Sometimes when a man does such a number on you, you still can’t help but want to be in his good graces even after all the horrible shit he pulled. This explains why Britney Spears took leave of her senses on January 29th when she stated, “I wanna apologize for some of the things I wrote about in my book. If I offended any of the people I genuinely care about I am deeply sorry. I also wanted to say I am in love with Justin Timberlake’s new song ‘Selfish.’ It is soo good and how come every time I see Justin and Jimmy together I laugh so hard??? Ps ‘Sanctified’ is wow too.” This caption (since deleted in Spears’ “I’m so random” fashion) accompanied a video clip from Timberlake’s January 25th appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, with “Sanctified” also referencing his January 27th appearance on Saturday Night Live (because, yes, he’s really been whoring himself out to promote his upcoming album and tour). This caption has merely added to the news cycle surrounding Timberlake’s “Selfish” as it relates largely to Britney. For her fans not only saw fit to make a 2011 bonus track of the same name beat out Justin’s “Selfish” on the charts, but now, Britney is further inserting herself into the Justin dialogue with this apology.
It’s almost as if she’s masterminding one of the greatest trolls of the twenty-first century by continuously “horning in on” his current spotlight time. And since Timberlake does so love the spotlight, it’s worth focusing on the content of “Selfish,” the song that Britney thinks is “soo good.” Those with a knowledge of their musical history might have already detected the thematic overtones of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy,” but Timberlake confirmed it during an interview with Zane Lowe when he said that while coming up with inspiration for the track, he sang Donny Hathaway’s cover of Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.” He noted, “We were talking about the song itself and just breaking down the idea that, like, you just don’t hear that from men often that they would express that, an emotion that makes them vulnerable.” That certainly didn’t seem to be the case in 2002, when Timberlake dropped “Cry Me A River” and foisted his “vulnerability” onto everyone. Nonetheless, he added, “You know, and growing up the way I grew up, like, you’re kind of taught not to do that.” What you are taught, apparently, is to tarnish women’s reputations with the effortless doling out of the “whore” brand. Or, as Britney put it (before apologizing), “In the news media, I was described as a harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy,” also adding, “I don’t think Justin realized the power he had in shaming me. I don’t think he understands to this day.”
But, based on the reactions to and the promotional blitzkrieg surrounding “Selfish,” it appears as though Timberlake’s “golden boy” status is in no danger. And probably never really was. For, as we should all be very familiar with by now, women’s voices have a tendency to get lost in the shuffle after enough time has passed. Less than six months (The Woman in Me was released in October, 2023) is, evidently, enough time to pass for people to “forget” all about Timberlake’s history of being a putain. Even Spears herself. Who has perhaps fallen prey to her own millennial ways by swooning over a song that reiterates all the worst tropes that 00s-era rom-coms reinforce. First and foremost being that: “Jealousy is just a sign that he cares.”
And yes, all throughout the song Timberlake excuses away any toxic behavior with the caveat presented in the chorus: “So if I get jealous, I can’t help it/I want every bit of you, I guess I’m selfish/It’s bad for my mental, but I can’t fight it/ When you’re out lookin’ like you do, but you can’t hide it, no.” Thus, not only does Timberlake self-exonerate any fucked-up displays of anger or puerile resentment he might engage in (while also admitting it’s mentally unhealthy behavior), he also chalks it up to being mostly about how hot this girl is. Doesn’t seem to have much to do with her personality. This is further accentuated when he reverts to “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You” parlance via the lines, “Put you in a frame, ooh, baby, who could blame you?/Glad your mama madе you/Makin’ me insane, you cannot be еxplained, ooh/You must be an angel.” Surely he can’t be talking about Jessica Biel. In fact, one imagines Spears continues to be the subconscious “blueprint” for his lyrical “muse.” And who can blame him after the success of “Cry Me A River”? A track Timberlake had no problem shading Britney with yet again for his mid-December performance at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, where he prefaced the song with the dig, “No disrespect.”
But it wasn’t just that song that Spears inspired, for who can forget the cringeworthy talking head moment he gave when describing his “process” for writing “Gone,” one of the last *NSYNC singles (that was also supposed to feature, erm, Michael Jackson). He explains with a totally straight face, “I got the idea for ‘Gone’ when, um, obviously I wrote that back when me and Britney were a couple, and, um, she went to the hair salon and said she was gonna be back in a couple hours, got there, decided to get a manicure, pedicure and wasn’t back for, like, five. And that’s what stemmed the idea for that song.” Imagine being that needy. No wonder Spears wanted to stay out of the house a little bit longer.
That sort of clinging, possessive personality exhibited by Timberlake is also ostensibly alive and well today, if we’re to go by the “Selfish” lyrics, “And I don’t want any other guys/Takin’ my place, girl/I got too much pride/I know I may be wrong/But I don’t wanna be right.” That much has been made obvious time and time again in his comportment toward Spears.
Talking as though he’s inside the mind of Mark (Andrew Lincoln) in Love Actually, Timberlake additionally has the gall to sing, “But they don’t know what you want/And baby, I would never tell/If they knew what I know/They would never let you go/So guess what?/I ain’t ever lettin’ you go.” Like Mark showing up to Juliet’s (Keira Knightley) door with a slew of mawkish “cue cards,” as it were, it’s one of those things that’s supposed to seem “really sweet” but is actually quite horrifying and could easily be soundtracked over a scene in Enough (another 00s movie about “possessing” someone). Instead, Timberlake, again saying something absurd with a straight face, told Lowe in the same abovementioned Apple interview, “It just felt like a really honest song, the lyrics just started to come out honestly.” What a circuitous and faux-profound assessment. One that Spears has appeared to fall for hook, line and sinker.
To boot, the language Spears uses to describe that—“I am in love with Justin Timberlake’s new song ‘Selfish’”—almost feels overtly coded. Like she really just wants to say, “I am in love with Justin Timberlake.” And maybe she still is. Maybe some lovefools never really get over that “one” person. Regardless of how shittily they treated you. After all, Spears did once say (in MTV’s Diary), “I would love to be with him forever. I would.” Some of us, on the other hand, are no longer charmed by his retro lyrics posing as the “kind” words of a “loving” and “devoted” significant other. Not when, in truth, they fortify all the usual toxic male stereotypes under the guise of conveying “sensitivity.”
