Between Feminism and Popular Culture

One of Railton’s achievements in Music Video and the Politics of Representation is a great overview at the paradoxical and complex existence of current feminist discourse. P!NK’s Stupid Girls music video was a fantastic case study for her Between Feminism and Popular Culture chapter, however in my response I would like to contrast it with Lilly Allen’s more recent Hard out Here music video and how the two take very different approaches to a feminist (or perhaps post-feminist) message.

Accepting the postmodern, poststructuralist thesis that culture is a cultivator, a creator of meanings and that we use it to define and redefine ourselves is a significant point to emphasise when looking at the intersections of feminism and culture studies. As she claims early on in the chapter, “cultural products… have political significance not because they conceal the truth of the world or misrepresent the truth of the self, but because they provide us with the bricks and mortar from which we construct ourselves and the world around us”. This statement both sets precedent for why a discussion of music videos is of value to feminist discourse and begins to imply the cracks in P!NK’s music video as a work of second-wave or even post-feminism. The work of feminists like Simone De Beauvoir distinguished sex from gender, solidifying femininity a product of culture rather than nature. That is important as it shows us that the representations of femininity in popular culture, and by extension music videos, does not simply ‘correctly’ or ‘incorrectly’ define femininity, but actively redefines the concept itself.

P!NK’s Stupid Girls is an obvious attempt to capitalise on femininity being culturally defined to make her own dint in that cultural definition, her video actively attacking stereotypical ‘stupid girls’ spread by the media. The little girl watching the television encapsulates this mass media-based understanding of how femininity is defined and consumed, but it ignores some key features of feminism in the process. P!NK frames the debate as a choice on the part of women to be feminine and patriarchal, or non-feminine (even masculine) and empowered. Her paradox is in assuming that one cannot exist somewhere in-between, that it “is simply impossible to be one and the other”. To be a feminist is not to reject femininity, but P!NK’s adoption of androgynous clothing, participation in ‘masculine’ physical activities, and her distain for the women who flaunt their feminine figure muddy the waters. Such acts instead assert that feminine traits are weaker than masculine ones and must be disposed of, which ignores the just as problematic culture of masculinity and hyper-masculinity. This culminates in what feels like the video eschewing “any structural explanation for its characters’ behaviour and instead blame[ing] the individual women for making the wrong choices, that is to say, for being stupid.”. Femininity and masculinity aren’t black and white and to think they are is to play into the hands of the patriarchy. It is the systematic cultural pedagogy that asserts womens monolithic role in society that is problematic and needs to be addressed in popular culture, not that some of them have their tits out.

Lilly Allen’s Hard out Here addresses some of these problems quite well I believe. The two videos are startlingly similar but their messaging has key differences. The attacks Lilly Allen makes are to sexist men within her own industry, the line “have you thought about your butt, who’s gonna tear it in two” being a direct hit to Robin Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines”, and anti-feminists who assert feminism to be ‘over’. This is exemplified is the lyric “we’ve never had it so good uh huh were out of the woods and if you cant detect the sarcasm, you’ve misunderstood”. Allen doesn’t vilify other women but instead sees misogyny as the systematic inequality that it is. The dialogue between her and her manager at the beginning of the music video exemplifies that the surgery that she is undergoing, unlike P!NK’s vanity surgery, is directly correlated with industry pressure that surmounts in her achieving success or not. Allen also allows femininity to be more diverse. She joins the twerking music video asserting sexual empowerment in the action rather than considering female sexuality inherently misogynistic. This diverts wildly from P!NK’s video as Allen claims “if I told you bout my sex life, you’d call me a slut, them boys be talking bout their bitches no ones making a fuss.”, whilst P!NK diminishes a woman on a treadmill because she is wearing a sports bra (I seriously didn’t understand this portion of the video at all, what is wrong with her going to a gym, is the issue that she isn’t running around in the mud with a football?).

The titles of each song I think summarise the different approaches to feminism the two videos make. Whilst P!NK references the “Stupid Girls”, holding women accountable for not subverting the system that oppresses them, Allen acknowledges that its “Hard out Here” and that there is a system that keeps women for playing a larger, more diverse role on society. In Allens lyrics she claims that “theres a glass ceiling to break” and that “inequality promises that its here to stay”, solidifying that we must not change ourselves as much as we should seek to change the system. The second-wave notions of sisterhood and collective action are revitalised in her lyrics as women do not need to reject femininity, but instead reject the shackles society has used to tie them to it.

As feminism evolves and the issue of ‘white feminism’ enters feminist discourse, I think it is crucial for cultural products like Allens to come to the forefront as, whilst P!NK’s video has good intentions, it doesn’t have the understanding of the patriarchy to be of much use to the creators of cultural change. Movements like #MeToo show us that we must move past blaming women for their femininity as, no matter how well intended, it only furthers the patriarchal agenda of rigidly defining what it means to be a man or a woman. Women do not need to become masculine to enter the workforce… we are over half the worlds population, the workforce must change to include us. It is not the failures of femininity that have caused a culture of sexual abuse, but the failures of masculinity and cultural masculine pedagogy. An understanding of the fluidity of gender must be presented and a diverse range of women featured in the media. Ones with masculine traits, feminine traits, strengths, and weaknesses and I believe that movement is afoot. Beyonce’s Lemonade album payed homage to the black woman, and others are following suit, each with their own definition of what it is to be an empowered woman.