While Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea probably intended for “Booty” to be a body-positive response to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda,” it falls flat as a feminist anthem. The song is about how great it is to have a big booty, particularly when it is attractive to someone else.

The song isn not even directed toward women — it is directed toward an unidentified “you,” who quickly becomes identified as male when that “you” is instructed to watch and lust for the dancer. Another problematic verse tells girls to “give him what he ask for” because “it’s his birthday.”

In “Booty,” the women who the song is about are only objects — they have no agency at all. All the women do is dance with their wonderful assets while men approach them.

At least in “Anaconda,” Minaj calls the shots. She makes her body sexual, but she does so on her own terms. The booties in “Booty” are sexualized just for existing, not because the people attached to them want them to be.

Even worse is that their sexuality is not for their own benefit but for someone else’s. The sexuality in “Anaconda” is all for Minaj — she knows that her butt is amazing, and she will use it to get sex if and when she wants it.

Who knows what the unnamed girls in “Booty” want? Neither Lopez nor Azalea mention that, but they do mention what the men want.

A version of this article appeared in the Fall 2014 Arts Issue. Email Kari Sonde at [email protected].