Women in Popular Music

my criticism of women in pop case study

Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark, 1974

Chris Robert's review of Court and Spark for a BBC music review, 2011

-pure but sensuous voice

-Joni Mitchell is damn sexy

The Riot Grrrl Movement

early 1990s

US

underground feminist punk movement

combines feminism, punk music and politics

3rd wave feminism

examples - Janis Joplin, Siouxsie Sioux

what did typical riot grrrl songs address?

rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy, classism, anarchism and female empowerment.

Grunge and Punk

explicit antisexism

close proximity to Riot Grrrl movement

high proportion of female performers

however, overtime, reclaimed as masculine space

(Catherine Strong, 2011!)

Rock

rock attempts to contain with moniker 'women in rock' - othering (ed. Whiteley, 1997)

Singer-songwriter genre

viewed as arty, feminine solipsism e.g. Joni Mitchell as narcissism personified

Pop

women exist in limbo in the lyrics - not mothers, wives, divorced, pregnant

Authenticity regarding popular music

it promotes commodification of the black body and delegitimises female artists (Amanda Nell Edgar)

Subjectivity (in a historical context)

an attempt to see history from the perspective of the individuals who live that history

Gendered subjectivity

the move from 'sex' to 'gender' as part of women's liberation movement challenging idea of women's innate sexuality

what could be classed as an arena through which gender identities are developed?

1990s girl groups (Nicola Dibben) but also 1960s girl groups

Second-wave feminist 1960s Girl Groups

songs aimed at a female audience deny or repress sexuality

In female rock song, the lyrics...

appropriate the love talk of a mother and redirects it into discourse of adult male-female relations

the mother-baby discourse is key to female performance

Freudian

(Bradby, 1990)

In male rock song, the lyrics...

make women into silent objects of exchange between men

(Bradby, 1990)

Use of pronouns in 60s girl groups

passive - 'he walked me home' - reality

active - 'I'm gonna make him mine' - fantasy

(Bradby, 1990)

ideas of romance in 60s girl group songs present

problematic passivity and compulsive heterosexuality

(Bradby, 1990)

Tori Amos 2007 album American Doll Posse

-neoliberal

-uses personae that satirise and repossessed patriarchal constructions of pop femininity

-song 'Big Wheel' praises MILFs - financial dependence distanced from motherhood

Annie Lennox

(Rodger, 2004)

-commentaries on her performance are mainly centred on her assumption of male dress in live performance and music video

-her male clothing did not heighten her own femininity but completely masked it

-she exposed perfomativity of gender

-she undermined gender construction

-her work shows women in pop can avoid the sexy, cute female pop star image

Miley Cyrus' 2013 MTV VMA performance

(Smith, 2017)

-'We Can't Stop'

-she presents contradictory convergences of gender, race, sexuality and power (twerking on Thicke as he rubs crotch with giant foam finger)

-spread of pornographic imagery into popular culture

-pornification of contemporary society

-she is a messy convergence of the contradictory struggles of young women's lives

postfeminism and pop music

-obsessive preoccupation with the body

-heterosexist imperative

(Smith, 2017)

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's WAP

-2020

-5 writers, 3 male

-hailed as landmark moment in feminism

-actually a highly problematic culmination of sexist and racist stereotypes

-blurs porn with reality

-continues to portray femininity as passive and subordinate to masculinity

- depiction of liberated choice to conform to white-male created stereotypes

-objectifies women under male gaze

-attracts liberal-minded people using false alibi of empowerment

(Mackay, 2021)

Janice Turner's key quote on postfeminism in pop music (2005)

The sexually liberated modern woman turns out to resemble - what do you know - the pneumatic, take-me-now-big-boy **** puppet of male fantasy after all

What did Sarah Gamble think postfeminism meant?

-women dressing like bimbos, yet claiming male attitudes

-women unwilling to condemn pornography

-heterosexism

(Gamble, 2001)

What is the post-feminist babe?

The new ladette (according to Sarah Gamble, 2001)

Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, 1993

-use of overt heterosexuality

-appealed to male audience as Phair presents herself as sex object

-presents feminism as individual responsibility

(Keenan, 2010)

Key lyric in Liz Phair's song 'Flower'

'I want to be your ****-job queen'

What does Jack Halberstam connote femininity to?

white and female

What does Jack Halberstam connote masculinity to?

working class and black

Key Jack Halberstam points

-hirsute bodies as essential ugliness

-female masculinity so tied with female homosexuality

-there is a standoff between female masculinity and feminism

bell hooks on black feminism - KEY QUOTE

Sexism and racism have so informed the perspective of American historiographers that they have tended to overlook and exclude the effort of black women in discussions of the American women's rights movement

bell hooks on white feminists

they have also ignored the contribution of black women

2 contradictory quotes from Lady Gaga's 2009 interview

-when I [express my sexuality as male rockers do] because I'm female, you say it's distracting...I'm just a rockstar

-I'm not a feminist...I love men

Critique of Gaga and Feminism

-it is pseudofeminism

-she encourages women to experience self-objectification - a giddy expression of personal power

Praise for Gaga and feminism

-Jack Halberstam views Gaga feminism as the next wave of people that will see mulitple genders and find the male/female dichotomies to be outdated and illogical

-her aesthetic is androgynous

-she juxtaposes conventional bleached-blonde beauty with fashionably ugly costumes

-she embraces her queer fans

-she is now an ambassador for sexual assault survivors

teeny bop (Frith and McRobbie, 1978)

based onself-pity, vulnerability, and need...the young boy next door: sad, thoughtful, pretty, and puppylike

audience mostly female

cock rock (Frith and McRobbie, 1978)

aggressive, dominating, and boastful, and they constantly seek to remind theaudience of their prowess

audience is mostly male

masculinity in rock according to Frith and McRobbie, 1978

masculinity in rock isnot determined by one all-embracing definition, rather, rock offers a framework within whichmale sexuality can find a range of acceptable, heterosexual expressions

Bradby on girl talk and mother speech in rock 'The Ronettes' etc

1990

Susan McClary's quote on marvel at sheer existence of women

2000

Susan Fast on re-writing women back into the canon

2009

Downes on punk and riot grrrl

2012

When was the riot grrl manifesto written?

1991

Shyna Maskell on the corporate takeover of female empowerment and hyper-sexualised female artists

2013

Keenan on Liz Phair

2010

Burns and Lafrance on Crucify

2002

Tori Amos discussing how her work is about women claiming their power

1995

Smith on the pornification of society

2017

Jack Halberstam on Gaga Feminism

2013

Mackay on WAP

2021

Shyna Maskell discusses the corporate takeover of ... and the cranking out of hypersexualised ...

female empowerment

groups e.g. Spice Girls (2013)

retaining NONE of the riot girlll radical feminist spirit

What did the riot grrrl movement do, according to Maskell, 2013?

They questioned, subverted, and ultimately upset boundaries as to what sounds could be categorised as male

What type of feminism does Elizabeth Keenan suggest Liz Phair presents in Exile in Guyville?

"do-me feminism" 2010

Phair on the sexualisation of her act:

"My sexuality was going to be packaged for me, so I did it myself" (Keenan, 2010)

Overarching theme of this type of 3rd/4th wave feminism:

middle-class, white, educated (e.g. Liz Phair) and "white solipsism" - Adrienne Rich

What did Liz Phairs albusm depend upon? (Keenan, 2010)

her heterosexual, overtly seductive image, RATHER than upon her music

Mavis Bayton (1998) on women's traditional role in music:

"Women have been positioned as consumers and fans, and in supportive roles (wife, mother, girlfriend) rather than active producers of music: musicians"

Women are ... in their careers by the role they play in the feminine sphere

handicapped (Bayton, 1998)

Paradoxically, the 'male' music world is dependent upon...

young female consumers (Bayton, 1998)

What is female singing defined as?

Emotional expression, rather than a learnt craft or a set of refined skills (Bayton, 1998)

Why is singing acceptable for women?

The female voice is unreplicable (by men!) (Bayton, 1998)

What did women use the punk movement for?

To open up subcultural space for the transgression of gender and sexual hegemony (Downes, 2012)

What did the riot grrrl movement encourage?

Politicised participation of girls and young women in independent punk music culture (Downes, 2012)

Is punk music and culture essentially male?

No - but they have been "socially re-produced as masculine within a set of contested gendered spaces, discourses, and practices (Downes, 2012)

Riot grrrl made implicit feminist potential of women's punk subcultural resistance more ...

explicit (Downes, 2012)

What is the postmodern theorist claim that Burns and Lafrance criticise (2002)?

"all expression, even the most rebellious forms, is tamed and made completely inauthentic by its 'incorporation' into multinational corporate capitalism"

What do fewer and fewer feminist treatises speak to? (Burns and Lafrance, 2002)

the radical potential of feminist consciousness channelled through popular aesthetic forms

5 key points in favour of Tori Amos' work (Burns and Lafrance, 2002)

1) she adopts a countercultural position

2) her symbolic attacks on male supremacy make her music disconcerting

3) she articulates gynocentred traumas

4) she seized creative and productive reins

5) she reflects on the autobiographical female voice

What did Tori Amos say in 1995 about her own songs?

"They're about the breaking down of the patriarchy within relationships and the idea of women claiming their own power"

What are the benefits of today's social media platforms?

They allow girls to engage in criticism as well as connect with other girls (Dougher and Pecknold, 2016)

Dougher and Pecknold on Britney Spears' catholic-school-girl-drag, or the kawaii cuteness of J-pop teen idols? (2016)

It is "performative girlhood"

What have girls always been in the music industry, according to (Dougher and Pecknold, 2016)?

hypervisible as screaming idol fans

Liz Phair flower lyric exmaples:

"Every time I see your face I get all wet between my legs"

"I want to f**k you like a dog"

Tori Amos Crucify lyrics

"I crucify myself and nothing I do is good enough for you"

Example of a riot grrl band, and their lyrics

Delta 5

'Mind your own business'

"Can I interfere in your crisis? No, mind your own business"

Key phrase from Riot Grrrl manifesto: (1991)

"We are angry at a society that tells us Girl=Dumb, Girl=Bad, Girl=Weak"

Frifth and McRobbie on rock and sexuality

1978

Key Whiteley, 2000 quote on a current feminist debate

whether there was any real opportunity to challenge sexual stereotyping given the power of the madonna-w***e binary

Key ed. Whiteley, 1997 quotes

- rock as "homosocial world of young men"

Why are women written out of accounts according to Strong, 2011?

To reinscribe the creative dominance of men in this field

What did Catherine Strong do?

Interviewed fans of early 90s Grunge in Australia

What did one respondent of Catherine Strong's interviewing state?

"Courtney Love is just a dirty rock slut" (Strong, 2011)

What does Catherine Strong say about grunge and gender equality?

The message of gender equality may never have impacted greatly on audiences (Strong, 2011)

What happened to Grunge bands such as Hole?

They have been conveniently subsumed by the riot grrrl movement (Strong, 2011)

What ongoing struggle does Downes, 2012 mention?

The ongoing struggle between punk, indie-pop, feminism and queer discourses in the negotiation of gender and sexual power relations in music subcultures

What is the sad reality of riot grrrl gigs that Downes, 2011 discusses?

Men attempted to reassert male dominance at the gigs (at which female artists put up signs explaining women should be at the front of the stage)

Riot grrrl gigs became spaces of danger, humiliation, and assault

What was a convenient way to compartmentalise women?

Riot Grrrl (Strong, 2011)