tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/miley-cyrus-7447/articlesMiley Cyrus – The Conversation2019-04-10T14:03:39Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1079092019-04-10T14:03:39Z2019-04-10T14:03:39ZMaking sense of the world: a walk down Jubilee Street with Nick Cave<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268112/original/file-20190408-2935-1svw4ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian rock musician Nick Cave.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laurent Gillieron/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The world’s a mess. How do thoughtful people make sense of it all? In this series we’ve asked a number of our authors to suggest a book, philosopher, work of art – or anything else, for that matter – that will help to make sense of it all.</em> </p>
<p>There was a time when I thought I had pretty good concentration. That time is gone. Sucked into a vortex of addictive news checking, Twitter feeding, I keep on updating, streaming, screaming, plugged into yet more “news from nowhere”. Angry old white men, angry young white men, forests up in flames, towns dragged down in mud, turtles wrapped up in plastic. I need an “out”. </p>
<p>Flying around Europe for work (EU funded, so yes, Brexit kills me) I find myself playing the same song over and over again. It’s my way not of “making sense” of what seems mostly to be nonsense, but of finding an outlet – one that creates its own different, poetic world.</p>
<p>Every time the plane takes off I play “Jubilee Street”, a song by Australian rock musician <a href="https://www.nickcave.com/">Nick Cave</a> – over and over again.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds performing ‘Jubilee Street’ in concert. WARNING: Some language may offend sensitive listeners.</span></figcaption>
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<p>And it’s not only my takeoff soundtrack. I play it when I need to be somewhere else, where not making sense has its own beauty and internally coherent narrative. I need to hear a Nick Cave story and out of all of them, from all his time in music, “Jubilee Street” is the “magic one”.</p>
<p>I have been listening, on and off, to Cave ever since he screamed “Hands up Who wants to Die” on “Sonny’s Burning” with his band <a href="http://www.thebirthdayparty.com.au/">The Birthday Party</a> in 1983. I 5fell out of love with him for some time but there he was, always making music. There were side projects with singers <a href="https://www.kylie.com/">Kylie Minogue</a> and <a href="http://pjharvey.net/">PJ Harvey</a>, there was the band <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/grinderman">Grinderman</a>, his porn alter ego, and there were film scores.</p>
<p>All the time, along with Warren Ellis, his close musical collaborator, multi-instrumentalist, friend and fiendish violinist, he has been concocting stories about love, death, violence and sex. No one sounds like him. No bands plough his furrow. His world is indebted to the Western, the Gothic, to the <a href="http://www.grandguignol.com/history.htm">Grand Guignol</a> (The Theatre of the Great Puppet).</p>
<p>His music is the sonic equivalent of <a href="https://www.davidlynch.com/">David Lynch’s</a> films Wild at Heart or Blue Velvet, like German film director Werner Herzog’s <a href="https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2019/01/10/werner-herzogs-nosferatu-the-vampire-forty-years-later">Nosferatu the Vampyre</a>. It sounds odd to say that it functions as an escape, but Cave’s world has always been the same, existing in a parallel space to the “real” world.</p>
<h2>Love and loss</h2>
<p><a href="https://genius.com/Nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds-jubilee-street-lyrics">“Jubilee Street”</a> is, like a lot of Cave’s work, a tale of love and loss. It recalls a woman called “Bee” who lives on the titular street making “ends meet”. She has a “little black book” wherein the protagonist finds his name written, “on every page”. </p>
<p>Bee is a working girl. Beyond that, the narrative becomes surreal and Cave starts to spin his web. Images that are not possible in this world become imaginable within his; if you suspend disbelief, you travel with him as he sings this song. </p>
<p>He carries strange things on chains and leashes, pushes impossible objects up hills, for some reason “the Russians” move into Bee’s place when it closes down, and all the while the song builds and builds to its climax where Cave sings about transforming, about flying. He marvels:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Look at me now! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>What he might have turned into, who knows? He laments how he is “out of place and time”, and “over the hill” and out of his mind. This confession of insanity and ageing, the feeling that he doesn’t belong, that he is out of kilter with the world. It’s one that makes no sense to him since Bee left – it is one that is confusing but tantalising, kaleidoscopic in its imagery. It’s the tale of a lost man who somehow finds beauty in his predicament. And this is why I guess it makes sense now.</p>
<p>The track comes from the 2013 album <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17618-push-the-sky-away/">Push The Sky Away</a> and was recorded in the South of France, where a children’s choir sang the backing vocals. Its hook, 18 notes that emerge early on in the song, is played on violin and echoes later in the children’s voices. </p>
<p>It is showcased at the end of the trailer for the film <a href="http://www.iainandjane.com/work/film-tv/20000-days-on-earth/">“20 000 days on this Earth”</a> by Ian Forsyth and Jane Pollard, which depicts Cave in a gold lamé
shirt performing at Sydney Opera House in 2014, arms out, crucifixial, shamanic. And so he acts out, in song and on stage, this ability to transform, to change, to become the butterfly, to soar into beauty. </p>
<h2>Compelling cinematic images</h2>
<p>Cave has experienced <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/the-love-and-terror-of-nick-cave">family tragedy</a>, losing one of his twin sons at 15. He has courted political and peer disapproval by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/dec/11/nick-cave-cultural-boycott-israel-brian-eno">performing in Israel</a>. But his life and political decisions are not what draws me to him – far from it. It’s his work, his conjured up worlds, that create compelling cinematic images I want to visit again and again. </p>
<p>Try <a href="https://www.songfacts.com/facts/nick-cave-the-bad-seeds/stagger-lee">“Stagger Lee”</a> and you will be transported to a mid-century, mid-Western town where the outlaws rule. Listen to <a href="https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858521629/">“Nature Boy”</a> and you will marvel at a relationship where the guy dresses up in a deep-sea diving suit for erotic charge. Listen to <a href="https://www.nickcave.com/lyrics/nick-cave-bad-seeds/boatmans-call/arms/">“Into my Arms”</a> for a love song, <a href="https://variety.com/2018/music/news/nick-cave-song-peaky-blinders-red-right-hand-1202692550/">“Red Right Hand”</a> for a murderer’s confession, or <a href="https://www.nickcave.com/lyrics/nick-cave-bad-seeds/let-love/loverman/">“Loverman”</a> for some deranged sex. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/nick-cave-dreams-of-miley-cyrus-in-higgs-boson-blues-75557/">“Higgs Bosun Blues”</a> sees Cave “driving down to Geneva”, boasts a cast of pop star Miley Cyrus and bluesman Robert Johnson, and includes an edict to bury him with his yellow, patent leather shoes should he die. But first, try “Jubilee Street” because of its creeping, haunting beauty. Cave finds poetry in the darkness. That’s why I keep listening to him.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abigail Gardner receives funding from Erasmus+ </span></em></p>Rock artist Nick Cave finds poetry in the darkness - his song “Jubilee Street” is an example.Abigail Gardner, Reader in Music and Media, University of GloucestershireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/467202015-09-15T10:05:33Z2015-09-15T10:05:33ZCan we tie unisex fashion trends to gender equality?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94725/original/image-20150914-4706-1v2h7wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is the future now?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/madhairstyling/15413110386/in/photolist-pu1dJw-a3BUQH-pu1d3b-peyavq-pw3A3B-oT7wrG-cKm9t5-8kyqP9-57rsfM-aasTqH-64sogN-6fuRoK-dScQ3J-6544pF-5y6ZnR-8GnXTf-dEWBvw-peyDoi-peytAT-pey65m-pvLp8P-pw1ApE-pexCZB-peyvNi-pvLjh6-pexXPb-pw3TsB-pw28qY-pw3Qhi-pvLhNK-pw3LRF-pexzxh-peyEwR-pex8z4-pu18ey-pexNhA-pexDy3-pw1BTG-peyfpT-pexATJ-pu1mnh-pexB8F-pw231Q-pexwQU-pu1rGL-7crrhP-7crr8H-7crrpt-6fL3D9-bWCBfG">madfashionart/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When writers and filmmakers depict the future, they often include one strange detail: men and women dressing alike.</p>
<p>From the leather coats and sunglasses of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKQi3bBA1y8">The Matrix</a> to the faded blue coveralls of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbC0o7VMxtM">Nineteen Eighty-Four</a>, one of the characteristics of the imagined future is a break from gendered clothing, which is replaced by something more functional and utilitarian. It’s a world of zippered jumpsuits, where a corset or tie is as exotic an artifact as a fossil from the Pleistocene Era. </p>
<p>Gender, these futurists seem to be saying, is an artifact of a less-progressive past.</p>
<p>But is the future now?</p>
<p>Recently, fashion designers like <a href="http://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2015-menswear/gucci">Gucci</a> and hip boutiques have begun selling what’s being called gender-neutral or gender-free clothing: clothes that can be worn by either men or women. (Both The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/fashion/in-fashion-gender-lines-are-blurring.html?_r=0">New York Times style section</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/shortcuts/2015/mar/18/one-style-suits-all-as-unisex-fashion-gets-on-the-agender">The Guardian</a> have recently covered this trend.) </p>
<p>Then there was Target’s <a href="https://corporate.target.com/article/2015/08/gender-based-signs-corporate">announcement</a> in August that the retail giant would be eliminating gendered language in its children’s toys and bedding, transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/two-covers-two-culture-shifts-42732">Vanity Fair cover</a> and singer Miley Cyrus’ self-identification as <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6598191/miley-cyrus-gender-fluid-nothing-to-do-with-any-parts">gender-fluid</a>. </p>
<p>But before we raise a toast to a world of post-gender fashion, it’s important to differentiate between marketing and actual progress towards gender equality. To be sure, fashion can advocate for <a href="http://www.wearinggayhistory.com/">social change</a>. But just as often, fashion will exploit social movements, aestheticizing them as a way to seem edgy and turn a profit. </p>
<h2>Subcultures, fashion and subversion</h2>
<p>To understand what fashion means, we have to place it into its historical context. Likewise, we can’t understand clothes outside of the society that gives them meaning – or apart from the industry that makes and markets them. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Class-Acts-Young-Rise-Lifestyle/dp/0874179866/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442179617&sr=8-1&keywords=mary+rizzo">my research</a>, I’ve studied how subcultures in the United States have used clothing to create communities that are critical of mainstream values. And there’s a long history of gender lines being blurred in clothing as a way to demonstrate equality of the sexes or freedom from sexual roles. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94707/original/image-20150914-4706-15ajxed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94707/original/image-20150914-4706-15ajxed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94707/original/image-20150914-4706-15ajxed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94707/original/image-20150914-4706-15ajxed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94707/original/image-20150914-4706-15ajxed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1317&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94707/original/image-20150914-4706-15ajxed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94707/original/image-20150914-4706-15ajxed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1317&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women’s rights activist Lucy Stone wears bloomers, which bear the namesake of their creator, Amelia Bloomer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Lucy_Stone_in_bloomers.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Founded in 1824, the New Harmony socialist utopian community let men and women both wear trousers. It was borderline-scandalous for the era, but representative of their vision of gender equality. In the late 19th century, women’s rights advocate Amelia Bloomer famously argued for the right of women to wear pants – called bloomers – under their shortened dresses.</p>
<p>In less political subtexts, like the counterculture of the 1960s, unisex styles differentiated hippies from middle-class society. While this allowed hippies to recognize one another as people with similar values, looking different could also be dangerous. During filming for the countercultural road movie Easy Rider in parts of the South, actors Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper discovered that men who grew their hair long were often asked whether they were a boy or a girl – and not in a friendly way. These real-life experiences were incorporated into the film’s violent ending. </p>
<p>When hip-hop became a nationwide cultural phenomenon in the 1980s, male and female breakdancers – also known as b-boys and b-girls – wore tracksuits and other athletic clothing while they performed, blurring gender roles for a shared physical ability.</p>
<p>All of these examples happened organically, outside of the fashion industry. They show how people – especially those on the margins – adapt and remix the clothes that are available to them, fashioning new styles and new meanings in a process that anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss has called <a href="http://markerstetter.blogspot.com/2010/11/bricolage-bricoleur-what-is-it.html">“bricolage.”</a> </p>
<h2>The motives of the fashion industry</h2>
<p>On the other hand, when the fashion industry promotes unisex styles – like the <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/history-of-1960s-fashion-and-textiles/">Peacock Revolution</a> of the late 1960s or the <a href="http://pulptastic.com/40-cringeworthy-mens-fashion-ads-70s/">groovy styles</a> of the 1970s – it’s always tied to making money. </p>
<p>So while today’s unisex fashions may <em>seem</em> like another benchmark for equality, it’s rarely progressive when you look at it through the lens of a lucrative fashion industry that’s looking to turn a profit. </p>
<p>Fashion, ultimately, is an industry that trades on notions of exoticism and aesthetics; to achieve these twin ideals, designers have historically exploited the oppressed or downtrodden. </p>
<p>For example, in 2010, <em>haute couture</em> company Rodarte released <a href="http://www.latina.com/beauty/news/mac-rodarte-apologize-ciudad-juarez-inspired-make-line">a line of clothes and cosmetics</a> inspired by the women who work in the <em>maquiladoras</em>, or factories, along the Mexico-US border. Poorly paid and often the victims of gender-based violence, these women’s lives became the source material for expensive clothes they could never afford and lipsticks with names like “Factory.” </p>
<p>Equally repugnant was model and fashion designer Erin Wasson’s <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2008/09/erin_wasson_homeless_people_ha.html">claim</a> in 2008 that “The people with the best style for me are the people that are the poorest. Like, when I go down to Venice Beach and I see the homeless, like, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they’re pulling out, like, crazy looks and they, like, pulled shit out of like garbage cans.’”</p>
<p>African Americans have long been used by the fashion industry in this way. Posing Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen in the arms of screaming basketball player LeBron James on the cover of Vogue in 2008 was a not-so-subtle echo of <a href="http://gawker.com/5004715/time-for-leibovitz-to-confess">racist images</a> that depicted vulnerable white women threatened by animalistic black men. In the case of Taylor Swift’s colonial fantasy video for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdneKLhsWOQ">Wildest Dreams</a>, blacks are entirely absent from its African locale. And fashion magazines have been known to <a href="http://jezebel.com/5987856/the-truth-about-using-a-white-girl-in-an-african-queen-fashion-shoot">“black up”</a> white models rather than hire black ones. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94727/original/image-20150914-4678-1cfsfuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94727/original/image-20150914-4678-1cfsfuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94727/original/image-20150914-4678-1cfsfuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94727/original/image-20150914-4678-1cfsfuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94727/original/image-20150914-4678-1cfsfuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94727/original/image-20150914-4678-1cfsfuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1121&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94727/original/image-20150914-4678-1cfsfuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1121&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94727/original/image-20150914-4678-1cfsfuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1121&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A model wears one of designer Jack Huang’s unisex outfits at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-279246011/stock-photo-sydney-australia-april-jack-huang-unisex-clothes-collection-fashion-show-runway.html?src=poKRx4c3T0AcUpWZb4763g-1-9">'Unisex' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In all of these instances, racial differences, poverty and violence are repackaged as “exotic.” Aestheticized to appeal to our eyes, they create a clear distinction: there is us (the mainstream consumers) and them (the outsiders we are fascinated, disgusted or thrilled by).</p>
<p>The fashion industry’s current attraction to unisex or gender-free clothing may be similar. While transgender models like Andreja Pejic and Hari Nef walk the runway and appear in fashion magazines, the real difficulties facing transgender individuals are often ignored. This is doubly true for transgender women of color who are the victims of <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/06/transgender-women-disproportionately-targeted-violent-hate-crimes">shocking amounts of violence</a>. </p>
<p>Given the fashion industry’s historically <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/fashion/fashions-racial-divide.html">poor record</a> of including African Americans as models or designers (outside of the urban fashion niche), it’s unlikely that it will be any more progressive when it comes to portraying the reality of the lives of transgender people of color – or in employing them behind the scenes.</p>
<p>Probably more than any other daily act we engage in, clothes are how we convey our identity to the world. For that reason, they are important. They can be used in radical, subversive ways. </p>
<p>But before we congratulate the fashion industry for making gender distinction a thing of the past, it’s important to understand its motivations, its practices and its limitations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Rizzo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While fashion can be an act of defiance and subversion, it can also exploit the oppressed.Mary Rizzo, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice and Associate Director of Public and Digital Humanities Initiatives, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/469452015-09-15T04:35:32Z2015-09-15T04:35:32ZCelebrity, youth culture and the question of role models<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94648/original/image-20150914-4686-i3epof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nicki Minaj arrives at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. She has been largely considered a bad influence on young women.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Danny Moloshok</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent 2015 MTV Video Music Awards event was notable – not for the recognition of award recipients, but for the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/arts/music/2015-vma-miley-cyrus-nicki-minaj-kanye-west.html?_r=0">public spat</a> between host Miley Cyrus and hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj. </p>
<p>Whether real or staged, the hurling of insults and aggressive behaviour dominated mainstream press coverage of the ceremony surely much to the delight of MTV.</p>
<p>Both Minaj and Cyrus are known for courting controversy and have been criticised for being “bad” role models for young people, particularly girls and young women. But what if the mainstream media considered that young people actually use incidents such as this and celebrity culture in a wider sense in a whole host of complex ways to negotiate their identities? </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/aug/28/keep-miley-and-nicki-away-from-the-kids-parents-least-favourite-role-models">well-publicised survey</a> of UK parents with children under ten years old voted both Cyrus and Minaj as the worst role models for their daughters. This came even before the recent spat.</p>
<p>The dislike of Minaj and Cyrus appears to be centred on their penchant for dressing provocatively and being outspoken about their sexuality. In predictable contrast, the Duchess of Cambridge was considered the most positive influence on young girls. The worst male offenders were musicians and performers Kanye West, Justin Bieber and former One Direction band member Zayn Malik.</p>
<h2>Obsessed with celebrity</h2>
<p>Discourse in this vein is not a new phenomenon. Musicians and performers have long been considered to influence young people in negative ways. In the 21st century, the impact of celebrity culture on society, especially on young people, has come under scrutiny. </p>
<p>Are today’s youth obsessed with celebrity? Is this detrimental to society? Can celebrities ever have a positive influence on young people? Does celebrity culture really matter? These are complex and plural questions to which there are few, if any, concrete answers. However, what is routinely ignored in mainstream media is young people’s sense of agency. </p>
<p>Much of the research and commentary surrounding such questions is centred on how celebrity culture may impact upon health and well being in terms of eating disorders or mental health issues. </p>
<p>The rise and dominance of social media sites such as Instagram and their links to the glorification of “super-skinny” celebrities have been cited as influences in the rise of eating disorders in young people. </p>
<p>The British Psychological Society <a href="http://www.bps.org.uk/news/celebrity-culture-and-anorexic-children">recently said</a> experts warned that youngsters are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with images permeating from a celebrity culture in which thin bodies are celebrated, larger ones are ridiculed and children are sexualised.</p>
<h2>Sense of identity</h2>
<p>It is logical to suggest that continual exposure to celebrity culture impacts in negative ways on some young people’s senses of identity. This may well affect health and well being, but how this happens and to what degree is incredibly complex. We must also consider the ways in which the media choose to present rather narrow ideas about how celebrities – particularly female ones – should behave and how they should look. </p>
<p>Those whose behaviour falls outside of these narrow ideas are often condemned as being wayward, controversial and difficult. Indeed young people may well negotiate their own gendered identities through the celebrity and by talking about them with their peers. The <a href="http://www.celebyouth.org/about/">Celeb Youth project</a> in the United Kingdom is an excellent example of much needed academic research into the field of celebrity and identity. It focused on the influence of celebrities in the construction of young people’s aspirations. </p>
<p>What is omitted from the media conversation about celebrities as role models is that many young people are more than capable of making informed, intelligent choices about which celebrities they follow and are becoming increasingly aware of the ways in which the media positions celebrities against each other in terms of race and class. </p>
<p>Young people may connect with those that they feel best represent them as well as those that do not. Indeed, it is also fair to suggest that many young people have no interest in celebrity culture at all. </p>
<p>It is the active and complex use of celebrity culture by young people to negotiate the world around them that is often lost in favour of sweeping generalisations about negative impacts. Perhaps rather than eliminating celebrity culture from the classroom, it could be used productively and constructively to allow young people to make sense of the world they are growing up in.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46945/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsty Fairclough does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Musicians and performers have long been considered to influence young people in negative ways.Kirsty Fairclough, Senior Lecturer in Media and Performance, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/320312014-09-28T19:15:52Z2014-09-28T19:15:52ZMiranda Kerr goes geisha in Vogue … and that might be OK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60126/original/kmy6rs5d-1411696933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C1196%2C1045&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kerr's appearance is further complicated by Japan’s stereotyped position as expert poachers of Western culture.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vogue Japan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Miranda Kerr sparked controversy last week when she appeared in <a href="http://www.vogue.co.jp/fashion/fashionstories/theme/151">Japanese Vogue</a> dressed in a kimono. Critics in the blogosphere and <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/controversial-magazine-covers-gallery-1.1076486">The New York Daily News</a> wondered whether her donning traditional Japanese dress was “cultural appropriation”.</p>
<p>This is a term that has gained some press in the past two years <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/06/no-doubt-native-american-stereotypes">through discussions</a> of No Doubt’s use of Native American headdresses in their video for Looking Hot, Iggy Azalea’s <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/07/15/iggy_azaleas_post_racial_mess_americas_oldest_race_tale_remixed/">adoption</a> of African-American style and Miley Cyrus’s apparent “borrowing” from <a href="http://jezebel.com/on-miley-cyrus-ratchet-culture-and-accessorizing-with-514381016">“ratchet” culture</a>.</p>
<p>Cultural appropriation refers to a practice where white people “borrow” from a non-white culture. From burning incense to wearing a keffiyeh scarf to sending texts using “rap” language – these are all acts of poaching from another (i.e. non-white) culture. </p>
<p>It is about “dressing up”. But it is also about a pretty uneven power relation between the one doing the taking and the culture from which they take.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60123/original/gqg3wyp7-1411695827.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60123/original/gqg3wyp7-1411695827.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60123/original/gqg3wyp7-1411695827.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60123/original/gqg3wyp7-1411695827.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60123/original/gqg3wyp7-1411695827.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60123/original/gqg3wyp7-1411695827.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60123/original/gqg3wyp7-1411695827.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60123/original/gqg3wyp7-1411695827.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">instagram.com/mirandakerr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kerr no doubt looks striking in “Oriental” garb. But critiques of the choice by Anna Dello Russo to style her as such speak to the broader issue of whether it is okay for white people take from non-white cultures. </p>
<p>Part of the issue is the privilege of play. That is, the invisible “<a href="https://www.isr.umich.edu/home/diversity/resources/white-privilege.pdf">white privilege</a>” white people possess means they can “play” at being a non-white person without the burden of discrimination non-white people experience. </p>
<p>This has been the subject of <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/post/costume-cultural-appropriation">a sustained campaign</a> on US college campuses in recent years. When it gets tough white people can simply slough off their non-white accoutrements. The bodily markers of difference non-white people possess means they do not have the same privilege.</p>
<p>Cultural appropriation is also problematic because it reduces whole countries and populations to a few “exotic” objects. Sometimes – such as the case with Native American headdresses – these objects are sacred and the reduction of them to fashion accessories evacuates that sacredness. </p>
<p>A headdress becomes equivalent to a fedora hat to a sarong to an obi and so on. It is like a cultural colonialism. The intrepid white fashion explorer “discovers” the spoils of the Orient, brings them home and sells them on to other white people.</p>
<p>Also at work here is the type of hipness one can gain from non-white cultural accessories. Iggy Azalea and Miley attempt to prove (to varying degrees of success) their hip-hop chops by performing African-American culture. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LrUvu1mlWco?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Miley Cyrus’s apparent ‘borrowing’ from ‘ratchet’ culture.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the form Kerr’s cultural appropriation takes is perhaps more insidious. As a model, she demonstrates the superficial mode, which much cultural appropriation takes. While Iggy and (maybe) Miley appear committed to their “style”, however problematic, Kerr is dressed as a geisha on Vogue’s cover, a samurai in its pages and will no doubt appear in other “exotic” outfits in shoots to come. </p>
<p>The ease with which she “transforms” demonstrates the privilege of play. But the praise and press the shoot has garnered also associates her appearance in Vogue Japan with sophistication and coolness. Fashion Rogue blog writes that Kerr is “<a href="http://www.fashiongonerogue.com/miranda-kerr-lands-vogue-japan-15th-anniversary-cover/">elegant</a>,” Styleite calls it “<a href="http://www.styleite.com/news/miranda-kerrs-sexy-geisha-vogue-japan-cover-is-too-costumey/">tasteful</a>”. In this case, non-white cultural objects work as accessories used to shore up the white model’s sophistication.</p>
<p>The Kerr case, to me, is further complicated by the specific position of Japan in Western imaginations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60115/original/b4bbgztx-1411694312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60115/original/b4bbgztx-1411694312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60115/original/b4bbgztx-1411694312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60115/original/b4bbgztx-1411694312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60115/original/b4bbgztx-1411694312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60115/original/b4bbgztx-1411694312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60115/original/b4bbgztx-1411694312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60115/original/b4bbgztx-1411694312.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Japanese cool?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Timothy Takemoto</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It would be remiss, and perhaps just as problematic, to lump all non-white cultures together in a similar manner to the way a cultural appropriator does a headdress and a fedora. Japan has, for decades, functioned as a signifier of “<a href="http://www.nhk.or.jp/cooljapan/en/">cool</a>” to westerners (though Korea is perhaps now more favoured). </p>
<p>Unlike headdresses and saris, which bestow an “authenticity” based on the past to the appropriators, Japanese cultural objects are generally positioned as futuristic (such as robots) or traditional, yet timelessly stylish (such as sushi, Japanese interior design).</p>
<p>Though the kimono is traditional, its function on the cover of Vogue Japan is as a signifier of timelessness. Vogue being the archetypal arbiter of Western sophistication, its cultural significance is understated, tasteful style. </p>
<p>Kerr’s styling is not intended to mimic “real” Japanese kimono aesthetics. Rather, it works to associate Japanese traditional style with the timeless image of Vogue. It’s a more nuanced form of cultural appropriation than, say, Avril Lavigne’s ham-fisted poaching of <em>kawaii</em> (cute) culture in her recent video Hello Kitty. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LiaYDPRedWQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Avril Lavigne’s Hello Kitty.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lavigne’s foray into Japanese cultural forms reiterated stereotypes of the cute – but silent – Asian woman. The “Harajuku girls” in her clip functioned similarly to the African-American back up dancers for Miley at the VMAs in 2013 – they were props.</p>
<p>While Kerr’s appearance in Japanese clothing is problematic, it is also more complicated than the standard cultural appropriation as contemporary colonialism model. It is also important to consider the audience for Vogue Japan. It is a primarily Japanese audience. </p>
<p>The politics of her “dressing up” might be different had she been on the cover of Vogue or Elle US in non-Western garb (just as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/05/pharrell-apologises-wearing-native-american-war-bonnet-elle">Pharrell has been</a>).</p>
<p>A final complication is Japan’s stereotyped position as expert poachers of Western cultural practices and styles. </p>
<p>Further, as media and cultural scholar Koichi Iwabuchi <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/Recentering-Globalization/">argues</a>, Japan functions as a “transformer”, which “Asianises” Western forms for a pan-Asian market. The kimono has recently experienced a revival in Western fashions – it was the hot item for this year’s summer festival circuit in the US. </p>
<p>By re-appropriating the kimono, Japanese Vogue in some ways speaks back to such cultural appropriation. It restyles and reclaims the traditional garb and sells it back, not only to a Japanese audience, but to a global fashion public.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosemary Overell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Miranda Kerr sparked controversy last week when she appeared in Japanese Vogue dressed in a kimono. Critics in the blogosphere and The New York Daily News wondered whether her donning traditional Japanese…Rosemary Overell, Lecturer in Communication Studies, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/307892014-08-25T03:52:22Z2014-08-25T03:52:22ZTaylor Swift is the great white shark of pop music<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57235/original/ymsp6xx3-1408931989.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Swift is privileged, as only apex predators are, with the ability to pick and choose from any (cultural) food source.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the same week American rapper Nicki Minaj released <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDZX4ooRsWs">Anaconda</a>, a music video dedicated to <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/08/20/nicki_minaj_anaconda_video_watch_her_celebrate_her_assets_in_the_visuals.html">celebrating “the butt”</a>, US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released a video, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM">Shake It Off</a>, accidentally dedicated to highlighting white privilege. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/19/can-t-shake-off-taylor-swift-s-cultural-appropriation-haters-gonna-hate.html">public shaming</a> of Swift for perpetuating racial stereotypes and <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6221872/earl-sweatshirt-taylor-swift-shake-it-off-video-is-offensive">accusations</a> of cultural appropriation started to circulate within hours of the video’s release last Monday. </p>
<p>While I don’t want to label Swift’s heavy-handed, badly choreographed and fairly lacklustre film clip as purposefully racist, it is without a doubt racially charged. Let us start with the facts.</p>
<p>The clip shows Swift expeditiously trying on various dancer’s hats. With each new hat she plays the role of a jazz performer, a ballerina, a hip-hop dancer, a cheerleader, a rapper and so on. The only thing that links Swift in each of these performances is her consistent shortcomings.</p>
<p>Presumably we are meant to identify and sympathise with Swift’s awkward and goofy girl-next-door façade. And to some extent we do. She is a fool, but ultimately we are humbled by her tomfoolery.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nfWlot6h_JM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Shake It Off.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At first glance the cast of dancers is very multicultural. Swift is backed up by an wide variety of people as she blunders her way around the set. However, the inclusive casting choice soon reveals itself to be less innocuous. </p>
<p>All the ten ballerinas are white. Of the six hip-hop dancers, the majority are of colour. We must ask ourselves, if all the dance tropes are apparently multicultural and diverse in their casting, why are the ballerinas and the hip-hop dancers the only two groups that are so explicitly racially marked? What is Swift trying to say here?</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57234/original/wrvxjxbp-1408931736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57234/original/wrvxjxbp-1408931736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57234/original/wrvxjxbp-1408931736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57234/original/wrvxjxbp-1408931736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57234/original/wrvxjxbp-1408931736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57234/original/wrvxjxbp-1408931736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57234/original/wrvxjxbp-1408931736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57234/original/wrvxjxbp-1408931736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Book cover for Misty Copeland’s Life In Motion memoir.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are introduced to the ballerinas in a Swan Lake-themed line of thin, blonde women, who appear to be the personification of poise and elegance. The hip-hop dancers first appear on screen with a close-up shot of a big, black twerking booty. </p>
<p>In her choice of casting, Swift would have us believe ballet is a white woman’s dance, despite <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/black-ballet-superstar-misty-copeland-on-swan-lake-and-racial-prejudice/story-fn9n8gph-1227017793784">the pioneering efforts</a> of acclaimed African-American ballet dancers such as Misty Copeland, Anne Benna Simms and Nora Kimball. Swift’s cast of ballet dancers are not only white, they wear expensive-looking white-coloured costumes, suggesting wealth. </p>
<p>By contrast, the hip-hop girls all wear ripped denim shorts and hoop earrings. In this way Swift’s video highlights destructive and outdated race stereotypes.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E0CazRHB0so?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Lily Allen’s Hard Out Here.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Shake It Off clip Swift is contributing to a recent trend of white musicians appropriating black female bodies. Can we all just agree to stop using black women twerking provocatively as props? I am looking at you, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrUvu1mlWco">Miley Cyrus</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0CazRHB0so">Lily Allen</a>.</p>
<p>It is Swift’s white privilege that allows her to try on this diverse range of dance hats. She reinforces a stereotype of social hierarchy where whiteness represents the elite and the cultured – with blackness its poor other.</p>
<p>White privilege means being at the top of the cultural food chain, so to speak. Swift can appropriate and parody any community she likes. </p>
<p>Her whiteness allows her to be a cultural predator. In the sea of race, she is the great white shark. She is privileged, as only apex predators are, with the ability to pick and choose from any (cultural) food source she sees fit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Myles Russell Cook does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the same week American rapper Nicki Minaj released Anaconda, a music video dedicated to celebrating “the butt”, US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released a video, Shake It Off, accidentally dedicated…Myles Russell Cook, Lecturer, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225312014-01-30T02:04:36Z2014-01-30T02:04:36ZLorde vs Miley – where young feminism meets old class bias<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40149/original/cd6nvfqp-1391040296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Lorde is indie – original and authentic. Miley and her ilk are not."</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Buck/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earlier this week, New Zealand singer Ella Yelich-O'Connor – AKA Lorde – won two Grammys, including best song for the sleeper hit <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFasFq4GJYM">Royals</a> and – almost – topped <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-love-music-why-triple-js-hottest-100-still-rocks-22176">Triple J’s Hottest 100</a> (her song Royals came in at number two, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Ymd-OCucs">Tennis Court</a> at number 12 and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JuxM-snGc">Team</a> at 15). </p>
<p>Amid the breathless celebration of the 17-year-old’s music lies an implicit positioning of Lorde as a positive alternative to the “<a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/music-and-performance/2013/08/memo-miley-twerking-not-feminist-statement">raunchy</a>” sexuality of other young female pop stars, such as Miley Cyrus.</p>
<p>The press around Lorde regularly highlights her “<a href="http://metromag.co.nz/culture/music/lorde-storm-singer/">self-proclaimed feminist</a>” status, whereas the overwhelming media image of Miley remains the <a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/08/27/real-problem-miley-cyrus-deemed-ratchet-white-girl/">twerking “ratchet” girl</a> who drew the ire of many feminist pundits after the 2013 Video Music Awards.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40146/original/knhkd3vf-1391039936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40146/original/knhkd3vf-1391039936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40146/original/knhkd3vf-1391039936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40146/original/knhkd3vf-1391039936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40146/original/knhkd3vf-1391039936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40146/original/knhkd3vf-1391039936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40146/original/knhkd3vf-1391039936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40146/original/knhkd3vf-1391039936.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Buck/EPA</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Why Lorde’s feminism is taken more seriously, I believe, is due mostly to something which no-one wants to talk about: class. Not in terms of the size of one’s bank account, but class as disposition linked more to education than cashflow. We need only think of <a href="https://theconversation.com/review-boganaire-the-rise-and-fall-of-nathan-tinkler-20315">“cashed-up bogans”</a> to realise wealth does not automatically dovetail with the “good taste” associated with the middle-class. </p>
<p>Emerging from the discussion around Lorde is the assumption that she, via her music, is tasteful, “classy” and worthy. Implicit – if not sometimes explicit – in this discourse is the implication that pop singers such as Miley are less classy, more brash and tasteless.</p>
<p>Lorde, like Miley, is a pop singer. But Lorde sits in the “indie pop” segment of the music industry. She writes her own songs, appears to have an “unfiltered” <a href="https://twitter.com/lordemusic">social media presence</a> and her fashion sense has been repeatedly framed as <a href="http://rookiemag.com/2014/01/lorde-interview/4/">original and unique</a>. That’s a far cry from the discussion around Miley, whose music is – apart from being formally different to Lorde’s – written by others and whose style and, in fact, entire image is critiqued as derivative at best and <a href="http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/miley-cyrus-needs-to-take-an-african-american-studies-class">racist cultural appropriation of African-American culture</a> at worst.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40150/original/db5h2rvm-1391041914.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40150/original/db5h2rvm-1391041914.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40150/original/db5h2rvm-1391041914.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40150/original/db5h2rvm-1391041914.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40150/original/db5h2rvm-1391041914.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40150/original/db5h2rvm-1391041914.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40150/original/db5h2rvm-1391041914.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40150/original/db5h2rvm-1391041914.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">http://lordemusic.tumblr.com/</span>
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<p>Key to high standing in indie-pop music is an aura of authenticity. Indie musicians are, of course, just as “produced” as starlets such as Miley. Lorde, for her part, was signed to Universal when she was 12 and no doubt the incredible clout of her association with a “major” led to her significant media presence, particularly in the US. </p>
<p>In Lorde’s press we hear of <a href="http://rookiemag.com/2014/01/lorde-interview/2/">her love of modern American fiction</a> (on Vonnegut: “he’s way sassy, but I love that”) and collecting <a href="http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2013/11/lorde-royals-interview-gq-magazine-november-2013.html">first-edition books</a>; her lyrics <a href="http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2013/11/lorde-royals-interview-gq-magazine-november-2013.html">are described as</a> “acerbic” and “literate”. </p>
<p>We know her mother has an MA (Lorde proofread it!) and that she comes from <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lordes-teenage-dream-20131028">a middle-class suburb</a> of Auckland. She is acceptably, inoffensively tasteful and middle-class.</p>
<p>Praise for Royals in the US focused on Lorde’s apparent critique of the “Cristal, Maybach, diamonds” culture of attributed to mainstream pop. A New York Times article went as far to say that Lorde is “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/arts/music/shes-16-but-not-thinking-of-sweet.html?_r=1&">calmly insubordinate</a>” in her critique of “conspicuous consumption”. This, the author claimed, is far better than the “clichés” that characterise Miley’s work. </p>
<p>For all this hyping of Lorde’s apparent critique of capitalist consumer culture, we see the same old class positions rehearsed. Lorde is indie – original and authentic. Miley and her ilk are not. Middle classness remains the status quo.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40145/original/pv9c2cmg-1391039421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40145/original/pv9c2cmg-1391039421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40145/original/pv9c2cmg-1391039421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40145/original/pv9c2cmg-1391039421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40145/original/pv9c2cmg-1391039421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40145/original/pv9c2cmg-1391039421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40145/original/pv9c2cmg-1391039421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40145/original/pv9c2cmg-1391039421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ Peter Foley</span></span>
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<p>In GQ <a href="http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2013/11/lorde-royals-interview-gq-magazine-november-2013.html">we are told</a> Lorde is a “far cry from those … standard Disney-groomed teenage[rs]” - a clear reference to Miley. Further, <a href="http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2013/11/lorde-royals-interview-gq-magazine-november-2013.html">she is cool</a> – “deep” and wearing a Cramps t-shirt on the cover of Rolling Stone. Compare this with Miley’s caricatured <a href="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/ht_rolling_stone_cover_miley_cyrus_thg_1200_130924_16x9_992.jpg">Rolling Stone cover</a> appearance – topless, tattooed, tongue lolling. GQ tell us that Lorde is not a “guilty pleasure” for middle-class adults – presumably unlike the “nostalgia for the mud” one might expect from playing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tEe0hglDDs">Bangerz</a>.</p>
<p>Lorde herself maintains these distinctions in numerous statements explicitly criticising other female pop stars. On Miley, she <a href="http://theblemish.com/2013/11/lorde-isnt-fan-miley-cyrus-thinks-david-guetta-gross/">expressed a concern</a> – following the now infamous VMA performance – that music events will eventually culminate “in two people fucking on stage at the Grammys”. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40148/original/vnn67wxt-1391040160.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40148/original/vnn67wxt-1391040160.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40148/original/vnn67wxt-1391040160.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40148/original/vnn67wxt-1391040160.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40148/original/vnn67wxt-1391040160.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40148/original/vnn67wxt-1391040160.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40148/original/vnn67wxt-1391040160.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Selena Gomez.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/George Hochmuth </span></span>
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<p>She also weighed in on Selena Gomez suggesting that the song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-D1EB74Ckg">Come And Get It</a> was <a href="http://theblemish.com/2013/11/lorde-isnt-fan-miley-cyrus-thinks-david-guetta-gross/">detrimental to women’s rights</a>. Of course, in both statements, Lorde declares her position as “a feminist”. She similarly self-positions in an interview with the writer and performer Tavi Gevison (herself the subject of hyperbolic commentary <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/isabel-rothberg/how-lorde-and-tavi-helped_b_4633305.html">such as being labelled</a> “the most prominent feminist of [our] generation”) where Lorde is articulate on the nuances of <a href="http://rookiemag.com/2014/01/lorde-interview">post-feminist discourse</a>. </p>
<p>Miley, on the other hand, is more blunt in <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/magazine/article3938664.ece">her articulation of feminism</a>: “I’m a feminist for sure”.</p>
<p>The issue here is not whether one pop singer is a “better” feminist than the other – but how the discussion around Lorde and Miley’s positions as young female pop-stars rehearses a particularly insidious class-based discrimination.</p>
<p>Along with the new, it seems, we have a continuation of the same old tune.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22531/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosemary Overell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Earlier this week, New Zealand singer Ella Yelich-O'Connor – AKA Lorde – won two Grammys, including best song for the sleeper hit Royals and – almost – topped Triple J’s Hottest 100 (her song Royals came…Rosemary Overell, Lecturer in Communication Studies, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189382013-10-08T03:11:20Z2013-10-08T03:11:20ZMiley Cyrus, Sinéad O’Connor and the future of feminism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32551/original/mrkyqpkt-1381117349.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A twerking, tongue-poking Miley Cyrus at the Video Music Awards in Brooklyn earlier this year. Does the pop singer represent third wave feminism?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Jason Szenes</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since her tongue-poking and “twerk”-filled <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OpHVV1FMR8">performance</a> at the American Video Music Awards, Miley Cyrus has been the subject of intense media discussion. This has only magnified in the past week, after Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor wrote an <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/03/sinead-o-connor-open-letter-miley-cyrus">open letter</a> to Cyrus, imploring her to “refuse to exploit your body or your sexuality in order for men to make money from you”.</p>
<p>Cyrus did not react well to being chided by one of her idols and <a href="http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/sinead-oconnor-demands-miley-cyrus-apologise-for-mocking-her-and-amanda-bynes-mental-illness-threatens-to-sue/story-e6frfmqi-1226733301091">her tweets</a> in response have provoked two <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sineadoconnor/posts/600729603299365">further open letters</a> by O’Connor. Fellow musician Amanda Palmer has appointed herself as intergenerational umpire, offering an <a href="http://amandapalmer.net/blog/20131003/">open letter</a> to O’Connor in which she maintains that Cyrus has orchestrated her own plan to be a “raging, naked, twerking sexpot”.</p>
<p>Some people have been left wondering why one young, white American female pop singer is generating this much attention. Certainly, Madonna deliberately pushed the boundaries with controversial video clips and an erotic photo book, Sex, before Billy Ray Cyrus’s “achy breaky heart” had even settled on Miley’s mother, Leticia.</p>
<p>One of the tensions driving the international debate about Cyrus is the now-entrenched difference between second- and third-wave feminisms. In 1963, prominent feminist activist Gloria Steinem went undercover to <a href="http://www.gloriasteinem.com/updates/2011/8/22/i-was-a-playboy-bunny.html">work as a Playboy Bunny</a>. The resulting exposé of the harmful aspects of women’s work in the New York club exemplified how feminists once largely agreed that there were exploitative practices inherent in women’s employment in industries connected with sex.</p>
<p>The movement fractured as some women came to disagree with views of pornography and sex work as oppressive. From the 1990s, third-wave feminist rhetoric about “choice” has challenged the idea that stripping, pole dancing, or posing naked are enforced by a male-led - or patriarchal - society.</p>
<p>Michaele L. Ferguson, a political scientist, <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7323460">explains</a> that “choice feminists” see anything a woman says she has chosen to do as “an expression of her liberation”. It does not matter whether a woman elects to run for parliament or to ride naked on a wrecking ball — as does Cyrus in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2FRPA3Gf8">her video</a> for her most recent single — as a woman cannot freely choose to be oppressed.</p>
<p>Third-wave - or choice - feminists have been critical of O’Connor’s initial letter. They have suggested that it exhibits <a href="http://guardianlv.com/2013/10/miley-cyrus-slut-shamed-by-sinead-oconnor/">“slut-shaming”</a>, which refers to the denigration of women who transgress sexual expectations for their gender. Like Amanda Palmer, third-wave opinions contend that O’Connor denies Cyrus’s “agency” or <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emma-gray/sinead-oconnor-miley-cyrus-open-letter_b_4039729.html">control over her career</a>. Finally, they also criticise what they see as O’Connor’s misguided assumption that she can judge what is and what is not “empowering” for another woman. </p>
<p>In contrast, women who uphold second-wave feminist ideals have <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/04/sinead_o_connor_writes_an_open_letter_to_miley_cyrus_and_says_all_the_right.html">expressed admiration</a> for the way in which O’Connor’s letter draws on her own experience as a successful female musician to caution against the workings of male-controlled music industry that markets sex appeal. This week, former Eurthymics singer Annie Lennox has also <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/10358956/Annie-Lennox-disturbed-and-dismayed-by-overtly-sexualised-pop-performances.html">highlighted the impact</a> on young girls of an industry “peddling highly styled pornography with musical accompaniment”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32552/original/sycxcrg9-1381118512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/32552/original/sycxcrg9-1381118512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32552/original/sycxcrg9-1381118512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32552/original/sycxcrg9-1381118512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32552/original/sycxcrg9-1381118512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32552/original/sycxcrg9-1381118512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/32552/original/sycxcrg9-1381118512.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor has exchanged a war of words with pop singer Miley Cyrus over the latter’s overtly ‘sexualised’ behaviour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Inga Kundzina</span></span>
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<p>Second-wave responses also <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/06/miley-cyrus-exploited-empowered-debate">agree with O’Connor’s questioning</a> of the long-term effects of Cyrus’s “choice” to cultivate a highly sexual persona. O’Connor emphasised that at 46 years old, she has not found herself “on the proverbial rag heap” as do many middle-aged female artists “who have based their image around their sexuality”. Shaping a career around sexual desirability in a culture that fetishises the appeal of young women means accepting a built-in expiry date. </p>
<p>The third-wave perspective that lauds Cyrus’s choice to be a “raging, naked, twerking sex-pot” rests on the problematic idea that gender equality has been achieved and that women are already fully liberated. Can we really say that the career choices available to female musicians are equivalent or comparable to those available to male musicians? </p>
<p>In her book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Female-Chauvinist-Pigs-Raunch-Culture/dp/0743284283">Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture</a>, American journalist Ariel Levy proposes that women’s “choices” to express their sexuality through exhibiting their bodies for men are created by selling them an extremely limited model of sexuality in the guise of sexual liberation. Levy’s view is approximated by O’Connor’s plea to Cyrus: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They [the music industry] will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its [sic] what YOU wanted.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Third-wave feminists would argue that O’Connor’s statement suggests Cyrus possesses a false consciousness. Cyrus only thinks she wants to lick sledgehammers and simulate masturbation with a foam finger because she has internalised patriarchal ideas about women. However, a second-wave orientation would counter that it’s impossible to talk about free choices in a world where gender inequality persists and women’s options are overtly and unwittingly constrained.</p>
<p>A war of words among privileged entertainers seems a trivial story in comparison with the major political and social upheavals of the present moment. Nevertheless, the stooshie between Cyrus and O’Connor attracts page views, not only because of our thirst for gossip. We are also interested in this debate because we remain uncertain about the rights and freedoms of women and how best to foster them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/18938/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Smith receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Since her tongue-poking and “twerk”-filled performance at the American Video Music Awards, Miley Cyrus has been the subject of intense media discussion. This has only magnified in the past week, after…Michelle Smith, Associate Professor in Literary Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.