Humps Intervention

Everyone's all a-titter over Alanis Morissette's cover of the Black Eyed Peas song "My Humps," and her accompanying video, posted on YouTube.

Most seem to believe that this is all-in-good-fun parody.

By contrast, I find it to be Alanis's most committed and genuinely moving performance in years. Whether intentional or not, Alanis has created a brilliant and complex commentary on objectification, femininity and popular music.

The key the performance's brilliances lies in two factors: her plaintive, earnest reading of the song, and the disconnect between that reading and the stereotypical, sexed-up "pimps and hoes" imagery of the video. That disconnect creates a critical space in which the viewer becomes aware of their own position. We hear the lyrics more clearly than we have previously. Alanis implores us to look at her body and consider what we'd do with it, and for the first time, we take the question seriously. We become aware of our own desires and assumptions. What are we going to do with all that ass? What claim do we have to Alanis's body as possessors of the gaze? What power imbalances do or do not exist within that relationship?

Alanis brings two pathologized feminine popular music archetypes -- the weak, emotive singer-songwriter and the hypersexualized pop diva -- into conversation with one another, calling our attention to the ways in which women's bodies and experiences are frequently flattened into one dimension.