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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Annie Lennox Slams Beyonce's 'Twerking' Feminism

In interview, one legendary singer, long known for feminist views and activism, critiques another who claims maybe a different form of feminism.  Last month Annie Lennox called Beyonce's type "feminism lite"--and now, specifically hitting her highly-sexualized and booty-exposing performances (over and over)  says "twerking is not feminism.  That's what I'm referring to. It's not—it's not liberating, it's not empowering. It's a sexual thing that you're doing on a stage; it doesn't empower you. That's my feeling about it.""
The reason why I've commented is because I think that this overt sexuality thrust—literally—at particular audiences, when very often performers have a very, very young audience, like 7 years older, I find it disturbing and I think its exploitative. It's troubling. I'm coming from a perspective of a woman that's had children.
In the previous interview she said referring to the trend beyond Beyonce:
I see a lot of it as them taking the word hostage and using it to promote themselves, but I don't think they necessarily represent wholeheartedly the depths of feminism - no, I don't. I think for many it's very convenient and it looks great and it looks radical, but I have some issues with it. I have issues with it. Of course I do. I think it's a cheap shot. I think what they do with it is cheap and ... yeah. What can I tell you? Sex always sell. And there's nothing wrong with sex selling, but it depends on your audience. If they're 7-year-old kids, I have issues with it. 

1 comment:

LJansen said...

I'm afraid if Annie is okay with sex selling, then her argument is specious. Porn is a huge industry, mostly profiting men.

In a sense, why did she bother speaking at all, if she was going to pull her punches.