WAP reinforces patriarchal ideals

The argument

The video offers up titillation that seems to play to the male gaze

Context

Several of the lyrics refer to aggressive acts ("I wanna gag, I wanna choke" and "I'm lookin' for a beatin'" – arguably, that last lyric does continue into the line "In the food chain, I'm the one that eat ya" but in isolation it suggests violence) that encourage the subjugation of women and that can happen non-consensually IRL

Premises

Counter-arguments

The opposing feminist reading replies that sexual explicitness by women can be a reclamation of agency rather than a submission to the male gaze. What matters is whose desire is centred: 'WAP' foregrounds female pleasure on the artists' own terms, written and performed by the women themselves, which is not the same as content produced to titillate men. Judging women's frank sexual expression as inherently anti-feminist reproduces the respectability politics feminism has long criticised — policing how women may present their own bodies and desires.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Feminist art need not avoid all sexual imagery; reclaiming and controlling one's own sexual expression can itself resist patriarchal norms. [Rejecting P2] The video centres female desire and pleasure on the artists' own terms, so reading it as simply 'for the male gaze' ignores its authorship and content. [Rejecting C] Women expressing sexuality is not automatically a capitulation to patriarchy, so WAP does not clearly reinforce patriarchal ideals or constitute a crisis in feminism.