Female Pop Songs About Self-Service Love

Sisters are doin' it for themselves! Actually, scratch that—sisters have been doing it for themselves for a really long time.

While female masturbation is by no means a new concept, it is a heavily stigmatized one. One of the final sexual taboos, data reveals that not only do women seem to do it less than their male counterparts (probably due to social and religious stigmas), but they also seem to talk about it much less as well. Luckily, it seems like our culture is changing and becoming more open to the idea (i.e. glaring fact) that women are sexual and sexually empowered beings with bodily agency, and that touching oneself is completely, totally, irrevocably normal — yes, even for girls.

Of course, one of the most powerful ways to normalize something that's unaccepted or viewed as taboo is to see representation of it in the media, whether that's seeing something present in a film, hearing discourse about the subject on a talk show, or, you know, listening to someone sing about it in glorious pop song form.

That said, when 18-year-old Academy Award-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld announced her debut single "Love Myself" months ago, most of the music-listening world just assumed that the track would be another catchy self-empowerment anthem a la Katy Perry's "Firework" or Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger." Well, we were half-right.

While the song, which released earlier this month, is indeed a self-empowerment anthem, it's also a surprisingly direct dance-pop ode to self-stimulation...and it's awesome. With lyrics like: "I'll take it nice and slow / Feeling good on my own without you," Hailee is not only talking about girl-powered self-service, but she's also not exactly trying to mask her meaning in metaphors.

In celebration of strong, independent women who, uh, like to take matters into their own hands, we've compiled ten quintessential pop jams about self-indulgence. So take it nice and slow — the gallery, we mean — and enjoy yourself.

Listen to the playlist on Apple Music!

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