Sexy Children(?!) in Film and Music Videos (originally posted September 2013)

Watching Pop, Sex and Videotape with Annie Lennox has spurred some thoughts, and although I think though the premise of the program was interesting, the Helen Lovejoy 'think of the children!' approach was both typical and damaging, and cut off a huge chunk of the audience and those who should face some accountability-  male consumers.

Sex sells, music artists in particular have always been keen to practice this expression of sexual autonomy in a western culture where it is legal- and a freedom - to express adult sensuality.

'The Purge' teen(?) girl 
© Universal

This is where the term 'adult' is key.

This theme was something I noticed firstly in cinema, in the '2.4 children' Hollywood construct, the teenage girl will always be very good-looking, played by an adult actress, presented as 'secretly' sexually adept and dressed in some kind of altered provocative school uniform. You can bet on it. This 'sexy schoolgirl' paradigm has been carried out for years in a muted way (*cough* st trinians), but the 'sexy' subject in mass western culture does seem to be getting progressively younger.

I would like to focus mostly on music, and while this will not be another blog post about the evils of Robin Thicke, it will be a comment on a summer 2013 'trend' of infantalising (making an adult woman act and look - as much as possible - like a young child) and then fetishising them, shown most overtly Dianne Martel's classics Blurred lines and We can't stop, examples listed here :

*Miley is dressed in a torn up baby-grow-like onesie (traded for shortie dungarees in the VMA performance);

'Blurred Lines'
©Interscope

*Orally-fixated symbolism in We Cant Stop: lollypops, bubblgum, 'tongue-out' expression

*The Blurred Lines females have smoke blown in their faces and their hair played with while remaining vacant and passive

*They are then left mute, nonspeaking unless it's an animalistic 'meow' or 'roar';

'We Can't Stop'
©RCA

*They are also not dressed overtly sexually in a way that would characterise womanly sexuality (like lingere), but infant-like complete nakedness

*The movements of both We can't stop and Blurred lines' focus' are child-like: stomping around, twirling, odd little dances (with the exception of the twerking- ha)

*Both the Blurred Lines females and Miley are surrounded by toys and teddies;

*Over-use of childlike facial expressions in both

*The physicality of both sexualised focus' is extremely young

Something I've often wondered is if the psuado-teenagers were topless, but more similar in figure to say Kim Kardashian or Beyonce- would the video still be seen as 'a bit of fun', or soft porn? My argument is that the video only works when the subject is adolescent or androgynous, with a very young, predominanly white model-like physique. 

This begs the question of how the subject matter can be appropriate or artsy with an adolescent-like female focus, but not for another type of woman, and why this new-found idealism for the very young has made its way so seamlessly into modern society. Children can not be considered in charge of their sexuality: they are physically weak, emotionally vulnerable and most notably, voiceless in society. Reducing women to small children is encouraging peadophilic fetishism in a landscape where Rhianna, Nicki and Britney are able to twerk in a thong covered in glitter - as adult women - with an absence of moral outrage (and IMO, rightly so).

Yummy
©Interscope

It is easy to dismiss this trend in the music industry as the last taboo, that sticking out with a new form of fringe sexuality is a marketing ploy, but the response to the videos was only met with (in Miley's case) slut-shaming, and unmatched salivation from seemingly intelligent and socially-aware adult men (Blurred Lines)- not the warranted questioning or disgust at the weirdly chilldlike women.

This is why pop culture is an adult's issue.

Tweet me @bakebakebaker

BAKER 

xoxoxo

Daisy Buchanan is Not an Inspirational Figure | The Great Gatsby (originally posted June 2013)

I really love the book.

And

I liked the film!

It was all lovely and wonderful and happy- until people had to go and sully the experience with their darn social media. Darn you, social media.

I do study literature full-time - though you probably can't tell from my rushed posts - and I do understand that It's all down to interpretation; but this new fascination with the main female character is grinding my gears. Daisy is not an inspirational figure. It kind-of links to my last post- women being hailed worldwide for being nothing: just a nice-looking object without the burden a sense of self.

© Warner Bros

The line

“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

Is misinterpreted. Widely. On every internet-based outlet. Everywhere.

I do - however- believe that if you interpret the quote to be about women being at their best when they stop caring so much about silly things, and just concentrate on being a happy carefree thing from which beauty will shine- then that's great. Live your life by the quote- it's a good one. But it is not Daisy's quote.

It is also significant at which point this line occurs, after Daisy receives a call from her husband's mistress. There is an interpretation that being a 'fool' would stop her daughter from noticing her future husbands misdemeanors, and this is what is intended by this line. However, this interpretation of the quote does not negate the widespread use of it in a modern context, and the idea of using Daisy as a quotable figure in the first place. 

Daisy is a feckless, pointless, air-headed character. She is the antithesis of the inspirational woman. She is there to look pretty, and have no input: notably agreeing with her odious husband's every opinion, even the dodgy racial supremacy ones. She KILLS someone, and then lets the biggest strongest man take the blame for her (Gatsby). She floats about being confused in a pretty dress; even incapable of feeling love, for anyone or anything- except money.

What was intended by the line was: 'Women will get by- but only if they are beautiful, and thick as pig crap. Being plagued by thought and intellect only muddies your ability to agree with your affluent husband over his stupid, backwards views; and might form connections to people that might get in the way of your womanly desire for financial dependency on said rich man'. This was sort-of acceptable in the 1920's.

The quote is not relevant in the western world anymore. It was written nearly 100 years ago. In fact, let the whole world's views pre-madonna die a final time, and then let's move forward in a land where (most) women have grown quite attached to their brains and their bank accounts and their cone-shaped bras.

plz?

tweet me @bakebakebaker

BAKER 

xoxoxo

Marilyn Monroe Is Not An Inspirational Figure (Originally posted June 2013)

You can't do anything on Facebook or Tumblr or Instagram without seeing an inspritational Marilyn quote: body positivity, relationships, beauty, career advice and basically anything that comes under 'being a person': all of which sound excellent as sound-bites, but why does the pop cultural figure of Marilyn Monroe still appeal to us in this thoroughly modern day ?

I had so many pictures of her framed in pink on my black-and-white walls all through high-school, she was part of my aesthetic. Which is weird when you think about the fact she was once a real person, with blood and flesh and breath. Then one day, I stumbled on an article about all the sacrifices she made to become who she was at the end of her life, the plastic surgery she underwent to go from Norma Jean BAKER (eyup #reletives) to international sex symbol- THE body- a reputation that has spun on for decades. 

©DisFriends

When signed at 20^th century fox, Marilyn was allegedly told by talent agent Johnny Hyde to get a nose job, a chin implant, to change her name, to change her body, to dye and cut her hair, to have cosmetic dental work- all for one reason: to be made into the ‘perfect woman’, an absolutely flawless caricature- a purely sexual object. Even down to the way she walked, talked and laughed- asked to try to change her smile so her gums would not be visible. One of the reasons she is so quotable in this modern day is because of her determination and consciousness- every syllable, pause and word was crafted perfectly to work toward the image she aimed to portray. 

Physical femininity is a wonderful thing, but when does the portrayal of sensuality become all-consuming? We see the same thing repeated in the cases of a number of current celebrities- Kim Kardashian is an astonishingly similar example (but with debatable surgery). Nicki Minaj is another example of note- her success in pop culture has been almost wholly dependent on an array of surgeries with the sole aim of making her idealistic. A Similar name change, changed from Miraj to Minaj so it connotes ‘menage a trois’ –like a threesome (wat); buttock and breast augmentation (debated) and another change of image- from ‘Hoodstar’ to ‘Harajuku Barbie’ within a year. 

©Disfriends

So now when I return from university, I look at the pictures of Marilyn in my cupboard and see desperation, and ambition. I see a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, and achieved it- but I also see someone who sacrificed herself in the process. 
Marilyn once said

'I want to grow old without face lifts... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I've made. Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know you. '

Marilyn asserts it would be easier to die than to age, implying that her worth as an acting professional, singer, model and person is dependent on her youth and beauty. This is not an inspirational ideology for women, and does not have a place in the modern day. Marilyn never completed her life, she didn't know herself anymore, under the illusion of the industry-created being that she had become by the middle of her 30^th film. 

Sacrificing your image and actions to achieve a life goal makes for an unquestionably fascinating person, but an inspirational woman? I don't think so. 

tweet me @bakebakebaker 

BAKER 

xoxoxo