Along with several thousand of my peers, I recently had the honour seeing Salt'n'Pepper perform live at Good Vibes. And I realised, as I rocked it in my Hanson t-shirt, bumbag and tastefully accessorised Crocs, that 15 years after loving these tracks - I am finally living them.
As my friends and I rapped out the words to 'Shoop' I was struck by the following thought - could the lyrics I so faithfully sang aloud when I was 11 have somehow buried themselves in my psyche only to be revisited as old friends, and a core part of my identity at 27?
As a semi-regular reader of this blog, I think that after you watch the following, your answer will be yes.
That, is so my theme tune. Although for the purposes of generational adaptation I would like to change the line "I like you in your big jeans, you give me nice dreams, you make me wanna scream ooo oooo oooooo!" to "I like you in your tight jeans, you give me nice dreams, you make me wanna scream ooo oooo oooooo!" - it is more reflective of my tastes.
I am glad, however that my early exposure to this brand of sexually explicit hip-hop-pop has not lead me to wearing such short shorts. No, my bottom remains firmly secured inside a pant with a decent sized leg.
But then, after having this epiphany, I realised that their next, and final track was equally relevant to my life.
Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking Anne, are you just using 90s pop music as an excuse for being rude? And in a way, yes. Yes I am. And while I do not necessarily agree with the warning against promiscuity in the above track, I absolutely adore the way they just put it out there.
And while you could argue that you just can't turn anywhere these days without images and messages of women talking loudly about sex, sometimes I am not sure if we really own it. When we encounter it in magazines and other elements of pop culture it is often under the guise of what we must do to catch and keep a man. We are certainly much more comfortable talking about penises, and semen, and blow job technique than our own clits and vaginas. Talking about these things still lies in the realm of 'outrageous' and as such, seem to belong to female comedians, artists and authors - none of whom are allowed to talk about it on telly at 7pm.
When I think about women whose sexual expression inspires me, there is only one name that springs to mind - Peaches. And any of you who have been fortunate enough to see her perform live will know that there is a big difference between Peaches and Carrie Bradshaw.
Peaches' unbridled sexuality is not something that translates easily to youtube, and in many ways must be seen to be believed. I mean, this was a woman who performed on stage wearing a penis suit and inspired me to wear full body lycra with a strobe light in the crotch. I will not forget standing in the crowd and hearing a man say to his girlfriend "She's kinda dirty" to which she replied awestruck "She's AMAZING". Women get Peaches - she is everything we never see, and we love it.
So Spinderella, cut it up one time for me - I'm going to talk about sex. Because you know what? I like sex, and I like talking about it. Not because it is a bit shocking (although that that part is quite fun), but because it allows me to connect with women who are more often than not, rather excited about the opportunity to talk about it. And that, really is fun.
(Although, I still cannot quite bring myself to talk about men begging me for anal whilst I am dining with friends in family-friendly cafes at 10am on a Saturday morning. Some boundaries, I cannot break. Yet.)
