Actress/singer Jennifer Lopez pledged her solidarity with the current wave of women empowerment in pop music, Friday (May 6), with the release of her new single "Ain't Your Mama". The feminist themed video transitions through different eras of domestic and professional life from the perspective of an American woman, invoking historic soundbites from Hillary Clinton and Gloria Steinem along the way. "I ain't gonna be cooking all day, I ain't your mama/ I ain't gonna do your laundry, I ain't your mama/ when you gonna get your act together? I ain't your mama," she sings on the hook.
The video begins with J. Lo making a PSA in which she voices how bad things have gotten with women being taken for granted, ignored, overlooked and under-appreciated. "We have a big, big problem, ladies," she concludes before the music kicks in. From that point, in which she is in character as a newscaster, she depicts a housewife in the early 20th century, then a factory worker in the 50's, a secretary in the 60's then an office worker in the 80's. In each case she and her dancers seem by their presence, to step forward to reject that they are second class citizens.
The song, which debuted on American Idol last month, brings a message that is resonating in the landscape of material Beyonce and Rihanna have been putting out, but it did not come to pass without it's controversy. TIME magazine recently broke a story revealing that an earlier version of the record had been co-produced by Dr. Luke, the man accused by True Colors singer Kesha of being verbally, emotionally, physically and sexually abusive towards her. The news provoked a backlash over the record, which songwriter Meghan Trainor protected J. Lo from, defending that the Shades of Blue star didn't know about the song's early production. "she had no idea — she thought I did it alone by myself at my house, which a lot of people think because I do do that. I sent it to her and said, 'Do you like the song?' and she said, 'I love the song," Trainor said.
Source: youtube.com
