gaze” portray heterosexual women having sex with each other as non-threatening or ‘unreal’ sex. There is no emotional connection between the women if it is all for harmless fun, thus this ‘unreal’ sex poses no threat to monogamous normative heterosexual relationships. Scenes switch and Britney is in a dark room illuminated by a spotlight and surrounded by a group of men, but they are all in the shadows. The shadows leave everything to the imagination whereas Britney’s scenes with women clearly project conceptions of female sexuality that include compulsory bisexual tendencies. In her scenes with men, Britney’s attire is black and more revealing than her white leotard. The contrast between black and white can be interpreted as a visual demarcation of behavioral extremes where white designates purity and innocence, and black signifies defiance and sin.
        Is Britney's acceptance of the male gaze supposed to teach women in her target audience to desire each other? If so, the message that this video projects is one that women should simply stop seeking their own pleasure and accept male fantasy as their own. This introduces an underlying element of societal expectation of compulsory bisexuality in women; this is likely a result of popular culture’s support for “raunch culture.” Society expects heterosexual women to pretend to enjoy porn or “naughty” things that their male partners associate with intimacy, yet ultimately it is only about his pleasure. There is a particular screen shot where two men fondle Britney and look up to her for approval. If Britney’s appearance in all black suggests defiance and sin, she would be defying cultural norms by participating in a male homosexual act with these two men. Interestingly enough, while bisexual behavior is an expectation of heterosexual women, the same expectations do not fall upon heterosexual men. The participation of heterosexual men in any homosexual act is still considered taboo by American mainstream society. Why? Because forces behind the “male gaze” and mainstream media production do not want men to have to encounter this same cultural pressure of compulsory bisexuality that they impose on women. This is clearly a double standard.
      “Raunch culture” was introduced into popular culture through male perversions (the “male gaze”), and the predominately male controlled media. “Raunch culture” was not introduced through subcultures of those that live ‘alternative’ sexual lifestyles and pursue this kind of sexual activity for their own pleasure. For “3,” Britney worked with producer Max Martin, who was responsible for Katy Perry’s rendition of “I Kissed a Girl.” With the production of “3,” Max Martin is a male avidly reinforcing male fantasy through songs that equate heterosexual female bisexuality to non-detrimental fun and games.
      While some might interpret the visual messages and subtexts of this music video to be sexually liberating, it is anything but. Britney is not owning her sexuality or describing what she finds pleasurable. If society had really undergone a “post-feminist” transition in terms of gender equality, Britney would have focused on these attributes of participation in group sex. Unfortunately, Britney’s “post-feminist” portrayal of sexual ‘liberation’ does nothing to create positive ideas of equality and societal openness concerning female sexuality. Britney’s lyrics merely advocate threesomes or group sex for the sake of it; she is only advocating these sexual acts because it is risqué, and it is what the directing “male gaze” expects of her.

Link to Britney's "3" video: (here)