On Tuesday the world got to watch two of reggaetón’s most famous women reunite with the release of Natti Natasha and Becky G’s song “Ram Pam Pam.” Ram The banger is the ladies’ first collaboration since “Sin Pijama” three years ago and is all about owning your own sexuality with a feminist message that encourages women to explore sexual inhibitions without shame. On the topic of feminism, Becky G told AFP it’s, “different for all of us. We all need it in our own way.”
The sexually proud lyrics sung by the women are no different than those by their male counterparts and for the 24-year-old Mexican-American Becky, it’s “she chooses to go there.” She told AFP, “It’s my way of saying, I want to be empowered as a woman... me deciding when I go there, it’s because I choose to go there. And when I don’t want to go there, I don’t go there.” Becky continued, “It might not align with everyone’s idea of what feminism is, but it’s always with the intention of paving the way for the ones to come.”
The music video starring Prince Royce shows the women in amazing outfits dancing proudly to their liberated lyrics about finally “Ram Pam Pam’ing” with their new man. In Spanish, the queens tell a story set in a school gymnasium about a guy who left the singer but could never really pleasure them they wanted to anyways. ” I have a new boyfriend who makes me ram pam pam / Don‘t look for me; there’s nothing of me left here.” “Now I have another who fits me perfectly / Now you be bitter while he is delicious and smoother,“ they sing before proudly exclaiming, “Now I come when I want to.”
For Natasha, the song is an expression of their complete freedom. She told AFP, “We express ourselves with complete freedom. We are super comfortable. If Becky or I did not feel comfortable with even a single letter in the song, we would not sing it.”
Per Barron , Petra Rivera-Rideau, an American studies professor at Wellesley University in Massachusetts said in the early 2000s, women in reggaeton “who were dancing were often perceived as being problematic, as being not ‘good girls,’ being too sexual, being in these kinds of spaces that women, good girls, or respectable women shouldn’t be in.” Rivera-Rideau continued, “A lot of the policing of women in reggaeton has been about reinforcing a lot of assumptions - that women need to be modest in order to be respectable and worthy - and there’s a lot of danger in those narratives.” The stereotype or fetishization of Latinas as overtly sexy can label the women as reggaeton as “shameful and terrible” but “we also need spaces where people can express themselves freely. And women deserve to own their sexuality and their own bodies.” Rivera-Rideau said.
Because of female musicians like Lucile Bogan, Lil Kim, Madonna, Missy Elliot, Nicky Minaj, Cardi B, Meg Thee Stallion, Becky G, Natasha, and so many more, the music industry is changing. And because of the feminist heroes that paved the way, women have continued to find their independence, sexual agency, liberation, and power.
