Salt N Pepa were the only band to have Girl Power.

I was listening to 'Very Necessary' the other day, and I realised that if I were to have a daughter I would insist that she listen to Salt N Pepa instead of her mother, or friends or anyone. Unless her mother or friends were the former members of Salt N Pepa that is.

I believe the term is 'lipstick feminists' that is usually the divider in all arguments as to Girl Power. I think for me, I happen to know that maybe 3% of a mans power is derived from his allure to the opposite or same sex, the rest is based on his ability to build up or destroy other men and women with either his mind or physique. Of all the interactions anyone can have with anyone, relatively few in most cases will be of a sexual nature, and particularly if you were to take a look at the worlds most powerful people.

That said, adopting a healthy attitude to sex is no mean feet. For example, whilst I don't believe that exhibitionism, cock teasing, open leg policies are necessarily a great pathway to a better life, I have to say that concepts such as 'sex out fo wedlock' being bad, or 'no sex on the first date' are just complete fucking bullshit.

When a girl puts to me the question 'if you had sex with me on the first date, what would you have thought of me?' my answer remains: 'I probably wouldn't have thought about it at all.' Which would belie probably the fact that generally I don't even go out with a girl unless I'm pretty much already in love with them, but certainly I wouldn't think anything in the lines of 'gee this girl is loose, does she give up the skins this easy for any fucking dick that comes swinging along?' or whatever it is they fear.

So, yes, it's hard, I can see myself writing another 4000 word discourse on what I think a healthy attitude to sex is, but I don't have to, because listening to Salt N Pepa, I was thinking 'these women approach sex like a man does'. And it's hard to articulate.

I guess first up, they have a strong sense of identity, that is, they are not defined by their sex appeal, watch them in shoop to get what I mean:



Or in the clip for 'push it'

I don't get the 'look at me, don't you want to have sex with me' vibe from them so much as a 'I am going to fuck you' vibe.

How to articulate it, I can see Salt or Pepa walking down a line of male groupies pointing and saying 'yes, yes, no, no, yes, no, hell no!' where watching Spice Girls or Destiny's Child I see them saying something like 'all these men want to have sex with me? Really!'

I don't know how any of them are, but that's how they sell it. So much so, when 'Wadda man' first got airplay in Australia it had one of the most profound effects on me ever.

Lyrically they are second to nothing 'get up on this'? What do you think that means? What do you think the 'it' is in 'Push it'?

Furthermore, in very necessary there is a song for almost all romantic/relationship/teen sex dilemma's you could find yourself in. There's 'None of your business' for dealing with the fucking bitch skank gossip queens and todays pathetic 'cyber bullies' wtf? I would love my daughter to turn around to Haley and say 'you shouldn't even get into who I'm giving skins to' I bet that would shut that bitch the fuck up. Or even 'opinions are like arseholes everybody's got one'.

Sure I might read the occassional 'does not play well with others' remark. But I want my daughter to know relationships are a two way street, if you aren't getting satisfaction out of it, get out. You don't exist to please a man. You don't trade shit for sex, you take sex.

Then there's 'Somma time man' for when you've got yourself a cheater. 'Step' for when you dump said cheater. 'Sexy Noises' 'Groove Me' 'Let's talk About Sex' 'Lets talk about Aids' and 'Push It' for getting hers, and of course 'Whatta Man' for when you have a keeper on your hands.

And they do it all with asserted self confidence. Salt N Pepa aren't Amazons or any other condescending misguided notion of the empowered woman. They are just empowered women. They approached Hip-hop as if they didn't even comprehend that they should be different because they were women. Yet even though they approach it 'like a man' it's inherently feminine.

I mean sure you can listen to them, but do you hear them?



I think this is all girls should be taught in highschool sex ed. Fuck Cleo, Vogue all that shit.

Salt N Pepa are salute worthy, I'd line up backstage.