A Critical Analysis of "My Humps"

Steven Greenwood

Dr. Faye Kessay

ENGL 2112

March 11, 2011

Linguistic Oppression of the Female Sex, as Represented in My Humps

            Serious critical analysis of My Humps by popular music group The Black Eyed Peas is surprisingly scarce. The only criticism currently available is, unfortunately, demeaning and belittling of the song’s artistic integrity, referring to it as “Horrifically bad… objectively bad” (Hsu). However, as I will argue, My Humps presents a rather powerful theme of the way women are oppressed by men through the use of simplistic, demeaning language. This can be seen by comparing the views and statements of both the men and the women featured in the song, especially in terms of the abundant literary devices and the inconsistence with which nouns are referred to as singular or plural.

            The song My Humps is unique in the sense that it not only has male and female vocalists, but these vocalists frequently quote members of the opposite sex, therefore allowing male and female voices to be represented by both vocalists. This quoting of the opposite sex can be seen through Fergie’s speaker telling the audience “they [the boys] say I’m really sexy”, and Will-I-Am’s speaker re-stating the lines of a woman he met: “I met a girl… she said hey, hey, let’s go”. By switching the sex of the voice being represented, while keeping the sex of the vocalist the same, the Black Eyed Peas cause confusion for the listener, and manage to draw attention to the gendering of each line of the song. Drawing this attention to the gendering of the lines is important, as it begins to reveal a crucial theme in the song: men use language to oppress women.

            This oppression can very prominently be seen through the use of contrasting language when describing women’s body parts. Fergie’s female voice makes heavy use of literary figures in order to show their body parts in a beautiful, positive manner. Fergie’s voice references her “lovely lady lumps”, using both a positive adjective and alliteration in the description to bring about a positive, sensual image. The female voice represented by Will-I-Am is equally poetic when referring to female anatomy, using metaphorical language such as “coco puff”, and referring to herself as a “baby”. Both of these compare the woman or her body to the positive, refreshing images of breakfast cereal and babies, portraying the woman in a positive light. To contrast this language, the male voices choose degrading or literal descriptions of the women. Will-I-Am’s male voice refers to the female’s parts as “ass… breast… [and] junk”. The two metaphors used compare the woman’s parts to the vehicles of a donkey and garbage, which both have very negative and demeaning ground, and the third description doesn’t even bother using a figure: the breasts are simply stated literally. Fergie’s male voice continues this viewpoint, saying that the boys simply say that she “is sexy… they want to sex [her]”. This quote shows that the female character is even aware of this simple diction used by the men when referring to her, and is therefore knowledgeable of their oppression.

            Besides simply the figurative language, My Humps strongly draws attention to the inconsistent use of plural nouns. Most prominent of this is the title itself, My Humps. Despite the fact that the word “hump” is plural in the title, the majority of the song simply repeats “my hump”, using the singular version of the word. Only once in the lyrics is the plural form used, and this is immediately before the male voice enters, when Fergie sings “my humps they got you”. It is notable that the male actually interrupts the female voice at this point with “she’s got me spending”. It is as if the woman is unable to use the plural version of the word “hump” without the male voice interfering, and is therefore restricted to the title of her song. The fact that it is specifically the use of a plurality that is threatened in the song reveals an idea that the plurality of something feminine, such as female buttocks, is repressed by a male need to control. If men are presented as keeping women singular, it is as if they are preventing her from having more than one side, and therefore repressing her into a singular role, as those that have been culturally forced on oppressed women.

            Overall, My Humps is a brilliant analysis on the power of words. By showing how type of language 

and the restriction on the plurality of nouns can harm a person’s ability to express his or her self as beautiful 

or as having more than a singular personality, The Black Eyed Peas present a theme that words can oppress 

people. The gendering of the voices solidifies this theme as specifically referring to the oppression of women 

through language.