Ms.Huxtable Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 ... is this??? Why is being a female recording artist these days synonymous with being a whore? (Or at least dressing like one). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Musicface Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 Hey Ms. Hux, I wouldn't get too worked up about it - this is a lady named "Foxy Brown" (I'm guessing not her real name) we're looking at here. I'd hardly call her an "artist". Now, if Ani DiFranco or Joni Mitchell start dressing like that, I'll be the first to declare civilization officially over! Peace, Mr. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 Well, it's not all female artists, just some of them. Second, noone ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American / Canadian / world public. If you asked her why she was dressing like a slut, and why it seemed like she was objectifying women, she'd probably double-speak at you about how her "choice" to dress that way actually empowers women. Yeah, right... I think what concerns me about the way she dresses is not so much that she's portraying herself as an object, but that young(er) female artists (and fans) will think they have to dress this way to get noticed/attention/signed. Aloha, Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 I hear ya! Look at the tramps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Musicface Posted February 24, 2003 Report Share Posted February 24, 2003 quote:Originally posted by bradm: If you asked her why she was dressing like a slut, and why it seemed like she was objectifying women, she'd probably double-speak at you about how her "choice" to dress that way actually empowers women. Yeah, right...Definitely right Brad, but you're always gonna have that to some extent. And occasionally it's even true - arguably when Madonna did the Sex book and all the crazy concert shit that went along with that tour, it was in some ways a great thing for women's empowerment. Certainly it's the exception to the rule, but it does exist. Personally, I think you're always gonna have certain people using what they can use to get ahead in any business, in the entertainment business it's just a bit more blatant 'cus you're out in front of the crowd as a matter of course. Hell, men use their sexuality to get ahead in music as well, (look at your Ricky Martins or any of those dudes) it's just a little less extreme 'cus women generally don't react in as pig-like a fashion to men dressing super-skimpy. But if it was gonna get them ahead, there's someone who would have showed up to the Grammy's last night in a Speedo, be sure of it! I think the up-side of the music business is that you're gonna have folks (women and men) who are getting by on their musical talent exclusively (or at least primarily). That's why women who (may or may not be totally beautiful but) are actually musically talented can do well. Lauren Hill, Bjork & Ani spring to mind - personally I find all three totally attractive, each in their own way, but they don't abuse it the way these sugar-pop stars to get ahead 'cus it's not what they're selling. The ones that are selling that, well I'm generally not listening to them myself and a doubt many of the folks that hang around here are either. - M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcane Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 Heaven forbid I say this, but sometimes it's nice to feel sexy and to be treated if you're sexy. It's also nice to be treated like you deserve someone's attention (hopefully in a positive way). This is doubly true for those of us that are older and more world-weary than the rest of the gang. It's not the way she portrays herself that bothers me--if she wants to carrry herself like a tramp, so be it. Go ahead, live life large, strain a few eyeballs, then go home and put on a pair of pink fuzzy slippers. No, I'm saddened by the fact that the stereotypical definition of feminine beauty is so narrow and so extreme, especially at a time when our accessibility to the media is so overwhelming. We have so many options, so much to choose from, so much to experience, yet we gravitate to *that*. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey d Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 many of these females i wouldnt realy consider musicians. now, ani difranco, theres a musician . . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 Stinkin' whores.................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
\/\/illy Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 paisley from Willy's : November 5, 1997 Marcia Ann Gillespie Editor in Chief Ms. Magazine 135 W. 50th Street 16th Floor New York, NY 10020 So I'm poring through the 25th anniversary issue of Ms. (on some airplane going somewhere in the amorphous blur that amounts to my life) and I'm finding it endlessly enlightening and stimulating as always, when, whaddaya know, I come across a little picture of little me. I was flattered to be included in that issue's "21 feminists for the 21st century" thingybob. I think ya'll are runnin the most bold and babe-olishious magazine around, after all. Problem is, I couldn't help but be a little weirded out by the paragraph next to my head that summed up her me-ness and my relationship to the feminist continuum. What got me was that it largely detailed my financial successes and sales statistics. My achievements were represented by the fact that I "make more money per album sold than Hootie and the Blowfish," and that my catalogue sales exceed 3/4 of a million. It was specified that I don't just have my own record company but my own "profitable" record company. Still, the ironic conclusion of the aforementioned blurb is a quote from me insisting "it's not about the money." Why then, I ask myself, must "the money" be the focus of so much of the media that surrounds me? Why can't I escape it, even in the hallowed pages of Ms.? Firstly, this "Hootie and the Blowfish" business was not my doing. The LA Times financial section wrote an article about my record label, Righteous Babe Records, in which they raved about the business savvy of a singer (me) who thwarted the corporate overhead by choosing to remain independent, thereby pocketing $4.25 per unit, as opposed to the $1.25 made by Hootie or the $2.00 made by Michael Jackson. This story was then picked up and reprinted by The New York Times, Forbes magazine, the Financial News Network, and (lo and behold) Ms. So here I am, publicly morphing into some kinda Fortune 500-young-entrepreneur-from-hell, and all along I thought I was just a folksinger ! Ok, it's true. I do make a much larger profit (percentage-wise) than the Hootster. What's even more astounding is that there are thousands of musicians out there who make an even higher profit percentage than me! How many local, musicians are there in your community who play gigs in bars and coffee shops about town? I bet lots of them have made cassettes or CDS which they'll happily sell to you with a personal smile from the edge of the stage or back at the bar after their set. Would you believe these shrewd, profit-minded wheeler-dealers are pocketing a whopping _100%_ of the profits on the sales of those puppies?! Wait till the Financial News Network gets a whiff of _them_! I sell approximately 2.5% of the albums that a Joan Jewelanis Morrisette sells and get about .05% of the airplay royalties, so obviously if it all comes down to dollars and cents, I've led a wholly unremarkable life. Yet I choose relative statistical mediocrity over fame and fortune because I have a bigger purpose in mind. Imagine how strange it must be for a girl who has spent 10 years fighting as hard as she could against the lure of the corporate carrot and the almighty forces of capital, only to be eventually recognized by the power structure as a business pioneer. I have indeed sold enough records to open a small office on the half-abandoned main street in the dilapidated urban center of my hometown, Buffalo, N.Y. I am able to hire 15 or so folks to run and constantly reinvent the place while I drive around and play music for people. I am able to give stimulating business to local printers and manufacturers and to employ the services of independent distributors, promoters, booking agents and publicists. I was able to quit my day job and devote myself to what I love. And yes, we are enjoying modest profits these days, affording us the opportunity to reinvest in innumerable political and artistic endeavors. RBR is no Warner Bros. But it is a going concern, and for me, it is a vehicle for redefining the relationship between art and commerce in my own life. It is a record company which is the product not just of my own imagination, but that of my friend and manager Scot Fisher and of all the people who work there. People who incorporate and coordinate politics, art and media every day into a people-friendly, sub-corporate, woman-informed, queer-happy small business that puts music before rock stardom and ideology before profit. And me. I'm just a folksinger, not an entrepreneur. My hope is that my music and poetry will be enjoyable and/or meaningful to someone, somewhere, not that I maximize my profit margins. It was 15 years and 11 albums getting to this place of notoriety and, if anything, I think I was happier way back when. Not that I regret any of my decisions, mind you. I'm glad I didn't sign on to the corporate army. I mourn the commodification and homogenization of music by the music industry, and I fear the manufacture of consent by the corporately-controlled media. Last thing I want to do is feed the machine. I was recently mortified while waiting in the dressing room before one of my own shows. Some putz suddenly takes the stage to announce me and exclaim excitedly that this was my "largest sold-out crowd to date!" "Oh, really?," I'm thinking to myself, "that's interesting...too bad it's not the point." All of my achievements are artistic, as are all of my failures. That's just the way I see it. Statistical plateau or no. I'll bust ass for 60 people, or 6,000, watch me. I have so much respect for Ms. magazine. If I couldn't pick it up at newsstands my brain probably would've atrophied by now on some trans-Atlantic flight and I would be lying limp and twitchy in a bed of constant travel, staring blankly into the abyss of the gossip magazines. Ms. is a structure of media wherein women are able to define themselves, and articulate for themselves those definitions. We wouldn't point to 21 of the feminists moving into the 21st century and define them in terms of "Here's Becky Ballbuster from Iowa City, she's got a great ass and a cute little button nose..." No ma'am. We've gone beyond the limited perceptions of sexism and so we should move beyond the language and perspective of the corporate patriarchy. The Financial News Network may be ultimately impressed with me now that I've proven to them that there's a life beyond the auspices of papa Sony, but do I really have to prove this to _you_? We have the ability and the opportunity to recognize women not just for the financial successes of their work but for the work itself. We have the facility to judge each other by entirely different criteria than those is imposed upon us by the superstructure of society. We have a view which reaches beyond profit margins into poetry, and a vocabulary to articulate the difference. Thanks for including me, Ms., really. But just promise me one thing; if I drop dead tomorrow, tell me my grave stone won't read: ani d. CEO. Please let it read: songwriter musicmaker storyteller freak. -Ani DiFranco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Freak Posted February 25, 2003 Report Share Posted February 25, 2003 Ms Hux- I think I saw that dress on sale at Fabricland for $9.99/metre. It also came in hot pink and manic purple. But I think it's the bra that pulls this classy outfit together. Madonna, she ain't.... T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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