I lol’d

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/karl-stefanovics-sexism-experiment-today-presenter-wears-same-suit-for-a-year-20141115-11ncdz.html

This article is extremely interesting and for those who have seen Miss Representation, it should bring back some of the points made in the film about the media’s representation of women in the media inudstry and news.

Ugh, this movie has literally inspired me to want to rewrite the worlds history in woman’s name. Dramatic, just a little, but I can’t remember the last time I consumed a film and felt so connected. Or even felt heard in a weird turn of events.

Tying it to the discussion in class today, I think the women represented in the film were the ones who allowed women to feel comfortable enough to come out and perform/speak to the world audience through music. Looking at Chris Z.s’ post I’d agree in saying that there are no longer any strong female role models within the music industry. Of course there are always exceptions but the majority have fallen into a passive even ignorant stance. Most notably Miley (brought up in class prior) stands behind the “IDGAF” mentality while other artists like Beyonce claim “Feminism” to explain their outlandish and sexualized images. The problem with looking to these women as “empowered” or “admirable” is that most don’t have a cause, or voice , or purpose. There is an apathy that most artists feel is a voice for their right to be “free”.

The lack of message almost becomes the slogan, “I can do whatever I feel like doing.” I mean Beyonce has literally made a career from just saying I can do whatever because I’m Beyonce. Her song “Grown Woman” (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beyonceknowles/grownwoman.html) is just her singing about how successful she is, just about the success not how she got there or anything, in my opinion, worth telling us about. But the one thing she does alludes to is a “cute-faced” counter part that can get it because she is indeed cute and shes got the posterior to get her through and to the top. (Because shes got the boys doing whatever she want)

I’m so over this being the message from female artists, there is literally no separation from women and sex. If there is a women in the surrounding area you best believe that there is a male interest or some allusion to how her body will help her get what she wants.  I just keep remembering Ani DeFranco’s statement about her music. She essentially says, I write my music through my perspective, so if it has feminist undertones it’s just from [her] everyday observations and it becomes a reflection of society. 

So if that was her thought process, what is the thought process behind the female musicians of today? Besides, “I’m gonna do what I want I want to do.”

By now I’m assuming most people have seen the photos of Kim Kardashian for Paper magazine.  The internet has been split about how to read these images. Some criticizing her. She has a young daughter and is posing nude. Additionally years earlier, she has been quoted saying “I’ve definitely learned my lesson (on posing nude)… I’m never taking my clothes off again, even if it’s for Vogue… I don’t want people to be like, ‘All she’s good for is, you know, being naked'”. Kim has already been questioned for the source of her celebrity status. Critics like Chelsea Handler have used this magazine cover to bring up issues not only of what seeing Kim’s body all over the internet, but also issues such as Instagram’s policy of nudity. Chelsea has previous uploaded a picture of herself topless riding a horse, mimicking Putin. After it was deleted, she re-uploaded the picture and criticized Instagram for allowing male nipples and not female nipples. The photo was again removed. Handler now uploaded a picture comparing her body to Kim’s revealing her own butt to the world. In Handler’s caption, she questions the realness of Kardashian’s butt. Natalie Portman also recently posed topless in a magazine. She insisted that the pictures remain untouched, specifying the size of her breasts remain the same. There has been little backlash for these pictures aside from a few journalists criticizing her for attempting to draw attention to herself. To me, being the center of attention is the point of being on the cover of a magazine so I don’t see these arguments as wrong but just irrelevant. Where the discussion becomes interesting to me is the response that these three celebrities receive. Natalie Portman received very little coverage for her stand against photoshop, Handler’s act was seen as nothing more than a sarcastic response, and no one has decided the societal response to Kardashian’s butt. Is it because Portman was trying to make a statement about self love that she recieved the least amount of coverage? Why won’t people take Handler’s criticism more seriously? Because of her personality or because of a desire to ignore the criticisms? Why are we all so fascinated with Kim’s body? Is there something damaging about her image? If so who is she damaging? Where do all of these images fall under feminism and post-feminism?

As some of us discussed in class on Friday, Time Magazine made the disastrous decision to include “feminism” as one of the choices for a reader poll of words that should be banned in 2015. (Article for reference here.) They’ve since apologized in a way that tried to shift blame on angry readers for not understanding that Time meant the pejorative version of the term (which only makes Time look worse for lack of taking responsibility) but the damage has already been done. (For reference, here’s a collection of highest liked responses to the poll on Time’s Facebook page.)

I read an interesting response to the way Time collects words for this annual poll not just this year, but in years past as well. In it, the author discusses how the poll has a history of including words that not only heavily imply the ingrained annoyance with terms stereotypically viewed as feminine. What’s more is that a good number of words from each year have their roots in black culture. This article and Time’s poll in general, then, serve as a culturally relevant examination of what we’ve been studying with regards to intersectionality.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VnAUNFQ6TTI

Interesting video released in amsterdam

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/13/bill-cosby-raped-me-why-did-it-take-30-years-for-people-to-believe-my-story/?tid=sm_fb

The above article ties in with our discussion about whose voices get swept under the rug in stories regarding sexual assault, battery, and rape. The only difference in Barbara’s story is that she was a white woman raped by a black man. However, the catch is that Cosby is an extremely successful, powerful, African American comedian. He has been able to suppress the voices of his female victims for many years. Goes to show the many factors that tie into these cases – such as race, social class, age, etc

I just had a conversation with one of my male friends. I was telling him about our class. He proceeded to say how he “would kill himself if he was in a feminist class”. After getting into a heated argument… this was his counter. “What do you expect. Men have been in power for hundreds of years. They’re not just going to give away their power.”

I don’t even know where to begin. Unfortunately folks, sexism is still very relevant, and there are plenty of ignorant people in the world.

After thinking about what Sinead O’Connor said about the “pedization” about the Spice Girls, I believe I understand what she was trying to say.  By acting young and carefree, not only does this girl group related to younger girls (probably their main objective) they also appear young and immature themselves.  By combining their 20-something sexuality and their teenage appearance, they make it acceptable to sexualize younger girls.  Another repercussion of this is that society may now believe that it is acceptable to assume that all 20-something women wish to be treated and seen like the Spice Girls. Thus they are not taken seriously and display what I call “pre-packaged feminism”.  The Spice Girls are definitely making a feminist statement, but it is already one that has been covered.  As I believe some of the other musicians in “The Righteous Babes” feminism is about pushing the boundaries and making people feel uncomfortable with the state of things.  The Spice Girls have put out their statement, but with their look and act being fetishized their statement is not taken seriously.  It’s almost as if society has allowed them to state their opinion, but will not actually take it into consideration. Their feminism is part of their image, but that is all it appears to be.

I believe a similar thing has happened with many recent pop stars.  Female empowerment is part of their image, but that is all it is publicized as.  Being a feminist singer may be a precursor to being labeled “rebellious” which is something that can be fetishized and can be sold as part of that performer’s personality.  It is as if society only permits feminism as  a look and not as something to be taken seriously.  Performers are allowed to show a certain amount of rebellion, but anything past that may be pushing the boundaries.

Although, there look may be toned down and controlled by publicists and other production staff, a performer’s song can at least be interpreted many ways.  Songs with rebellious or feminist lyrics can affect people in ways that personality and image cannot.  Songs are still left to be interpreted and may be a great place for encouraging young feminists.

Our discussion in class left me thinking a lot about the idea of feminism in music and I came to the conclusion that it’s hard to find a true female musician in today’s media that draw the same attention as Madonna(which anything I’ll say would be bias having a mother and grandmother who idolize her) or Sinead O’connor. Today the music industry is surrounded by sex appeal. Beyonce to me is not a feminist just because she has the words lit up behind her.  That was in response to the events prior to the performance where it was revealed her husband Jay Z was in an altercation with Beyonce and her sister (all rumored) in a New York elevator. If you look at the events of the situation and how she handled it, Beyonce doesn’t show any feminist ideals. Rather she uses the term at the end of the performance to make viewers think she actually did something in response to the situation.  On a musical level her lyrics are great for entertain and I myself am a Beyonce fan, but I don’t feel she does much for it.

Rather I look at artist like Lorde and Lupe Fiasco as feminist. That’s another thing that kind of threw me off was the focus on female musicians when some men have shown feminist ideals. Lupe Fiasco and Lorde have both done something we haven’t seen in recent years and that make the media and audiences uncomfortable. Lorde’s lyrics can be empowering at times like in her songs Royal or Team. Outside of music she makes statements that draw our attention like her criticism of the United States and other events.

Lupe Fiasco to me is a feminist as well as a social justice advocate. In his music he makes social critics and returns Hip Hop  to its roots of jazz and storytelling and not the pure sex, money, and drugs mainstream Hip Hop is today. In his song Bitch Bad he talks about the use of the word Bitch in our society and how its double meanings can be hurtful yet empowering. He is educating us about this misuse and its danger which is more than many artist have done today. With that he faces a lot of backlash for the media and other rappers. He has been dropped from label and faced the same struggles that the musicians in the documentary faced. To me he is on small aspect of feminism, but just like all the others he is being pushed out since he cannot be branded like The Spice Girls or Beyonce.

To me today’s feminist in music would be

J. Cole

Lupe Fiasco

Mary J. Blige

Jhene Aiko

Lorde