In the 1999 hit, “I want It that way,” we are presented with the most ambiguous pronoun in pop music, ‘it’. Throughout this decade popular music conditioned us to “shake ‘it’,” “hit ‘it’,” while warning us not to “break ‘it’.” Indeed this song, like so many others, starts off as a stupid piece of shit, by not being clear about what ”it” is. And then there are the lyrics:

“Tell me why
Ain’t nothin’ but a heartache
Tell me why
Ain’t nothin’ but a mistake
Tell me why
I never wanna hear you say
I want ‘it’ that way

Am I your fire
Your one desire
Yes I know it’s too late
But I want ‘it’ that way”

What a stupid fucking song. First, it’s sexist that while the man can have ‘it’ that way, the woman can’t have ‘it’ that way. Moreover, I’m just really pissed off that I haven’t been cleared on what ‘it’ is. Maybe she doesn’t even want ‘it’ in the first place . Maybe she just wanted you to consider that she might want ‘it’ some time in the future if the relationship had ever gotten to that point, not that she’s pressuring you or anything, she’s just saying. Whatever ‘it’ is, you should have been able to talk about ‘it’ before ending a relationship that had so much potential. Because if two people really loved each other they wouldn’t let ‘it’ stand in their way Max Douchebag!