But Shade is a D.C. character!
Was that a couple shots of Lena Dunhamâs face? (A few seconds of Googling later: Yes, it was.)
Not Lena Dunhamâs body, of course. No body like hers is right for a supposedly woman-positive video like this one.
There is so much wrong with this video⌠that all those women heroes canât compensate for in the least. If this is the best we can do in feminist affirmation in 2015, then my heart weeps for my daughters, their friends for all of us. I am not even mentioning the whole racial element
She is a product of her culture⌠Itâs not that Iâm âblamingâ others for her behavior. But each person, I think, has a chance to push things a bit further. So, already she is in a heavily sexualized industry and has made plenty of heavily sexualized music videos (i assume). So⌠she goes this route. Stilettos walking through the flaming whatsit⌠I donât know. Not the best choice of footwear.
We say all the time that something âis a startâ but that is disingenuous to all that has happened already. So, this is, instead, another little bit in a direction of âwomen can be action heroesâ and thatâs ok.
I mean, Iâm all for Charlize Theron in Mad Max⌠but thereâs plenty of women too who see that as Too Manly. Thereâs women as much as men who say what is or isnât girly. What is or isnât manly. I live rather surrounded by strong women and men who are pretty comfortable with themselves. itâs easy to forget that thereâs as many men as there are women who have bought into the gender-biased sexualization of âwho we should beâ.
Iâm not being an apologist, just know what it sounds like when, say, Iâm hanging out with my Aunt who says that the 8 year old boy had better not wear nail polish because itâs âgirly.â
Men should be able to wear nail polish and women should be able to shoot guns and rescue them without being afraid of being snubbed in fucked up power plays.
/end rant
Well that was a fun ride. I am kind of jealous of Taylor. She can be like, âLetâs make costumes and run around with swords and guns and pretend to blow stuff up!â And she can write it all off as a business expense.
I do that and now Iâm on a âlistâ. And the Sheriff says we canât go to that park anymore.
Actor and Internet superstar George Takei took to Twitter to point out that Taylor Swiftâs much-hyped music video for âBad Bloodâ has more female stars than all 11 Marvel movies combined. Well said, George.
And all of them with cookie-cutter bodies seemingly made of plastic, with stilettos(!) and outfits made more for sex than fighting.
Oh, but they had three seconds of Lena Dunhamâs freaking head, so I guess weâre all body positive now.
Come on, ladies, you know the rules. You can be action heroes, but you have to dress and move in such a way that I get boners from it. I mean, what more can you expect?
Yes, exactly. I did like the fun of it, but the bondage shoes, leather outfits, and body shots seem to undercut the pro fem aspect of it. It didnât need to be all ladies in comfortable shoes, but would have been more cool if theyâd toned down the super sexxy. But still I like Swift and she seems to be trying to do things that are fresh and have a positive message. A start.
There are not more female âstarsâ there is Taylor Swift, and then a cornucopia of sexy female props around her. Since the whole purpose just collects women and put them on a string for viewing without furthering the bad blood plot set up at the beginning there is no characterization beyond sex appeal. There are videos that manage to tell a story, and one quality female star is worth 10,000 of these mannequins.
I think Lady Gagaâs Telephone video beats this one to a pulp in terms of female diversity. You get to see small women, zaftig women, women of most races/colours, women older than 40, super muscular women and androgynous women. Granted, theyâre all scantily-clad, but they also each look badass and saucy in their own way without being all ultra-polished supermodels.
Not everything that includes women need to be a representation-fest. That is all.
âŚand the video still fails the Bechdel Test.
Not everything that includes women need to be a representation-fest.
It doesnât need to be a male-gaze wank-fest either. Especially when itâs touting itself as woman positive.
Video was great⌠once I hit mute.
Itâs not. George Takei is touting it that way. Some things just are. As for wank-festâŚyes, thereâs gratuitous sexualization, but itâs not the dominant element in the video. The women are conventionally attractive, but thatâs not ipso facto sexualization.
Personally I wouldnât tout anything as being woman positive, mainly because the level of scrutiny suddenly rises to something perverse and unrealistic. If itâs going to speak to our culture, itâs going to be connected to it. If youâre going to reference Luc Bessonâs The Fifth Element then a scantily clad woman is one way to do it. I personally prefer that to having her be rescued by Bruce Willis, but asking people to transcend culture touchstones and shorthands in order to avoid sexism in fiction is like asking people to not pollute. Sorry. Itâs not going to happen. It can be minimized, reduced, diminished, and offset, but itâs going to be there. Thatâs not an uncontroversial opinion on my part, but I used to believe it was possible to excise sexism from cultural productions, and I no longer do. Not if youâre creating something that will be understood by a substantial number of people.
I suppose it does, if only because itâs sort of Taylor Swiftâs monologue, and the lady she has bad blood with doesnât get to respondâŚ
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