Sex & Stats’ 2014 Year in Review

Beyonce's 'Flawless' performance at the 2014 MTV Video Music Award

Beyoncé’s ‘Flawless’ performance at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards

We’re almost done with 2014, so let’s take a look back at some important movements in the world of sexuality.

Trans Issues:

After a long time, the trans community has come into the spotlight.

It started back in early March, when Jared Leto took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing trans woman Rayon in “Dallas Buyers Club.” This was the first time an actor won an Oscar for a trans role, and the second time an actor playing a trans character had been nominated for an Academy Award. (The first time was when Felicity Huffman played a trans woman in 2005’s “Transamerica,” and garnered a Best Actress nomination.) The film also sparked a dialogue about cisgendered actors playing trans roles.

The community has been making strides on a local level as well. This fall, a Texas high school elected its first trans homecoming king.

 

Anal Play:

“We’ve been experimenting with the butt,” a good friend of mine said recently. Though she was referring to what she and her partner were getting up to, this statement also applies to our culture’s newfound fascination with anal play.

Ever since a stripper alleged that Drake enjoyed having his salad tossed, it seems like anal play and rappers  are having a major intersectionality moment. Nicki Minaj has proven this most frequently with her singles “Anaconda” and “Only,” positing herself in the power position of receiving, and greatly enjoying, having her asshole eaten out.

Anal sex also appeared on our broadcast TV screens in mainstream American homes this fall. The “How To Get Away With Murder” pilot and an episode of “The Mindy Project” both featured the formerly taboo act (the former more explicitly than the latter). Bonus points for both featuring interracial couples as well.

 

Feminism:

This is technically a holdover from 2013, but feminism continued to stake its claim in culture this year.

“Harry Potter” actress Emma Watson gave an inspiring speech to the United Nations launching the HeForShe campaign, mobilizing men to do their part for feminism. Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld ended his spring 2015 runway show with models holding up signs painted with feminist slogans. Singer John Legend declared that society would be better if all men were be feminists.

Of course, Beyoncé also had a hand in this. (No surprise there, as her 2013 self-titled album sampled Chiamanda Ngozi Adichie’s now-famous TED talk on feminism.) She started it off strong in January authoring an essay on workplace inequality for “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back From the Brink.”

But that was small compared to what was to come: During the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé performed “***Flawless” in front of a giant lit marquee, branding herself as a FEMINIST. IN ALL CAPS. It certainly raised consciousness for many people, because Google searches for “feminist” and “beyonce feminist” majorly spiked that week.

 

2014 has been very eventful, and let’s hope society keeps making sex-positive strides forward in 2015. See you next year!

Rap Singles’ Analingus References: By The Numbers

Nicki Minaj 'Anaconda' Still (YouTube)

Nicki Minaj ‘Anaconda’ Still (YouTube)

Analingus seems to all over right now, and has lodged itself into our continuing conversation on “acceptable” sexual mores. It seemingly all started earlier this year when a stripper alleged that she tossed Drake’s salad, and then we were off to the races on the topic. (Drake has neither confirmed nor publicly denied these allegations.)

Since we’re talking about it, I wanted to see if popular music reflected the trend. I looked at certain rap artists’ lyrics to see if analingus infiltrated any rap singles released this year, looking for such tell-tale phrases as “anal,” “booty,” “salad tossing,” etc.

Drake:

Drake released two singles this year, “Worst Behavior” (from 2013’s “Nothing Was The Same”) and “0 to 100/The Catch Up” (from next year’s “Views From The 6”).

Neither song directly references analingus.

 

Lil’ Wayne: 

Lil’ Wayne dropped five singles this year: “Rich As Fuck,” “Krazy,” “Gotti,” “Start A Fire,” “Believe Me” and “Grindin’.” (Drake features on the last two songs). All singles were off “Tha Carter V.”

None of the songs reference eating booty.

 

Wiz Khalifa:

Aside from his contributions to the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and WWE 2K15 soundtracks (we’re not counting gun-for-hire works), Khalifa released six singles from “Blacc Hollywood:” “We Dem Boyz,” “KK,” “You and Your Friends,” “Stayin Out All Night,” “Promises” and “So High.”

In “We Dem Boyz,” Khalifa doesn’t mention his booty-eating preferences, but seemingly calls out Nicki Minaj on hers: “Do it just like Nicki gon’ and bend it over.”

Overall, Khalifa’s much more interested in smoking weed that eating out anyone’s ass.

 

Trey Songz:

Songz also released six singles this year: “NaNa,” “Smart Phones,” “Foreign,” “Change Your Mind,” “What’s Best For You,” and “Touchin’, Lovin'” (featuring Nicki Minaj).

In “Foreign,” Songz throws in a few references to a woman’s ass (that it’s large and she’s tweaking), but he stops short of implying analingus.

Though Minaj guests on “Touchin’, Lovin'” and raps abut her sexual prowess, she only talks about her penetrative sexual prowess and doesn’t mention giving or receiving analingus.

 

Nicki Minaj:

It’s been a banner year for Nicki Minaj, and her ass. The rapper has brought her signature aggressive, take-no-prisoners style into the analingus arena, and we’re all eating it up (ha). We’ve heard about her booty getting love in two separate singles this year.

In “Anaconda,” from “this dude named Michael:” “he toss my salad like his name Romaine”

In “Only,” subverting the traditional passive female tone and telling us what she’d have Drake and Lil Wayne do: “menage with ’em and let ’em eat my ass like a cupcake.”

 

I find it very interesting that a woman is the only one opening putting it out there that she enjoys analingus.  Since women have traditionally and culturally been seen as docile and passive sexual beings (when they’re even afforded that agency), I love that Nicki Minaj is subverting the expectation and going on the offensive and owning it.

Though analingus awareness is growing, it isn’t yet resonating within rap lyrics, with the exception of Minaj. That might change as the act goes more mainstream.