Nick Jonas: Should He Be “Jealous?”
The Nick Jonas song “Jealous” was released a couple of months ago, reaching the number 7 spot on Billboard’s hot 100 list. This catchy song talks about real-life situations regarding his current girlfriend, Olivia Culpo, and Jonas’s reactions to some of their encounters when they go out together.
US Weekly quoted the young star regarding the incident that spawned his chart-topping single stating “’we went out one night and this guy was looking at her for a little too long,’ he recalled. ‘It was uncomfortable.’”(http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/nick-jonas-is-no-longer-a-virgin-wrote-jealous-for-olivia-culpo-20141911). He explained that this passionate reaction was what drove his creativity. So now every day, radio listeners are forced to listen to this song and repetitively hear about how Jonas is “puffing his chest” because a guy was checking out his girl.
From My Point of View
All I hear in this song is an insecure guy singing about how he hates how people look at his pretty girlfriend. This song’s storyline, to me, doesn’t represent a manly man or jealousy or any of the other possible feelings a guy should have towards wandering eyes. The entire song doesn’t even seem to be about jealously at all, and could be a poor representation of the male counterpart in a relationship.
Jealousy?
First of all, I don’t get how the word “jealous” comes to mind when a guy overreacted to their girlfriend being stared at. Nick’s inspiration came from an incident regarding his girlfriend and some other guy. Nick was apparently “one to two drinks in,” and got defensive when he saw his girl being admired, which in a way is understandable.
If we’re going to go Guy Code on this, it is disrespectful to stare intently at someone else’s loved one. But I’d never consider this to be an act of “jealousy” on Jonas’s end as much as it is territorial. A man’s girlfriend could, I guess, be considered his “territory” when it comes to other men, and it’s pretty common for dudes to become protective when they sense a threat. Disregarding all the “independent women” remarks, I think we can admit that this is just how guys are.
But when we think of jealousy, we think of ex’s with other partners, unattainable crushes talking to others when wishing it was us, and other similar circumstances. In this song, Jonas is WITH his girlfriend, in public, and doesn’t seem to be acting “jealous” so much that he is acting on his insecurities and his need to assert his dominance. I don’t understand what Jonas is “jealous” of. He already has the girl. Nothing that any other guy does could possibly be something Jonas isn’t able to do, besides maybe creepily staring at her from behind a podium.
Relationship Representation
This song, in my opinion, is a terrible way to represent relationships. If anyone thinks that they can relate to this song, then maybe they should take a look at the lyrics. Like I said before, I think it’s reasonable to get a little heated when someone checks out your date, guy or girl, but I don’t think that getting upset about it says anything positive about your security in the relationship or your trust in your partner.
Nick Jonas’s second line in the entire song is “I’m starting to think you want him too.” Basically, Jonas implied something that was, again in my opinion, a slap in the face to his girlfriend. I wouldn’t be so flattered to be the motive of this song. Jealousy is never a beneficial aspect to a relationship because it tends to reveal underlying trust issues and insecurities about one another.
Yeah, you might not like having someone stare at your boyfriend/girlfriend, and it’s understandable to want to get confrontational if inappropriate behavior arises, but one should never be worried about losing his or her counterpart. There is absolutely no reason to ever be “jealous” in any sort of situation like the one described by Jonas, and if there is, then maybe there are some underlying problems.
Perhaps this “jealousy” Jonas is describing is just a reaction that sparks a fire in his relationship and makes him cherish the beautiful woman he’s got. But writing a song entirely about his “jealous” tendencies because of her beauty and that “everyone wants a taste” may be pushing it overboard.
