I remember the whispers and long stares she received like a scorching hot tea she never asked for. It was 7th grade, and the school had just found out Sophie had sex. I also remember the pats on the back and the high fives he received, the boy who had sex with Sophie. Sophie was slut-shamed and called a whore to her face, while he was praised and called a “legend.” Watching this stung, but it was a pain that girls like myself would learn to get used to as this double standard was absolutely the norm. 

This trope of shame for women was applied to the way women dress, how many people you kiss and the way you carry yourself. It was not until I heard WAP that I realized that women can be empowered by sex too. 

In August 2020, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion released the song, “WAP” — wet-ass pussy. It might take a few listens to understand that the song is about more than just sex. Cardi B writes, “I don’t cook, I don’t clean,” which acknowledges women’s traditional control being limited to household chores. Instead, Cardi B says she finds her control from sex. We see this control in the line “I tell him where to put it” and “Gobble me, swallow me, drip down the side of me” where Cardi demands, (without the objectification of her partner), oral sex. WAP is not simply a raunchy song about sex — it is indeed a feminist anthem that preaches female sexual empowerment.

Unfortunately, many have criticized the song’s “blatant” expression of sexuality and framed their criticism as a “noble” way to help women see their value beyond sex. Snoop Dogg, whose debut album was called “Doggy Style,” has taken particular issue with Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B’s song. In an interview on talk show Central Ave, Snoop said in response to WAP, “Lets have some privacy, some intimacy…where [a man] wants to find out as opposed to you telling him…that should be a woman’s pride and possession, your jewel of the Nile…a possession that no one gets to know about.” 

Yet Snoop Dogg aggressively dehumanized women in his 1993 song “Ain’t no Fun,” with the lyrics: “I had respect for ya lady / but now I take it all back / cause you gave me all your pussy” and “And then I’m through with it, there’s nothing else to do with it / Pass it to the homie, now you hit it / Cause she ain’t nuthin but a b*tch to me.” 

Many men shared (and continue to share) Snoop Dogg’s discomfort with WAP, revealing a patriarchal anxiety triggered by women embodying their sexual power. We are so used to sexuality being centered on the male gaze and women being passive participants to empower men that when WAP turned the tables and said that women can be empowered by sex too, our society did not know how to handle it. 

In the New York Times article “On ‘I Hate Suzie,’ Sexual Freedom is a Fantasy,” author Maya Philips discusses how “female sexuality and desire are always subject to the intrusion of social norms and expectations.” Philips explores sexual freedom as portrayed in TV shows, but her argument can also be applied to WAP. The backlash WAP has received reveals what Philips calls “the symbiotic relationship between female desire and societally sanctioned shame” and shows “how sex and sexuality are forever tied to female identity and self-image.” Women are supposed to accept the simultaneous objectification of female desire at the hands of men while pretending it doesn’t exist. WAP fights against this sexist double standard and redefines female sexuality as empowerment instead of shame. 

This might be a shocker, but WAP was not made for men. It’s not for the boys in 7th grade who shamed Sophie while simultaneously wanting to have sex with her, it’s not for the men who tell women to guard their sexuality but then profit off of the exploitation of the female body, and it’s most definitely not for Snoop Dogg. It’s for the celebration of women and the power they hold, should they choose to embrace their sexual desires. WAP breaks down an archaic social construct that tells women their sexuality belongs to men. And to girls like Sophie, who were stripped of their sexual power, WAP is here to help you reclaim it.