i also love her analysis of 3oh!3

[ishyface]

I love Sady Doyle for many reasons. One of them is her fantastic Bitch blog about women in the music industry, She Pop, which includes a kind of amazing essay about how female artists are set up to fulfill the virgin/whore dichotomy instead of presenting themselves as well-rounded human beings.

We can talk about [Taylor Swift] as an "alternative" to Katy Perry, but what that misses is that the system is built on dichotomies and alternatives. Wife and mistress; the girl you sleep with and the girl you respect; the hot girl and the girl with substance; the smart girl and the sexy girl. The Media Image of Taylor Swift isn't creating a new alternative to The Media Image of Katy Perry; it's just stepping into the "alternative" role already provided by patriarchy, which has a vested interest in dividing women against each other and against themselves, in keeping them from being whole people, who can be smart and sexy, who can sleep with people and still fully believe that they deserve respect. These two images need each other; they couldn't function without each other. The girl in the white dress is nothing without the girl in red. And vice-versa.

Read the rest of it. You might like it.

Comments

[sayingwhatiam.livejournal.com]

I really like that article, but her other one about Taylor Swift makes me RAGE. Way to miss the entire point of "Fifteen," lady! Especially considering in the live version of the song, with Miley, Taylor sings the "Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind" part. Whatever. I DON'T LIKE WHEN PEOPLE ARE MEAN TO MY TAYLOR SWIFT, IDK. I GET DEFENSIVE.