Christina Aguilera is calling out the “double standards” she faced while touring with Justin Timberlake two decades ago.
Justin and Christina joined forces for the Justified & Stripped tour back in 2003, which came after the release of their respective albums the year prior.
At this time, Christina was in her early 20s. She’d become known for her proud expression of her sexuality through her lyrics and music videos.
“I wanted [the album Stripped] to embrace every different part of being a woman,” she told Vogue last year as she reflected on the project. “From feeling empowered and strong, owning my sexuality, and not from what a guy thinks it should be.”
And this is something Christina is still passionate about to this day, with the star announcing her new role as cofounder of sexual wellness brand Playground just last month.
Sitting down for an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast this Wednesday, Christina told host Alex Cooper about the “inappropriate” criticism she faced from the media during their joint tour.
“There was a lot of double standards with it,” she said. “Because I went on tour with Justin, we did the Stripped [&] Justified tour, and there were things where I was just like, why is it OK for him and not OK for me, you know what I mean?”
“I was constantly pushing back in my way,” she added. “It was so inappropriate sometimes, the things [the media] asked about that era.”
As soon as the podcast episode aired, Christina’s comments prompted a wider conversation around misogyny in the early 2000s.
“he’s a man and they never get any heat, even if he did the most heinous thing imaginable, the public would still rally behind him,” one person tweeted.
he’s a man and they never get any heat, even if he did the most heinous thing imaginable, the public would still rally behind him. https://t.co/hdBxb44viw
“She’s not saying anything about [Justin] personally. She’s just saying the world saw him as the boy next door and she was sl*t shamed, even if they were doing the same,” another user wrote. “We all know she’s right.”
@billboard @XtinaLove6 She’s not saying anything about him personally. She’s just saying the world saw him as the boy next door and she was sl*t shamed, even if they were doing the same. We all know she’s right.
“she’s totally right,” someone else agreed. “there was double standards back then, same today. it wasn’t fair that she was criticized.”
“I admire her for this bc it’s true. women couldn’t do anything w/o being criticized. she was criticized FAR TOO MUCH,” another tweet read.
Going on to discuss another way in which women were treated unfairly in the early 2000s, Christina touched on what it was like being pitted against other women artists throughout her career.
Noting that the industry was “a different business” back then, Christina recalled facing “a lot of female comparisons and double standards” — perhaps referring to her long-rumored feuds with Britney Spears and Pink.
“It just felt like just punches in the face,” she said. “It was hard to just constantly feel like you're making music and doing something you love and then someone spinning something so negative about it.”
“It was really hard because sometimes who you were pitted against, you actually genuinely ... loved and respected,” she went on. “You're too much of a kid to understand what's happening. I hated that shit.”
