Ah, that time little miss pop princess Christina Aguilera shed her sweet image and flipped the bird to every vanilla expectation people had of her. Directed by David LaChapelle — a guy who knows a thing or two about making the provocative look like art — Dirrty didn’t just push boundaries at the time, it obliterated them with a wrecking ball.
Dirrty is all hips and lips and a devil-may-care attitude that says, “I’m not here to play nice anymore.” It’s not just about sex appeal — though there’s plenty of that dripping from every frame — it’s about Aguilera reclaiming her narrative. From bubblegum to bombshell in one fell swoop, an audacious, ballsy flipping-of-the-script.
Dirrty was a big “fuck you” to anyone who thought they had Christina Aguilera pegged. (Not that I wouldn’t love to peg her.) It’s about liberation; shedding the skin of expectation and embracing the primal urges we all try to bury beneath layers of polite society.
In Dirrty, Aguilera isn’t just singing; she’s preaching a gospel of hedonism and self-expression and unapologetic living. It isn’t just a music video. It’s a manifesto — a declaration that says, “I’m here, take me as I am, or get the hell out of my way.”
—VA
I don’t want the people at church to know I do this. Please don’t use my real name or photo.
