Urge to (in for the) kill.... rising

[katstevens]

Oh dear, La Roux gets feminism wrong AGAIN

First it was 'girls look a bit stupid playing guitars', now this:

What's your stance on the way that female musicians either choose to or are forced to use a sexuality that's essentially just designed to appeal to men?

"It's really patronising to women. I know that there's far more ways to be sexy than to dress in a miniskirt and a tank top. If you're a real woman you can turn someone on in a plastic bag just by looking at them. That's what a real woman is, when you've got the sex eyes. I think you attract a certain kind of man by dressing like that. Women wonder why they get beaten up, or having relationships with arsehole men. Because you attracted one, you tw4t. It's a funny culture, it's definitely a funny culture. Those women are just insecure, but they'll turn round to me and say 'you're just jealous 'cos you want a tan and you want big boobs, stupid boy-looking girl'. You can't win, they wouldn't believe me for a second."

Jebus, is she *actually* saying that by dressing in a certain way, women are inviting men to abuse them? I think she is. Sigh.

Comments

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

To go all meta for a second: that annoys me too, somewhat, but what bothers me more is the idea that any women in her position must needs be assessed for Role Model potential, even if all she wants to do is perform some tunes!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Agree - am v wary of castigating people for being Bad Role Models b/c it's dumb to think of pop stars, athletes or whoever as being people whose behaviour/opinions/conduct should be copied. But La Roux is explicitly setting herself up as a role model/feminist inspiration and trailblazer so GNNNGGHH let her have it with both barrels, really.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

La Roux is explicitly setting herself up as a role model/feminist inspiration

Well, yes, I think if you do try and claim or imply you are such, then you deserve to be picked apart for this. Of course, I do think it's worth analysing whether some people/performers may, to a certain degree, feel a sense of compulsion to present as such - because if a large proportion of analysis of performers is centred around whether or not they're a good role model, people may feel required to have that conversation. A bit like the conversation about the attractiveness of female pop stars; even if LR sets herself up as opposing the "status quo", she's still operating within that narrow framework and appears to believe in it, so no real change there.

I'm wondering if the role model thing may be more of the same, although there seem to be far more people who want to give the impression that they *are* opting out - "I'm not a role model for anyone" is surely as much of a cliche now as "we make music for ourselves, we don't really expect anyone else to like it but it's a bonus if they do"?

I'm meandering. What I mean is, I think this is perhaps further evidence of the, shall we say, limited thought processes LR may have engaged in before chiming in on this subject. Unfortunately, she seems to think she's being profound. Tcch, young people today, etc.