Taylor Swift vs. Miley Cyrus

Disclaimer: I do not like the music of Miley Cyrus OR Taylor Swift, not my thing. I'm merely talking about their images and the world's perception of them. Not their music.



Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift. Upon hearing those names very different images come to mind. But they are both young women currently ruling the music industry. They are also not the types of people who are associated strictly with their music. We hear about them all the time in tabloids, on E! News, etc. They aren't just musicians, they are celebrities. And the images they both choose to portray are very different. And while they are not necessarily people that are pitted against each other, their images are. Their audiences are both mainly young girls, and through that, young girls parents. I think that the reactions to Cyrus and Swift are strong representations of the good girl/bad girl dichotomy, and therefore the virgin/whore dichotomy from which it stems. After all, there's a reason why the 'Angel/Devil girl' stickers are on so many cars!



We'll start with Taylor Swift. Angelic, sweet, every parents dream, Taylor Swift. She's arguably one of the most popular female artists of the past 5 years. Her album, Fearless, was one of the highest selling albums of the year. She's won basically every award a popular musician can win. She even got into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Basically, she's wildly popular. And aside from her music, people just really like her as a person. She always dresses modestly, she has a sweet demeanor, you don't hear bad things about her in the press. She has said that she has never, ever had a cigarette. She definitely has parental approval. All of these are good things! But she definitely cashes in on the 'good girl' image. Let's look at the lyrics to her popular song "You Belong With Me":

But she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts

and

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers

The ultimate good girl/bad girl analogy. Obviously this song isn't something that you can find a lot of depth or meaning in, but I think it's interesting that in those two lines she's inferring that the girl she's comparing herself to is a bad girl, and that's why she has the guy. Those pesky bad girls! I think this image pretty much sums up how this is the general theme of the video:



The image Taylor Swift emits is pretty obvious. So let's move on to the bad girl...



Miley Cyrus. She's been in the spotlight a bit longer than Swift. When we first started hearing about her she was 14 and on Hannah Montana. She was a likable, pubescent little girl. But of course, there's no way you can grow up in the spotlight correctly. Remember the shitstorm over her Vanity Fair cover?



Parents went crazy over that. And since then the 'Miley Cyrus is a bad role model' talk has only escalated. There have been the scandals over her giving lapdances, living with her boyfriend, etc. She has tattoos and piercings now. And obviously, she's been dressing up her sexuality a lot more in clothing. Perez Hilton (who is kind of the scum of the earth) has begun to call her Slutty Cyrus. He even posted a crotch shot of her recently to try to get her to be more "ladylike". Yeah. Seriously. Her video for Can't Be Tamed is a far cry from her Hannah Montana days.




Now, I NEVER support a woman riding completely on her sexuality, using it as her only asset. But I don't think Cyrus has reached that point just yet, and I hope that she never does.

So....why is Swift thought of as a better person and a better role model than Cyrus?

This is where the virgin/whore dichotomy comes in, big time. The idea behind purity is that a woman's only asset is her sexuality, that if a woman is sexually pure it somehow automatically makes her a good person. If she isn't sexually pure, she is a bad person. This complex looks past morals and all the other things that make a person a good one. Swift fits the pure virgin mold so perfectly, and Cyrus goes against that. So the judgment is placed on what kind of people they are by how they present their sexuality.

Also, why is Swift's music more 'role modely' than Cyrus's? The only themes presented in Swift's music are that it's okay for girls to build their lives around boys. She constantly sings about crushin' on boys, crying over them, obsessing over them, fantasizing about how happy they would be together. If you want your daughters to grow up admiring the idea that you should never be independent, and that romantic relationships really function like they do in fairytales, than I guess she is the better role model. But Cyrus currently sings about breaking molds, denying expectations, and, in her own weird little way, being independent. She isn't giving in to the idea that teen girls should be obsessed with boys. That's an idea I'd like to promote to young women.

I think it's great that Cyrus is experimenting with her sexuality, and even better that she is unapologetic about it. She's only a month older than me, so in a way I relate with her. I'd rather see her try to break out of the virginal mold Disney had set for her than fall into the Swift-style image of perpetual girlhood. Neither of them are super awesome women, and if I had to recommend any females to look up to, they wouldn't be on the list. But I think they do bring up some very important things to talk about as far as the standards we put out for young girls. And it's worth questioning if the 'bad girl' is the one who's really bad...

Misogyny Is Sooo Metal!

Man Hating: it's the oldest feminist stereotype in the book. And it's usually the go-to excuse for not being a feminist, not supporting feminism, etc. It's obviously a huge misconception. And like any feminist stereotype, or any stereotype at all, it's perpetuated by ignorance and fear. But it is such an outdated and uneducated assumption that's it's not even worth it to really address it further. You know that anyone who says the feminists are 'man haters' doesn't know what they're talking about and is completely uneducated on the subject, so why bother? In situations like that I address how what they are saying is completely false, but generally don't go further than that because my attempts at educating those kinds of people are usually fails. But I want to talk about the other side of 'man hating', woman hating.

Now I'm not talking general sexism or discrimination, I'm talking actual woman hating. I'm going beyond general sexism into the realm of men truly hating on women. And today I'm specifically talking about woman hating that I've witnessed. It's something that I really began noticing in my early days, when I was merely blossoming as a feminist, not yet identifying with the movement, when I was running on feminist ideals, but not knowing that's what they were yet. I was in 8th grade, and trying as hard as I could to rebel against my Catholic school environment, as I had been doing my whole life. I was constantly looking for ways I could break away from my school life and my peers. That's when I found Leathernecks. Leathernecks was a music venue at a military bar. It catered to Las Vegas's hardcore and metal music scenes. I remember going to my first show there, and just having my mind blown. It was a completely different world than the one I lived in from 7 to 1 each day. The music was loud and angry, as were the people. The show-goers had tattoos, piercings, gauges. My friend and I were always the youngest ones there. And mostly, I'd never seen people behave that way to music.



That's a video of a show at Leathernecks, and the band playing is one of the first bands I ever saw play there, Misericordiam. And they are probably the best example of woman hating I can think of. They have songs with titles such as 'Cum Sucking Whore' and 'Scab Wound in Your Stabbed Womb'. Yeah. Seriously. Not even kidding (and what's interesting is in one of there songs they 'sing' about not subjugating anyone, including women....hmm...) And Misericordiam is in no way an independent subject, I saw countless bands at Leathernecks that were just like that. Let's look at the lyrics for a band called Waking the Cadaver's song Raped, Pillaged, and Gutted

Raped, pillaged, and gutted
I could only imagine the fear in your mind
As my hands grab your throat from behind
No doubt
For this bitch
I'll use the pressure point choke out
Because when it comes to sluts
It's a good chance your gonna see my glock, before you see my cock


Yeah. That shit is for real. And because one example is never enough, here is a pretty well known band called Cannibal Corpse's take on woman hating, through their song She Was Asking For It:

I hear her screaming, waiting.
I wrapped my hands around her neck, squeezing out her breath.
Eyes rolled back in her head, clawing at my skin.
I know now it's not my fault, she was asking for it.
Memories, come back to me.


Obviously, there is SO much wrong here. The glorifying of violence against women, the glorifying of violence in general, it's obviously absolutely horrifying. And because the lyrics are never discernible when you're listening to this music, when I first started going to these shows and hanging out with these people, I didn't realize this was happening. But when I did, I was thoroughly disgusted and questioned my friends who listened to this, as well as the ones in bands who followed this style. The general consensus was that they weren't serious, they were just angry about ex girlfriends and were fantasizing about what they wanted to do to those 'sluts'. And the Leathernecks folks were grade-A slut bashers. Now, I've always had a problem with the 'slut' word, I try so hard not to use it, it's my feminist vice. But occasionally I do, and when I slip, I acknowledge it. But these people saw nothing wrong with slut shaming. They paraded around in 'Slut Free' shirts. The phrase 'Slut Free' became a staple of Las Vegas hardcore/metal. This is one of many pictures that made it's way onto tee shirts, hoodies, and the myspaces of Leathernecks goers, both male and female:



The brass knuckles show just how nonchalantly acceptable violence against 'sluts' was accepted amongst this crowd. Not violence against women, of course. Just 'sluts'. And this crowd was notorious for preaching respect and integrity, especially because of the heavy involvement from straight edge people. They had some problems with hypocrisy and mixed messages. I split from this scene very quickly, but a friend of mine (who is a friend no longer) stayed with it. Through her involvement I witnessed one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen. It was when I was in high school, long after I had moved on from my Leathernecks phase. Nude pictures of my friend from when she was 14 made their way onto a forum inhabited by people I knew from Leathernecks shows. And she wasn't the only one. Men AND women from the shows I used to go to were posting naked photos, or 'nudes', of other girls from that scene. Along with the photos would be stories about what 'sluts' these girls are. Most of the posters were anonymous, but in most situations it was still pretty easy to figure out who was who. It was the ultimate act of slut shaming. The site didn't last long, it was removed maybe a month or so after it had gained a big viewership, and as far as I know nothing like that has come back up, but to this day I still look back on that and feel absolutely horrified that it ever happened.

With all this you might think, well, that's a specific group of people, they have problems, but that's as far as it goes. Definitely not. I had several experiences in high school involving woman hating. There are two people that I can think of specifically, two men. They were both good friends of mine, we spent a lot of time together and got along very well. But both of them ended up have romantic feelings for me which I did not return. And I had to reject their advances. Now, no one likes to get rejected. It sucks. But you mope a bit, think a few bad thoughts internally about that person, then move on. At least, that's how things should happen. But in these situations, that did NOT happen. These two boys reacted ridiculously to the rejection. First, they broke off their friendships with me. Then, they went on to attempt to make everyone else they knew hate me. They wanted me to seem like this horrible person because I did not have romantic or sexual feelings for them. They talked a lot of shit, 'slut' was thrown around, and they basically just reacted through hate. I saw this happen to so many girls in highschool. So many girls were attacked for breaking up with someone or rejecting them. I saw so many cases of woman hating spawned by not getting what was wanted.

In cases like the ones I saw in highschool, and the ones I saw in Leathernecks, these people hate women because they didn't respect them in the first place. They're viewing the women in their lives as people who exist solely to inflate their egos, to follow their rules, and when these women don't do that, they react violently or cruelly.

Slut-shaming is the most prime example of woman hating, and it's a huge problem. I want to do a whole post on slut-shaming, and my own problems with it, so expect that soon.


I just don't understand why we live in a world where it's acceptable to hate women who don't do you what you want or fill your expectations. Men should never, EVER have a sense of entitlement when it comes to women. End of story.

Gaga, ooo la la!

Today we're talking Gaga. My favorite! I was really hoping I'd be able to do a post just gushing over the Alejandro video...but unfortunately I have no gushing to do over that. You see, on Tuesday, at 9 am, Lady Gaga released her much anticipated video for one of my favorite songs off The Fame Monster, Alejandro. I had only fallen asleep at 5 am (I have horrible insomnia, in case you don't know) but I still managed to wake myself in time to watch it as it premiered. By 9:07, I fell back asleep, wrought with disappointment. Here is the video:



I guess that there isn't anything particularly wrong with the video. It has interesting themes. I of course love how she mixed homoeroticism, militarism, and Catholicism together as those are themes you generally don't see combined even though they share so much. Especially in the wake of Don't Ask Don't Tell's final days, it's an interesting statement, and Gaga is all about interesting statements. But as any Little Monster can you tell, it's just not classic Gaga. The 'wow' factor, the 'omg' factor, the 'holy shit!!!' factor are all missing. Gaga is known for these incredible videos that just blow everyone away, videos her fans want to watch over and over again (see Bad Romance, Paparazzi, and Telephone videos). But Alejandro is just...boring. Which is kind of crazy because the song itself is one of her catchiest and most universally fun tracks.

Anyways, there isn't much I can say about Alejandro. Obviously this one misstep isn't going to make me love her any less, she's still my hero, my Mother Monster. However, since I can't really talk about Alejandro, I figured I'd dissect Lady Gaga, give my perspective on her, both as a huge fan, and as a feminist. Of course, there is so much about Lady Gaga to talk about, so today I'm just going to write about one of the major fascinations I have with Gaga culture: the penis thing.



So much about Lady Gaga fascinates me, specifically who she is, and how she is perceived. I think the whole 'Lady Gaga has a dick' phenomena is pretty interesting. It's evident that physically, this woman does not have a penis. I mean, we've all seen her in onesies, leotards, catsuits, and other outfits that don't leave much the imagination and there is no penis in sight. Now, of course you can make the teenage boy style 'tucking' joke, but....



...let's face it, she clearly DOES NOT have a penis. I think it's interesting though why there is such a persistence in saying that she does. It's obvious that this idea comes from the fact that she doesn't fit the usual image for a female, and DEFINITELY not for a female pop star. She goes against everyone's schema for what a female pop star is supposed to be, breaking the mold set out by Britney Spears, The Pussycat Dolls, etc. People don't know what to think of her. And since she breaks the female mold, obviously, she must be a guy. Because everyone woman is supposed to act the same, and if they don't....they're either male or a lesbian. In her case she gets the male one.

Lady Gaga doesn't dress to be beautiful or sexy, she isn't looking for male acceptance. She often presents herself in what could be perceived as an ugly manner. And society expects women to always be presenting themselves in a way that is going to attract men, because that's all women need to do. Gaga isn't trying to be some kind of a centerfold. Of course, she's beautiful and sexy in her own way, but it isn't the usual way. Let's compare a Nicole Scherzinger (of the Pussycat Dolls) photoshoot to a Lady Gaga photoshoot:




The Nicole picture is obviously directed towards men. She's in a classically sexy pose, her hair and makeup are done to compliment her, she has a classically innocent look on her face. The Gaga photo is a little weirder. We don't know who it's directed towards. She's posing strangely, wearing an outfit that isn't exactly sexy, her makeup isn't complimentary, she even has bleached out eyebrows, and she isn't making eye contact.

Now, who Gaga does dress for is up in the air. I'd like to think she dresses for herself, representing her inner freak, and often time her clothes carry their own social commentary about the fashion industry and our standards of beauty for women. However, a lot of people just think she dresses for attention, to sell records and get press. That's debatable. However, you can see from how she presents herself that she isn't dressing to get male attention. Her style is confusing, it isn't feminine, it doesn't make much sense at first glance. Who else is associated with having a confusing style, one that doesn't fit into our male/female style schema? Trans people, drag queens, the ones who really break gender barriers. So of course, that's what we associate her with.

The belief that Lady Gaga MUST be a man is a representation of classic sexism. She isn't traditionally feminine, and that scares people. She's a woman who is stepping out of line, what if she inspires other women to also step out line and defy traditional femininity? It represents society's fear of losing control of women. And that's the biggest obstacle women face, being controlled. Whether it's people trying to control our reproduction or in this case how we dress and present ourselves, it's a global fear. And probably my favorite thing about Lady Gaga is that she just says 'eff you!' to this fear.