Christina Aguilera Recalls Double Standards While Touring With Justin Timberlake
Christina Aguilera is reflecting on her 2003 joint tour with Justin Timberlake, Justified & Stripped Tour. Aguilera quickly found out that there would be things that Justin would do, but if she were to do it, it wasn’t okay. “There was a lot of double standards with it,” she said in an interview Wednesday (April 5). “There were things where I was just like, ‘Why is it okay for him and not okay for me?'”
The seven-time Grammy winner has previously described her Stripped era as “owning her sexuality.” She told Vogue last October, “I wanted this album to embrace every different part of being a woman. From feeling empowered and strong, owning my sexuality, and not from what a guy thinks it should be.” On Wednesday, the “Dirrty” singer said of the tour, “It’s just like I was constantly pushing back in my way. I mean, it was so inappropriate sometimes, the things that were asked about that era.”
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Besides the inappropriate treatment and double standards, the singer-songwriter also recalled being pitted against other pop stars, like Britney Spears and P!nk, during that time. She noted that the industry “was a different business where there was a lot of female comparisons and double standards with women.”
“It just felt like just punches in the face,” Christina shared. “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.” She added, “It was really hard because sometimes who you were pitted against, you actually genuinely, you know, loved and respected.”
Her Beginnings and the Future of Entertainment
Reflecting even further back to her being on The Mickey Mouse Club alongside Justin and Britney in the early ‘90s, X-Tina continued, “You’re too much of a kid to understand what’s happening. I hated that s—.” Despite her feelings on the start of her professional career, she thinks the future of women in music are in a much better environment than when she started. “I’m just so excited to see more women supporting women because now you’re cutting through the middle man a lot more,” she added. “Which is really, really nice.”