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:
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.
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