The song “I Do,” I’ll start with my favorite line; “Bleep so good I say my own name during sex.” If this isn’t down right, pure self love, I don’t know what is. To point out the obvious, Cardi B’s an ex-stripper and a Blood and you’re probably wondering how some rapper chick that stripped could say a word about women empowerment? Well, let me tell you.

What is “I Do?” I’ll tell you what it’s not. It’s not about walking down the aisle in a white dress. “I do what I like. I do, I do.” It’s exactly about that, doing what you want to do, on your terms, in your own way, the way you like it. It’s what women dream of. It’s what the empowerment movement is dying for. Cardi B is the “chick” that went from poverty and an abusive relationship to stripping to pay for college so she can get an education and better her life, to becoming a superstar. She made a choice with a goal in mind and it was that choice that coincidentally saved her from the dead end life she had.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not glorifying stripping, I wish no woman ever had to strip. I have high value and respect for women and believe women are divine creatures of sacred beauty that truly, should only be honored, cherished and, well, let’s be real...worshipped. I don’t judge Cardi B for being a stripper because I know the statistics on poverty and the cycle continues through time and extends into generations. Just like people that are born into wealth and “old money,” they will always be rich.  It’s all they know, in a sense, it’s a culture and way of life. It’s the same on the other side of the tracks, unless someone really finds a way to find another path or an earth shattering event takes place to significantly alter destiny, people born into poverty rarely escape it. However, for Cardi B, that earth shattering event happened and her destiny changed forever.

Finding empowerment and self love from a place of poverty and abuse, almost never happens. Cardi B found her voice and screams empowerment in every song. The line, “bleep so good, I say my own name during sex,” is about honoring yourself as a woman. The word choice may be vulgar for most tastes, but underneath the imagery, that’s what she’s saying. “I’m a bully in the bed,” what does that mean? It’s another message of empowerment and self love meaning, I get what I want. How many women don’t get what they want in bed because they are afraid to ask or worse yet, they feel like they don’t deserve it? To know, that some women are deprived of one of the most glorious experiences in life, breaks my heart.

“Look, broke bleeps do what they can. Good girls do what they told. Bad bitches do what they want.” For centuries, women have been breed to do what they are told and although there is somewhat of a glass ceiling for women in the corporate world, my opinion on one of the attributing factors to income inequality is because women don’t speak up. Women don’t value themselves as they should. Women accept what they are given and as Cardi B says, “good girls do what they told.” It is in the fiber of a woman’s being to be a “good girl,” she was taught to value being a good girl over everything, including her goals, wants and needs. The sad truth is, good girls don’t get what they want. Bad bitches do because bad bitches know their worth.

To be empowered as women, we have centuries of healing to do. We will never make as much money or more money than men if we don’t believe we deserve it. We will never get what we want in bed if we don’t ask for it. We have to reprogram ourselves. We have to start instilling a Sexy Boss Babe mentality. A Sexy Boss Babe is “a breed of woman that’s confident from the inside. She can be curvy, thin, plus size, athletic, tall, short, any size shape or color. Her beauty comes from knowing her self worth and what she deserves. She goes after what she wants in life. She’s fierce, bold and empowered.” Most women don’t believe they’re Sexy Boss Babes because they compare themselves to other “socially mainstream popular trending” images of what is beautiful. What women fail to recognize is that people just follow what everyone else follows. The true truth is that women, just for existing, are divine. Women are the carriers of human life. A mother’s breast contains the nectar to feed her infantile human. Adult men’s obsession for breasts stems from their subconscious attachment to the comfort they felt from their own mother’s breasts as children. That’s how powerful women are.

So, in case you forget, or don’t even realize how amazing, beautiful and powerful you are, take a listen to “I Do,” and take a lesson from an ex-stripper; you just might learn something.