I don't know how it may work with everyone else, but I usually use the term "dude" and "guys" as gender neutral. (Dudette and gals just sounds weird to me and using the term "people" doesn't give my speech the causal note i usually go for.) I suppose context can play a major role in how these terms are interpreted. If possible I'd like to see these terms (and perhaps others) raise above a "masculine" or male association. Heck, I'd like the sharp biarny between men are (supposed to be) "masculine" and women are (supposed to be) "feminine." If we must use term like masculine and feminine to describe behaviors, I'd to see both equally respected regardless of the gender of the person.

As a genderqueer person, I tend to see things from a nonbinary perspective more than others. On the one hand, yes, society is horribly androcentric. On the other, check out the gender diversity in that video! Wow! It's about time genderfucking went mainstream.

At first I was all "Well, that's not right, doing it like a dude implies certain things about sexuality and femininity and it suggests that we're (lesbians) trying to imitate men." But then I actually watched the video and now I'm all "I can do it like a brotha!"

I really love this video. It's a mainstream representation of lesbians, by women for women. They're hot, they're androgynous, they're aggressive. Despite the words that imply trying to emulate men, it seems much more powerful, much more unique.

I like the spiked, vagina-dentata lips

Masculinity is a curse on the planet and should be demonized at every opportunity

I don't see any improvement in extending masculinity=sex+violence into femininity=sex+violence.

It would be interesting to see when and why dude transformed from an incompetent on the frontier to its presence connotation.

The way it strikes me, it seems to be more to the tune (ha) of "these things you say only men can do, women can do to." She can grab her crotch, wear her hat down low, be lewd, fight etc. But she and the other people in this video are still women regardless. I.e. it's a stupid argument in the first place that these are masculine traits because woman can and already do take part in them.

Anyway, that's my analysis. It's a pretty cool video regardless.

I think it's pretty cool. Also kind of weird. Maybe I'm too mmuch of a femme to apreciate it.

I think that's how the singer experiences/expresses her sexuality and identity. I'm not going to tell her it's "wrong"

As a lesbian, I don't "do it like a dude". And that's the point. I tend to get cranky when people ask me or my partner, "Which of you is the man?" Neither, and THAT'S THE POINT. If I wanted a "dude", I'd be with "a dude".

Crotch-grabbing, being lewd, fighting aren't "male" to me -- I've been the ladies' bouncer in a straight C&W bar, and I know all too well that women can and do act worse than the men. These actions are just trashy, low-life behavior.

Was that a lesbian song? I was distracted by how unappealing she was. Stay behind the scenes, please, icky gal. I don't know what was on her lips, but I really hope that doesn't become a trend because that is just nasty.

The video seems to be falling on the finish line, it seems. The extras and dencers are great, but she herself dresses and behaves in a way that caters to conventional beauty in the same way that Lady Gaga does, and while there is some sexual tension between the actors, the actual flash of make-out could have been edited in from any mainstrem titillation scene.

The same goes for the lyrics. For one, why does she have to tell us that she 'can' do these things, rather than that she 'does' these things. And as C.L. said, none if it is for the purpose of being more like men - the really empowring thing would be to own that behaviour and attitues as a true part of a woman's identity. That is, these dancers aren't supposed to play dress up and pretend anything, they are just as mych femninine and female for what they do.

So yeah, I don't think this is about elevating feminity in women. In fact, I think that kind of thinking about women could actually damage the cause of equality, as we need to erase barriers between gender roles. Femininity is great, but some of us need more wriggle room than it offers.

It is worrying to see what can be described as lesbian sexism aimed at strait women - i.e. My B I T C H’s on my d*ck like this. However, is this a new phenomena? This is about taking a position of power, both in a performative sense and a discursive sense. What's evident is that the heterosexual binary of male = dominant/active, female = submissive/passive is soooooo powerful and such as strong cultural narrative that lesbian identity is subsumed inside this discourse and thus Jessie J must engage with it in order to get noticed / recorded etc. Here you can see young women who do not wish to positioned as passive take on a male active performative identity. There is, sadly, an element of gay culture that is very misogynistic. Strait women are positioned as the object of active desire or when they express desire it is usually to get male attention or to show how desirable / hot they are etc. Very very very rarely do you see strait women singing (where they are not positioned as hot themselves) in music clips with near naked young perfect men sticking their arses in the camera etc. It's sad to see women ape the preditory masculine 'score' attitude to sex. But surely this speaks more about the mainstream music industry that pushes more self defined feminine sexuality (gay and strait) out.

This video is amazing in the fact that it is sexist on both extremes. Not only is it saying that men or "dudes" smoke cigars, drink beer rather than fancy drinks, fight, grab their crotch, etc., they are also sexualizing women also, by having the singer wear lacy thigh highs, shaking her tits and crawling around provocatively. There's even a shot of two girls making out, which wasn't particularly masculine, just two girls kissing. SO, yay for complete and utter sexism! Men, you have to smoke cigars, drink beer and fight, and women, you have to be attractive, wear sexy clothing, makeup, and be submissive!

I loved the video and song. It has that "anything you can do...I can do better" attitude. And as a Urban femme lesbian i feel like my "people" are represented well in this mainstream outlet.

Okay, I may just be jumping through hoops trying to turn this in to something that is empowering and doesn't value masculinity over feminity, but I keep getting hung up on the word "can". She doesn't say I want to do it like a dude or everyone has to do it like a dude, she says "I can do it like a brother". To me, this sounds like a direct challenge to the idea that lesbian women can't have "real" sex without penises. I heard "I can do it like a dude" and thought "I can do it like a dude if I want to, but I damn well don't have to because I'm not constrained by your stupid ideas about how I should be doing it." I think the video backs this up too: while the majority of the video features women performing an exaggerated version of masculinity (which serves to shock us out of the idea that women and men are so fundamentally different), but also shows women wearing thigh-highs and the two women kissing had long blonde hair. Now, the idea that women have to look like that and have to be sexy is of course messed up, but if she's trying to point out that women can like those things and also like the 'masculine' things and whatever else they want, then I think that's empowering.

All of this aside, I think there are precious few enough lesbian and gender-variant voices being heard by the mainstream. If this is the story Jessie J wants to tell, then I am glad that she is getting it out there.

She keeps skipping back and forth over the line of exploiting (secifically butch lesbian - and possibly w.o.c) homosexuality (and race) for provocation's sake ala Katy Perry. Is it truly butch? Sort of. But it stops short of showing us any actual indication of packing which would indeed, confirm, that it was truly about such a thing and not just the appropriation of said identities for some kind of hetero-gangsta titilation. Perhaps if the lyrics were "Boi" and not "Boy" I might be convinced otherwise. It consistently feels like she's singing to the straight boys watching and not any real lesbians who may or may not be watching. Well, they probably are watching, considering how smoking hot all the ladies who are not her in the video are.

Also the dancing style is interesting in that it's not a gender-neutral form (ala Janelle Monae or any innocent Hair-Whipping activities) but is more slow-hip-hop in a hypermasculine form combined with the typical bum-dropping and sinuous oily-torso movement's we've come to expect from female artists in most genres being marketed in a sexually objectified fashion. She's like Gaga without the crazy interview question-and-answers, or Shakira without the sappy pop-song romance narratives.

There is also the race issue which needs to be seriously addressed here as well, seeing that the hypermasculine symbols being appropriated are, in mainstream society, mostly implicitly associated with black music cultures and there are way more women of colour as dancers in this vid than I have seen in any female white performer's videos of late. There is a specific kind of (often socially scapegoated) racially codified masculinity being appropriated by a white woman here, since she's not just saying, "Woo, strap-on funtiems!", she's spelling out a certain list of behaviours and displaying them in the video, all of which are associated with black hip-hop/"gangsta" culture, which obviously not all "dudes" - especially not white men - are a part of. I don't think this racial misappropriation is made more right by the fact she may or may not be a lesbian/genderqueer.

So in short, it's catchy and hot, but it's got more problems than she's got spikes on that vagina dentata lip-art there.

My first reaction is to view this as a challenge or an insult to the "dirty sucker" mentioned at the beginning of the song - as well as to the ideals he represents. Said dirty sucker thinks she is below him (I can't tell if the lyrics here are "get hurt like you" or "get her like you"). Jessie J shows in the music video that she can imitate those ideals of masculinity - easily, even. It's a reaction to being sidelined by piggish sexism in a club (see video entitled "Jessie J Mamma Knows Best and Do It Like a Dude - Part 5 of gig," starting at around 4:30).

As a tomboyish straight woman who dresses relatively femininely, I can identify with the desire to counter knee-jerk sexism with knee-jerk sexism. Sure, from the outside, adopting masculine traits in order to make oneself seem "better" is sexist. However, in the situation, giving the offending dirty sucker a lecture on the inequities of the slut/prude catch-22 will accomplish nothing but opening one up to potential violence. No, in order to reach her audience - i.e., someone who has apparently never left his gender-hierarchical world - she has to speak in his terms in order to shake him up. Not to mention that the best way to undermine masculine ideals is to add lipstick.

I'd rather see a discussion of how the racial and "male" clothing styles of the extras they've -chosen- affect the video. Clearly they wanted a "tough" feel to the video... is this why most of the backup dancers and more butch women are POCs? Notice that the ones showing affection in the video are the two blondes.

I feel like this video was supposed to parody masculinity. It reminds me a lot of when my decidedly feminine friends like to pretend to be a male bro of the worst sort and start slouching around parodying one.

Though there's a racial issue to be taken up, I'm amazed by this video, and view as a largely positive thing.
There are no men in the video. The woman-woman kissing is not displayed for male pleasure - and, yes, they are blonde but I suggest that a positive of it is that the 'lipstick' lesbian gains recognition.
I think I'm just glad to see genderfucking, and variety around and within that, in the mainstream. Along with Te Amo by Rihanna. And Lady GaGa's clear gender mockery. Could this be signalling a change?
Optimism, I know.
Also, I know that a lot of this video misses a few tick-boxes for those searching for things like "boi" and the main singer in less conventional clothing, but it is still a pop music video, and is still created purely to sell. Don't forget what's being analysed.

She's got a "My B I T C H’s on my d*ck like this" and we're discussing if this is a positive representation of lesbians? Really?

Why not? You're conflating two separate representations.
No, not because all of those are blonde because it's the stereotype, and in an inaccurate pop-take, that's how they'll be representations.
I don't see how/why your last point negatively represents lesbians.

So... what's positive about this? "Celebrating" violence, aggression and anti-social behavior among women is an example of society moving forward?!

Uggh.

If acting like an asshole and grabbing your crotch is what it means to be a man, then I ought to have my penis revoked.

Oh God. Another Ke$ha.

As in this music is absolutely terrible but I can't get it out of my head. :[

I think a lot of people here think they get to say how all lesbians should behave. You know what, some lesbians do put a sock down their pants and say 'suck my dick' more often than they say hello. That's their thing. Whatever, really. People who like the song and the message will by it. People who don't, won't. It bothers me a lot less than most of what is on MTV.

Pretty sure it's about Penis Envy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_envy

I did not mean that it was a celebration of violence/aggressiveness among women, nor that it was a positive representation of being an asshole.
My point is that there is a video that features exclusively women, and there are women there in their own right. Their behaviour isn't/wasn't part of my concern. Women are doing man things, and judging by your reactions, doing man things extremely well, which is interesting and exciting because it shakes up the binary a bit.

Okay so I don't mean to pick on anybody in particular to make my point, but let's look at this sentence as an example:

We need more women who choose mid-road, genderbending, androgyny and dislike the typical aesthetic expectation of the society.

First of all I agree with the sentiment, but how exactly are the people here defining terms such as "genderbending" and "androgyny"? Because it seems like most people here are defining those terms by external cues such as clothes and not internal character such as assertiveness. Or in addition, that most people here are assuming that X amount of masculine character traits are always paired with X amount of masculine accessories.

It seems like the internalized assumption is that if a woman wants to express a greater amount of masculine character traits (assertiveness, etc) then the assumption is that she needs to wear more masculine clothing and less feminine clothing. But what about a woman who regularly looks like a Barbie Doll and yet is even more assertive and more aggressive then most "adnrogynous" women? Would even WE say that she's not "genderbending" or "androgynous"? Why is an aggressively-behaving women dressed in frills not considered androgynous?

In other words, upon closer examination, it seems most people here are defining "androgyny" more by the clothes someone wears and less by their character. The internalized assumption is that the external clothing must match the internal character otherwise no one else will be able to recognize that she's only being "assertive like an andrognous man" and not "a bitch from hell like a default woman".

it's sad to see that the only synonym for power is still masculinity and i wish they'd have made this song with the same message but a different reference.

this song also reminds me a lot of Ciara's "Like a Boy" which I prefer much more than this video. Unlike Jessie J, Ciara's intention of behaving "like a dude" is to confront her boyfriend with his behaviour and her male dress up/dance performance is simply an art while the women in this video put much effort in sexualizing their performance in a relatively conventional way.
well i guess it's just meant to be entertaining but at times I kinda wish the media would eventually offer me something i can identify a bit with.

Just throwing this out there for discussion- does anyone else notice this video is shot in what appear to be various parts of a church? I found that rather interesting in itself, though it certainly isn't the first thing that jumps out at you. Do you suppose they were going for some sort of effect with that background- perhaps to go along with the theme of rebranding something regarded as traditional and pure (a traditional woman/church) as their own? I might have thought they were going for shock value with that, were it so not very obvious. Or is this, perhaps, over thinking it?

I'm not a lesbian, nor do I understand what it means to be in the LGBT community, but I have a really hard time supporting anyone who promotes violent sexual aggression against anyone, even if the point is to break gender norms. Feminists freak out if men are saying things like Jessie J spouts proudly in this song, but if a girl says it, it's now liberating and empowering?

You know, I really love this blog and have been a loyal reader for years now, but I've never been made so angry by any other post. I couldn't even comment on it when I first read it; I needed to wait a few days to cool off and gather my thoughts.

First off, I think you need to do a lot more reading of queer theory and/or foster close friendships with more real-life queers before you EVER WRITE ABOUT QUEERS AGAIN. (Oops, I guess I'm still mad. Okay, breathing deeply...) Or! You could ask another person who is actually knowledgeable on the queer experience to join your blog specifically to write on queer issues. (Considering your track record with race, I think you should also find a person of color to contribute - perhaps you can look for a queer person of color and solve both problems at once?)

Now, let's talk about this:

"That is, does valorizing masculinity in women liberate women? Or would it be better to try to elevate femininity to match our admiration of masculinity? And is it possible to liberate the word from its patriarchal trappings?"

"Does valorizing masculinity in women liberate women?" Well, some women just happen to be rather masculine or possess various traits that many people interpret as masculine. Certain masculine traits do receive praise in certain situations, but for the most part, woman are criticized for having these traits. I have personal experience with this, as do many women that I know, hence my very emotional response to this post. So, my response to your question is that ANY pop-culture affirmation of masculinity in women as a positive trait is actually kind of nice for a change.

"Would it be better to try to elevate femininity to match our admiration of masculinity?" Well, femininity gets a bad rap, too, I agree. I read feminist theory, I get it. Women are in a double bind, we are criticized if we are masculine, but then we are mocked for being feminine. Men who are feminine are oppressed as well, obviously. So, sure, let's elevate femininity! But valorizing masculine women doesn't need to be seen as criticizing femininity, as you seem to be implying.

"And is it possible to liberate the word from its patriarchal trappings?" Which word? 'Masculinity' or 'dude'? Can any word ever be liberated from its patriarchal trappings when we still live in a patriarchal society?

As a male-bodied, genderqueer person, I actually find this song/video to be quite empowering.

The operative word here is "can" -- this woman *can* do anything. She can be as masculine, feminine, butch, femme, et cetera -- in both behavior and appearance -- as she wants to be. And that's completely awesome and I love it.

P.S. Although a bunch of the race stuff is messed up, as many commenters have pointed out.

Okay, I don't know about the song as I'm not a fan of modern hip-hop like pop music. Really, I'd rather listen to 2pac, Wutang clan, Cypress hill than this kind of shitty music. (sorry, but it really is for me)

What I don't like about her is that she's ripping off Nina Hagen's image and nobody knows - because, I guess, Nina Hagen didn't really make herself as famous as Jessie J. If you looked at Nina's stuff what she's been doing(still!) for over 20 years, you'd find it VERY similar. Even facial expressions are totally rip-off. She's NOT unique.

And yet, she's saying "I've worked it hard all by myself" "I didn't even think of X-factor" all the time. Seriously, do you really want to compare yersel to those petty children who are ruled by the wanker Simon.? That's really sad. If you're so self-confident and full of self-esteem, you won't even care about them. Borrowing others' bad reputations to lift your own is just pathetic in my opinion.

i dont think its about just lesbians cause u have ag's and tombois and dykes that are bi and very few who are straight and just like to dress that way. so lets make this the biggest fad so guys who find tombois and ag's and dyke style can have there fill too so straight woman and bi dress like this

For the record she says "You think I can't get hood like you?"...which just adds more layers to the whole race thing, eh?

Ok so First off way too many of you that have commented below are digging so deeply into the meaning of this video you just sound more obnoxious, annoying and ignorant then you do smart.Jessie J is all about empowering music and lifting the spirit of her fans, not being some asinine racist or sexist. She never says that every guy is lewd and has those traits just that some guys do and that it's generally more known as a man's behavior than a women's. And why everyone has to be pigheaded, rude and demeaning when they have no clue what something means because there judgement is so clouded by there obsession to be "right" or accepted. I think that if you don't like her video or what YOU think is it's meaning then for one stop watching it. And two how about actually knowing what you are talking about. And from how most of you spoke I can tell that you are older, some of you even with children and all I can say is that you are teaching your children that judging people you don't know is OK and that mistreating people based on their views is acceptable.. Is it any wonder why people think everyone has there heads stuck up their ass?  And just as an after thought on the comments and subject as a whole. For all of you that think this is racist because shes white maybe you should look in the mirror, take a nice looooooooooong look and understand you sound 10x more racist then she does.

No, she's not at all famous, and her grating attitude summarizes feminism, name it's belief in hating men while simultaneously emulating them.

I def think this is directed to some men, with horrible behaviours, like grab the crotch, and stuff like that; hence she says "I can do it like a dude"...also the rest of the lyrics, "my BITCH on my dick like this", "you think I can't get hurt like you, MF"....