I am going to bring you back in time to the early 2000s (audible cringe, I know) and remind you of Britney Spears’ jarring music video for her song “Toxic” released in 2003. Personally, I had never seen the music video before now and sure was in for a dramatic narrative. “Toxic” tells the story of an unhealthy relationship. In the music video, Spears switches between being costumed as a flight attendant, female motorcyclist, and special agent as she delivers the lyrics. We could spend the rest of this article dissecting the crazy costumes, makeup, hair, special effects, edits, and music within this video, but instead I suggest focusing on the song’s title: “Toxic.”
Each year’s Oxford Dictionary releases a word or expression that captures the mood of the year and has potential to maintain cultural significance. The word of 2018 is ‘toxic.’ First appearing in English in the mid 17th century from the Latin word ‘toxicus,’ toxic means ‘poisonous.’ ‘Toxic’s’ deadly history of meanings in medieval Latin and Greek continues to its present connotations. Its’ malleability to describe various topics including the environment, hypermasculinity, relationships, politics, and culture makes ‘toxic’ an ideal choice for 2018’s word of the year. Other words which made the shortlist for 2018 included gaslighting, techlash, cakeism, and orbiting. If some of these words appear to be in another language, I can assure you that you are not alone as upon reading these I felt part of an older generation.
Spears’ song incorporates several of toxic’s meanings, while simultaneously commenting on current culturally relevant themes. Most obvious is the toxic love and relationship the singer finds herself in. The year 2018 has resulted in various toxic relationships within and outside of couples. Toxic relationships can also exist in the workplace, among parents, and even politicians. In Jamie Ducharme’s article for Time magazine published on June 5, 2018 titled “How To Tell If You’re In a Toxic Relationship – And What To Do About It,” she describes a toxic relationship. She quotes Dr. Lillian Glass, a California-based communication and psychology expert, who defines a toxic relationship as “any relationship [between people who] don’t support each other, where there’s conflict and one seeks to undermine the other, where there’s competition, where’s disrespect and a lack of cohesiveness.” Glass goes on to stay that a toxic relationship is consistently unpleasant so that the negatives of the relationship outweigh the positives. Additionally, toxic relationships are mentally, emotionally, and sometimes unfortunately physically damaging to both people in the relationship. The unfortunate new trend of seeing ourselves in toxic relationships with lovers, friends, and family members, has swept across our nation; people often tell their friends that they are in a ‘toxic’ relationship with someone and need to leave that person or, in the wake of a friend-break up, a people reflect on aspects of their friendship that were toxic. For Spears, she describes a toxic relationship with a partner who “should wear a warning” and whom she is addicted to. But, rather than leaving him, she declares at the end her song with the stanza: “Intoxicate me now / With your lovin’ now / I think I’m ready now.” These lines have sexual connotations and spread the message that rather than leaving a toxic relationship, one should head full force into it – unless Spears means ‘toxic’ as a compliment (which is a strange compliment, if you ask me).
Attributing a man to being ‘toxic’ gives him power and dominance, reflecting another popular phrase: “toxic masculinity,” which refers to stereotypical male gender roles that restrict males from expressing certain or strong emotions. In recent political events, toxic masculinity is referred to within the context of #MeToo movement and the Brett Kavanaugh Senate judiciary committee hearing, not to mention the many other unfortunate political scandals placing toxic masculinity and sexual assault at the forefront of America’s current culture. Fifteen years ago, toxic masculinity does not seem to have been on the forefront of Spears’ mind, yet she perhaps unconsciously alludes to this modern theme in her lyrics. While the male figures mentioned in her song have control over her, she also is portrayed as having control over them in the music video: making the first move with a man in the airplane and poisoning a different man.
‘Toxic’ is also used to describe the environment in terms of toxic nuclear chemicals, toxic waste, and toxic air. While this is not a prominent theme in Spears’ song, she is riding a motorcycle in the video, releasing fossil fuels and fumes into the environment. I know, this is a stretch, but just hear me out. The rise of global warming, natural disasters such as hurricanes, and toxic gases is another reason why ‘toxic’ was chosen as the 2018 word of the year. Contrary to what you may think, motorcycles and scooters are actually not more environmentally friendly than cars. In the Los Angeles Times article “‘MythBusters’ ask: Are motorcycles greener than cars?” explains why this is a myth. The article quotes the Discovery Channel’s show ‘MythBusters’ which states that “the logic is because motorcycles are generally more fuel-efficient than cars, they burn less gas and thus they must be better for the environment.” However, after conducting an experiment it was found that while motorcycles are “more fuel-efficient than and [emit] less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide…they emitted far more smog-forming hydrocarbons,” making them just as bad as for the environment as cars or possibly worse. In her song, Spear sings “It’s in the air and it’s all around;” so perhaps her motorcycle was an allusion to the future of pollution and toxic air which society continues to experience in 2018. Just last week, The New York Times reported that scientists are describing the quickening rate of greenhouse gas emissions in the starkest terms, comparing it to a “speeding freight train.”
As I have outlined, Spears’ song foreshadows multiple meanings of the word ‘toxic,’ but there are some popular idioms which are not as obvious, such as a toxic work environment. A greater stretch than my motorcycle argument would be that Spears does foreshadow to this idiom, as well. The beginning and end of the music video shows Spears as a flight attendant in a plane (the workspace). When I typed in “toxic environment 2018” into Google, with the intention of finding a source on global warming for this article, the majority of articles which popped up were about a toxic office culture. Perhaps, I should have specified what kind of environment I meant. Regardless, I find this search result significant as it emphasizes how the workplace has become another environment that can be affected by toxicity. In fact, the Oxford Dictionary explains that ‘toxic environment’ is more frequently used to refer to harmful workplace environments. The article, “The 5 Warning Signs of a Toxic Work Environment,” published by Psychology Today, describes characteristics of a toxic workplace. According to the article, a toxic workplace is one which has a punitive environment, contains bullies who belittle other colleagues, lacks support and encouragement, doesn’t recognize good performance, and has a singular focus on money. Toxic workplaces have led to another trend of companies providing various amenities for their employees.
Britney asks us an important question all those years ago that some now have to face: “Don’t you know that you’re toxic?” •
