I appreciate that my readers are comfortable discussing their opinions and ideas in an open forum on my blog. I find the exchange of ideas stimulating and challenging. I don't always have to agree with the opinions expressed. In fact, I rather enjoy a well-stated argument that challenges my beliefs because it forces me to re-evaluate my thinking. Reevaluating our beliefs is something that we all need to do on a regular basis.
On a different note, someone on Myspace wrote to ask my opinion of the latest cover of NME, where Beth Ditto of The Gossip appears in the nude.
Beth is one of the sexiest women I know. I know that some people find rail-thin females attractive and that's fine but it doesn't do it for me. Women who are curvaceous are much more attractive to me. Aside from that, women who are curvaceous, intelligent, talented and self-confident have every right to flaunt their sexuality if they want to. I guess the short answer to the question is that I don't have a problem with any individual appearing naked on the cover of a magazine but I am thrilled to see Beth on this particular cover. She IS the Queen of Cool.
Another super sexy, super talented and confident woman is Candye Kane.
In the early 80's, Candye also posed nude for a magazine, but it wasn't a music magazine. Her photos were considered pornography and were the object of controversy. I'm one of those people who enjoys pornography, strong, talented women, and the female form. Anyway, the point is that both women were sending the same message, which is that they are unabashedly sexual with every part of their beings, from their big, beautiful voices to their big, beautiful bodies.
It's no coincidence that both Candye and Beth are continuing the tradition of the great women blues singers like Bessie Smith. Bessie was just as free and forward with her own sexuality and she was not afraid to express it in her music.
Women like Bessie, Candye and Beth are women's women. They inspire us to let go of the hang-ups of trying to achieve some phony, externally imposed ideal of physical perfection. They accept themselves and invite us to accept ourselves. They are bold sexual predators, much more exciting and dangerous than the countless little sex kittens that litter TV and radio.
10 comments:
Alice,
You brought up some excellent points about women and sexuality and the portraial of women in music. Its something I have pondered and been in different minds about forever.
Too often it seems it is not a woman's sexuality as an artist, but what the (mostly male) audience fantasies of want they want her sexuality to be that is marketed, or otherwise put upfront.
The NME photo is not photographed in an erotic matter to me, it’s more confrontational. Which is fine, but I don't get the feeling the photographer saw her as an erotic or even an interesting figure. The lighting is stark, not sensual, her layers and curves are not depicted as beautiful, just there. The photo does not seem taken with any real affection or regard, respect for Beth.
As a musician, singer, songwriter, I found that my appearance was way more important to the marketing aspect, at least to "industry" and outsiders than if I was male. My musical contributions seemed too often minimized, to the point what I wore seemed more important than what I wrote or expressed.
I like make-up, getting all girl-y dressed up and all that goes with it. It seemed all too often I was either being pressured to dress down, be a "folkie" or get undressed, with few options in between, usually the ladder.
I really had to fight to not get pressurized into an image of a "sexy blonde" -with retouching- that was not Screech Owls. Its not that I am not or was not sexual, did not want to look sexy, but wanted to do so on my own terms, not as someone else might imagine, and way off and often amusing imaginations some did have. I worked 24/7 on music until hospitalized for exaustion. When in the hospital the nurses said they thought I was aneroxic and were surprised that I ate. Just the week before a television cameraMan said I should lose a few pounds..go figure.
Too often women musicians are persuaded into a sexuality that is not their design, but a marketing ploy. When that happens it is inevitable that she be judged one dimensionally, as sexual and will go further into a marketing abyss to recapture that audience that was never her design. I’ve seen women undress or act sexy during a gig to appeal/capture a dwindling audience, who came to see her not hear her. It can go all different ways and men, (not all) can be more intimidated by strong, sexy women and want to belittle them and that comes through from an audience too. Sexuality is never straight forward, onstage or off.
As a photographer I've photographed men and women, and looking back at the photos recently, the photos of men, (I happen to be hetro) are more sensual, more sexy perhaps, when I found them attractive in that way, than females I photographed. It was not something I ever planned, but shows in many of the photos.
The photos of women I've taken tend to be more peer group oriented, friendly, captures something else, but I never really photographed women sensually, though never planned it that way. Just another way to perceive a person, musician. Though I like the photos I have taken of the Bangs, (later to be Bangles), Backstage Pass, Excene and others, they reflect a different portrait than a hetro male photographer may capture.
As always you brought up some great points to ponder Alice, hope I haven’t rabbited on too long here.
Thanks again Alice,
I rabbit on more in my blog..
http://blog.myspace.com/debbie_screechowls
about the subject, but its pretty well covered already in these pages..
oh yeah, and another thing...as there always is..there was pressure on punkettes to be petite..I remember when I boyfriend warned that if I ate an Okie dog, or was it a Canters cake, that I would "bloat like Belinda" and he was her pal so punk was far from immune..
I was weaned on Bessie. My favorite song is You've Got To Give Me Some. And, yes, she truly was a woman's woman, wink wink, nudge nudge.
…and at the risk of seeming horrible pretentious, I’m reminded of a quote from Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss, which I managed to find using Amazon Book Search:
“As I watched the contortions of the jeune premier, whose scanty costume showed to advandage his curls, his double chin and his ample proportions. I remembered a sentence I had read a few days before on the literary page of a local paper, and which I transcribe textually because of the characteristic Anglo-Indian flavour: ‘…and the young girls who sigh as they gaze into the vast blueness of the sky, or what are they thinking? Of fat, prosperous suitors…’ The reference to fat suitors had surprised me, but as I watched the stage where the self-satisfied hero was causing the folds of his stomach to undulate, and remembered the starving beggars I would see as I left the theatre, I gained a better understanding of the poetic value of repletion for a society living in such close and painful familiarity with famine. The English, incidentally, realized that the surest way to give the impression of being supermen was to convince the natives that they need a much greater quantity of food than is required by ordinary man.”
"Bold sexual predators"? "Exciting and dangerous"?
Hey Jenny, does this describe you?
Anonymous,
Was my writing unclear? You're using my words, but calling out Jenny. If you have something you want to say spit it out.
Alice
I swear they foto shopped Beth Ditto in that picture, i swear she has a bigger belly than that. BIG IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
hay my dn marley son bob marley
look mè blog
http://dnmystimarley.blogspot.com
I have never responded to a blog but this is the time & the place. I was always a bit thicker growing up - not really a big girl but not skinny - & ended up "ballooning," as many ass-faces have pointed out.
I was a punk rock teen with a foot tall mohawk & bitchin' clothes that I altered myself. I would buy an old pair of plaid, wool golf pants, buy some measured zippers, bondage rings, & other details at a local leather shop & make beautiful things. Although I could make anything I desired to wear or decorate my body, I still felt a huge push to be skinny. The girls that were "desirable" in the scene & had a reputation for such were often some unreachable size 1 or 2 & about 6 inches taller than my 5 foot frame. I literally starved myself to get to a size 6. STARVED!
At 20 I began to fill out and I have been steady at a size 16 for 3 years. I still do feel the pressure to lose weight though my lifestyle has changed a great deal. I have a partner who sought out a BBW & LOVES my body more than I can even stand sometimes, I got to be a size 14 cheerleader in college (with tattoos. HOT!), I am accepted by my fabulous friends but I still feel constant pressure from my family that is soooooo bloody concerned about my "health," my sister who underwent a gastric bypass & has gone from 360 pounds to 220 in the last year, media, and my own overwhelming desire to be what I find attractive. Although I can appreciate the sentiment, I have always found the very tall & very thin attractive. I can never be tall (obv) & will probably never be skinny. It hurts. Gross, right?!
My boyfriend can get wood when my shirt rides up & a little belly shows but I cannot even find one place on my body that I think is beautiful. Not one.
The media ruined this for me long ago. I grew up with Warrant videos for "Cherry Pie," and this eventually evolved to naughty Alicia Silverstone & Liv Tyler doing naughty things in "Crazy" by Aerosmith, to having to be in a scene with less female representation than I would prefer and gaunt was in, to adulthood where Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, & even Brittany Spears have been called "thick," Ex-fucking-cuse me?! Really?! And even Kate Dillon, a plus sized model, is only a size 10, 12 & she is almost 6 feet tall so where does not leave a chick like me? I cannot wear Forever 21 or Gap or any of that shit, I also cannot wear Lane Bryant because I am not one of the amazons. I am 5 feet tall & a size 16...I don't need spandex wasted pants and oversized beefy tees. I still have a waste & taste, thank you fashion industry.
This trend has to give at some point. I think of classic paintings & how we still think of these woman as beauties but why does the media make fools of these curvy women when they are in the flesh? Why is the model even called "plus sized?" Why isn't she just a model. That's it. Why does the big girl always have to be just that - the big girl? Why is being fat suddenly part of our character & personality but being skinny is not treated as such. It's like when white people will say "there was this BLACK GUY & these two ladies" not just "there was this guy & two ladies." Same diff. People will say the "fat chick" or "big girl" &c. in the same fashion, as though this information is so damned integral to the story or description.
To be real, I could go on about this for another 100 pages & I would just get more & more angry. Just know that I have a lot more in me, I am just saving you from the dullness of a rant. Peace.
i happen to think it is awesome to see a beautiful curvaceous smart and talented woman to pose nude on a magazine some guys may like the stick thin woman and hey so be it but me myself i like a woman with curves and for a to be confident about herself and like her body cause big woman r just as beautiful and just as sexy as ppl who like those thin woman there is just more to love when it comes to big woman and there is nothing wrong with that i always been attracted to mia tyler and beth ditto and ditto being a beautiful sxy plus size model and tyler being a a big beautiful sxy singer and both appreciate there bodys like they do that is HOT! to me keep doing what you doing ladys congrats
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