USA TODAY International Edition
RECOVERING FEMINISM
Backlash, as usual, revolves around what that really means
Beyoncé and other young stars are speaking out on what it means to be powerful ( oh, and female)
Artists are saying the “F” word more than ever before.
That’s right, they’re feminists. Although icons such as Aretha Franklin, Joan Jett, Dolly Parton and Madonna have been trailblazers for decades, never before have so many musicians proudly led the equality charge in such public forums.
It’s a recent wave that could be traced to late 2013 with Beyoncé, who sampled Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk, “We Should All Be Feminists,” in her viral empowerment anthem Flawless. She took it a step further last year: emblazoning the term in the backdrop of her MTV Video Music Awards performance for 8.3 million viewers to see.
Since then, some pop stars have built their platforms ( and profited) on encouraging women. Nicki Minaj and Meghan Trainor celebrated curves on respective hits Anaconda and All About That
Bass; Demi Lovato has long promoted body positivity through music and Instagram posts; Ariana Grande blasted misogynistic media on Facebook for defining her by relationships; and Taylor Swift recruited her A- list “girl squad” for her Bad Blood music video, proclaiming feminism “the most important movement that you could embrace” to Maxim this summer.
Swift’s friend Selena Gomez has taken a similarly strong stance this year as she has called out body- shamers and double standards. She believes more artists have embraced feminism recently because they’re tired of being undermined.
“You get exhausted of it when you’re busting your ( butt) and you’re working just as hard — maybe in some cases harder — than some guys have to,” Gomez, 23, says. “You can’t be a loud voice and not use it when it comes to that. It’s inspired me, for sure, to see everybody be able to speak up about that and not be called a ( expletive) for it.”
OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM
Feminist rallying cries are ringing outside Top 40, too. Country duo Maddie & Tae hit No. 1 on the country charts this spring with their first single, Girl in a Country Song, which skewers “bro country” depictions of women, meaning: short- shorts, bikini- clad vixens who crack open beers and climb into pickup trucks but do or say little else. In Girl’s video, typical gender roles are comically reversed as Madison Marlow, 20, and Taylor Dye, 19, play their guitars, while guys dance behind them in crop tops and cowgirl boots.
“Tae and I were so fed up with how women were being portrayed in country music. It was this big elephant in the room that no one was calling out,” Marlow says. When they released Girl, “the reception was way more positive than negative. For the most part, everyone was like, ‘ Finally, someone had the guts to say this.’ ” ( Among its detractors is Florida Georgia Line’s Brian Kelley, who told the Chicago Tribune he doesn’t know “one girl who doesn’t want to be a girl in a country song.”)
Another artist to empower women through visual media is Massachusetts punk trio Potty Mouth, who released their Cherry Picking video last month. The clip plays off the classic rockvideo trope of a teenage fan daydreaming in her bedroom, only to have her pick up a guitar and jam out with the band by the end. “It’s showing her as this consummate and strong young girl who is just as capable of playing the songs as we are,” says bassist Ally Einbinder, 27.
As an all- female rock group, the members of Potty Mouth say they are frequently asked by the media about being women in a male- dominated genre, to the point where it feels as if their music becomes secondary. “There’s a big difference between treading light about women as musicians and making it the defining feature of the band,” says singer/ guitarist Abby Weems, 21.
WEATHERING THE BACKLASH
Like any movement, this latest surge of feminism in music has its share of detractors.
After Swift’s Twitter scuffle with Nicki Minaj this summer — when the rapper called out MTV for the mostly white, slim women nominated for VMAs — The Washington Post ran an op- ed with the headline, “Sorry, Taylor Swift. Being a feminist is about more than just supporting your girlfriends.”
The singer also received criticism from The Daily Beast and Deadspin’s The Concourse blog for the supposed hypocrisy of her No. 1 hit Bad Blood, which pits friends against one another.
Other artists such as Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus have long defended women’s right to be sexy, but writers for The Huffington Post and The A. V. Club have accused pop stars’ overtly sexual images as being “misguided” attempts at feminism. Even Lovato has been critical of the bandwagon phenomenon, telling Cosmopolitan this summer, “I considered myself a feminist before it was cool. Now everyone is claiming it.”
Regardless of its presentation, that shouldn’t lessen the impact of artists bringing feminism to the forefront.
Chvrches frontwoman Lauren Mayberry, 27, has spoken out against online misogyny and says that ultimately she believes having the conversation in the mainstream can only be positive.
“Making it less abstract and more approachable to people is really important. ... I don’t really have time for snobbiness, in that regard,” Mayberry says. “Like when all those think pieces about, ‘ Is it fine for Beyoncé to say she’s a feminist?’ came out. There’s not really any point in me reading these, because whether or not you like it, it is important that she’s saying that because she’s a massive pop star, it’s important because she’s a woman of color.
“If you were a 12- year- old girl following Beyoncé, that would probably blow your mind.”