How Janet Jackson’s ‘janet.’ Album Empowered Black Women’s Sexuality
“Like a moth to a flame burned by the fire. My love is blind can’t you see my desire?”
Janet Jackson’s voice wrapped around those words like honey on “That’s The Way Love Goes,” the sultry intro that set the tone for a new era, a new vibe of a woman comfortable enough in her own skin to let us in like never before.
The 25th anniversary of pop icon Janet Jackson’s fifth studio album janet. where her blossoming sexual freedom transcended attitudes towards women’s sexual liberation, Jackson’s magnified the true essence of black sexuality that had been stereotyped, policed or even ignored.
Janet., produced by the legendary production team Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who helped established her sound in her 1986 groundbreaking album Control and 1989’s Rhythm Nation 1814, solidified her as a bonafide sex symbol, international icon, and a voice for women’s sexual liberation. The “love album” as Jam has referred to the project as Jackson explored erotic, sensuality and sexual intimacy in the 1990s where female artists like TLC promoted that good sex is safe sex.
“Be a good boy and put this on,” Jackson urges on an interlude. Through the 27 tracks including singles “Again,” “You Want This,” and “If,” that revealed the layers behind bedroom doors of fourplay, desires, and passion, with the singer taking a larger role as co-writer.
Her first album to debut at №. 1 on Billboard 200 has been certified seven-times platinum by the RIAA and has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. The many accolades it garnered including a 1994 Oscar nomination for “Best Original Song” for “Again” written for the Poetic Justice movie soundtrack, it was the second best selling album of 1993 behind The Bodyguard soundtrack. It was a sign that she broke new ground like never before.
“Sex isn’t just fire and heat, its natural beauty. Doing what comes naturally. It’s letting go, giving and getting what you need. In the age of AIDS, it certainly requires being responsible. On a psychological level, though, good sex, satisfying sex, is also linked with losing yourself, releasing, using your body to get out of your body,” Jackson said in a 1993 Rolling Stone interview. “Well, for the first time, I’m feeling free. I love feeling deeply sexual — and don’t mind letting the world know. For me, sex has become a celebration, a joyful part of the creative process.”
The lingering hints of her sensuality bubbling below the surface of her soft spoken demeanor and girlish smile as she was finding her own voice with Jam and Lewis after the lack of success of her first two solo efforts: Janet Jackson (1982) and Dream Street (1984) — then under the management of her father. In Control’s “Funny How Time Flies (When You’re Having Fun)” closing with flirty French laced with orgasmic moans and Rhythm Nation 1814’s “Someday Is Tonight” — the pulsating sequel to the abstinent positive “Let’s Wait Awhile” — as now the wait was clearly over. The duality of the pop artist was evident as she bared her toned stomach and ditched the military uniform in “Love Will Never Do Without You” music video.
But at the height of her groundbreaking career, the 27-year-old unearthed her sexuality that was shocking to some but an empowering declaration to women to not be ashamed to embrace a part of themselves that for so long that has been taboo. Besides fellow pop icon Madonna who pushed sexual boundaries in her lyrics and visuals, it was profound to see a black woman with the attention of her audience challenge how we view and communicate about sex. Jackson was in an unexplored new territory as she was in the forefront of popular music and culture, using her visibility to showcase the beauty and complexity of a black woman’s sexuality in such a provocative way. She’s certainly not the first black female singer to embrace sex lyrically or visually from Millie Jackson (“Slow Tongue”) to Donna Summer (“Bad Girls”) to Tina Turner (“Private Dancer,” “Steamy Windows”) and many more that have come before her, but she showcased an element of the multidimensional sexuality black women do and can posses outside of a complex history of narrow-minded perception that has often policed in how its displayed. Now we see female artists like Rihanna, Janelle Monae, SZA and Beyonce follow suit in their own respective work.
The iconic Rolling Stone cover with a topless Jackson’s breast covered by a man’s pair of hands with her jeans unzipped in September 1993 sent shock waves. The janet. era as a whole continue to break ground in an industry and society that was over saturated and fully embraced the sexuality of white women yet for Jackson, she set out to define and own her sexual nature on her own terms despite some public opinion opposing it.
“After I did the ‘janet.’ album, an adult came up to me and says, ‘Oh no. What are you doing? Now you’re telling our kids to have sex. What happened to the girl who sang “Let’s Wait Awhile?’” Jackson recalled in a 1997 interview. “I said, ‘How long do you want me to wait? I’m almost 30.’”
Visual stimulation with a message
During the progressive MTV era, Jackson’s music videos added more tantalizing depth to back up her suggestive talk. “Any Time, Any Place,” later sampled by rap artist Kendrick Lamar’s “Poetic Justice,” was a bedroom quiet-storm groove celebrating her unashamed sexual PDA. The video explored the secret rendezvous with the chocolate brother from across the hall. The visual of her straddling him, embracing, and undressing one another, making the viewer feel like they’re spying on the affectionate couple…which is the point. She don’t give a damn what we think regardless.
“I don’t wanna stop, no, no, no. I want you now. Any time and any place I don’t care whose around…”
“If” — highlighting fantasies and voyeurism in a dark club — was a standout from the era as choreographer Tina Landon’s intense erotic routine conveyed women in control of their sexual desires with the men often on their knees simulating oral sex. Pleasuring the woman by any means. “If I was your girl all the things I’d do to you. I’d make you call out my name, I’d ask who’d it belong to,” Janet sings.
Is Black Women’s Sexuality Dangerous?
Professor Dorothy E. Roberts’ lecture called “What’s So Dangerous About Black Women’s Sexuality?” addressed the patriarchy in policing and punishing women of color. It reflects greatly 11 years after this album during the infamous Superbowl incident where singer Justin Timberlake ripped off Jackson’s breast cover, leaving her exposed. The public backlash of that was heavy upon Jackson though she was on the receiving end, apologizing to those offended, while Timberlake was left practically unscathed and would perform during the 2018 Super Bowl.
“Regulating black women’s bodies has been absolutely crucial to the relationship between race and gender and biology and power from America’s origins to the present day spanning the slavery Jim Crow and neo-liberal eras,” Roberts said in her lecture. “This legacy of sexual and reproductive violence has been preserved over the century by a repertoire of degrading images designed to legitimize white man’s immorality. Images that paint black women as innately prone to having unrestrained sex, procreating recklessly.”
She acknowledged how the spectrum of black women’s sexuality has been between the “two erotic opposites” of the “oversexed jezebel” and the “asexual mammy.” These has been ways to define and compartmentalize the ideal obedient black woman outside of their own standards of how they express their sexual nature.
Jackson, as a black woman, bringing a voice to something she has experienced despite the public’s perception of her as the youngest of the Jackson music dynasty, “Michael’s little sister,” little Penny from Good Times, and not having control of her musical narrative in her first two albums. Control, a funky feminist declaration of independence over her life set the tone for empowerment in future works like janet. and most notably The Velvet Rope (1997) and Damita Jo (2004) where she continued to address subjects that many deemed controversial that would inspire female artists, especially black, to be themselves authentically.
“It’s something that’s always been there inside of me, always. It’s not like it’s this new thing that I decided to do. I could never write songs or anything would come from me that I didn’t feel in my heart,” Jackson said in a 1993 MTV Rockumentary interview. “It’s just another side of me that they haven’t seen.”
