Wee-eee-eee-eee-lll, Lulu’s right to shout
Tuesday 3rd March 2009, 11:56AM GMT.
“Young girls have to straddle naked before they can get noticed.”
That’s got your attention, hasn’t it? Says blogger Andrew Owen.
The above quote comes from veteran, weirdly-better-looking-now-than-she-was-20-years-ago singer Lulu, who deplores the way in which young female singers are turned into sex symbols.
“It’s cheapened the music and I think it is exploitative,” she adds. “I would never have stripped off and gyrated up and down a pole like that.
“To be a singer, you have to be naked and and do things with your body and men on video. What has that got to do with the music?”
She’s talking about men’s patronising attitudes to women, and I think she’s made a good point there (for a bird, like).
I remember a couple of years ago the White Stripes released a (frankly terrible) version of the old Dusty Springfield record “I Just Don’t Know what to do With Myself”.
While the record – as they say – stank on ice, the black and white video featured Kate Moss in her bra and pants doing a pole dance.
Now, I’m sure someone from the record company, somewhere along the line, said it was “an ironic commentary on the role of women”, or “a celebration of female sexuality and emancipation” – you know the sort of guff these people come out with to justify themselves.
However, what it wasn’t was suitable for Top of the Pops at 7.30pm-ish. I remember a friend of mine calling me up afterwards. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I had to send my six-year-old girl out of the room.” (Not switch it off, you understand, just make sure she didn’t see it.)
But, in this era of teenage pregnancy and eating disorders, is it really a good idea to associate pop music with such overt sexual imagery? We all know it sells – but it’s no wonder some girls are growing up deeply troubled if that’s how they think they have to behave and look.
And it’s no wonder we have such a big problem with teenage pregnancies – sex is being thrust at us from every angle (I know. I wrote that deliberately). Not love, not relationships, just instant sexual gratification. And we’re paying the price.
Now in my day the big pop stars were Bananarama (ah, Keren…). A bit saucy, yes, and glamorous, but a million miles away from, say, The Pussycat Dolls. You wouldn’t have found them doing a video in a Kate Moss-stylee. I imagine they would have punched your lights out if you’d suggested it.
The trouble is, with record sales slumping, producers are turning to sex in order to grab the attention – and money – of jaded punters. It’s a slippery slope, and they will be going out of their way to outdo each other.
Lulu is quite right. Those in charge of running record companies need to tone it down a bit.
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Those in charge of record companies don’t care for anything but profit.
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yawn ….
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Dear Mr Owen, don’t buy the records then.
Personally if I could earn Kate Moss’s money girating around a pole, then I would – and hardly feel like a victim whist spending the money on a private yatch in the mediteranean.
What is it with you middle aged, middle classed men, that makes you think you have to tell women what they should and should not aspire to? We can decide for oursleves you patronising fools! Honestly *tut*
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Lucy W, is there any chance that just once you could actually read a post properly before making a comment?
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“in this era of teenage pregnancy and eating disorders”
urrm what era? the 50′s? 60′s? 70′s? 80′s?
This is nothing new, singers in the ‘roaring’ 20′s where just as racey as today’s.
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Betty Boo anyone?
Boo boo be choo….boo!
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darlings you must realise that if you go to the town center then theres going to be a camera watching you on cctv. ITs the way of life now and if i keep driving my ford fiesta around then you would see how much of a good driver i am
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Mark: I did. Mr Owen is anti-sexualisation of women isn’t he? Well I say it a womans choice what she wants to be not what men say she ought to be – and Lulu doesn’t represent women. Just a clapped out singer who needs some limelight so jumps on the holier-than-thou bandwagon.
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The newspaper that revived the Miss Shropshire contest now says that young women deserve better than being turned into sex symbols. You really could not make it up.
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To be honest, I think that out of all the posisble dumb records and videos which feature half naked women doing some ludicrous dances, the White Stripes video with Kate Moss is the worst example. The whole point of it is that it’s sexy and sad, but not crude or vulgar. It’s also funny. When I don’t know what to do with myself, because I’m sad due to you leaving me, I do a pole dance. It’s quirky and charming. Just because it isn’t fit for Top of the Pops at 7:30, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t great. The middle classes are famous for their stupidity, especially middle class mums who feel the need to protect their children from everything interesting and different. Ultimately what Kate Moss is doing is a dance, the cinematography and direction are beautiful, and the song wasn’t terrible at all. It was brilliantly received and approved of. There are others for example, mainly RnB singers including The Pussycat Dolls who are nothing but what their name suggests. As a woman I find them more offensive (not that they could ever really offend me with their inadequacy, but forthe sake of this topic) than Kate Moss’s pole dance. I think they look cheap and stupid, whereas someone like Kate Moss is a world icon and has class and The White Stripes make music which will be rememebered always as unique. The Pussycat Dolls on the othenr hand will fizzle out in time because they are like everybody else. This is just another example of how conservative and unappreciative of art we really are due to our prudishness and lack of culture.
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Record companies push what sells – sex sells. Women agree to be exploited. Feminism works both ways. If women agree to cater to the “male gaze” philosophy – it’s their choice.
Lulu is a classic and she has a point.
The White Stripes cover of “I Just Don’t Know..” is wonderful – the video is not.
http://thisismyhappening.blogspot.com/
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are you serious she was fully clothed and it was probably the the worst pole dance Ive ever seen. On top of that the white stripes are a compleatly non sexual band nothing like most of the rap music out there that your kids are probably listening to anyway!!! Get a grip
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sorry was not aware anne widecombe had to prance naked before she was noticed.
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With an opening quote from Lulu, beatification of Bananarama towards the end and yet all stated, it appears, with seriousness – this surely has to be the winning entry in this years Shropshire Star Campest Blog of the year contest. I look forward to any attempts to knock the mighty Andrew Owen off his currently well deserved No. 1 spot. It’s only March – c’mon it’s not over yet, someone rise to the challenge and write such fabulous prose about how the costumes on ‘Dancing on Ice’ leave little to the imagination – the public are waiting!
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You call yourself Wilhelm Scream and you accuse other people of being camp? Oooh, get her!
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I do agree with the view that all this overt sexualism in media directed at young women does give them an unrealistic view of what is attractive however sex sells and it would appear that Mr. Owen is a willing buyer(albeit paying a bit of lip service to womenkind in his comments). When the price on sex devalues so will the market for it and women such as Katie Price are making money out of their best (perhaps in her case only) commodity!
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You’ve made a good attempt but your comments against the use of the female form to sell sound a little insincere.
Like many male journalists and editors, probably precisely because you are male, you do not sound to have much conviction against these uses of media selling via female form.
Although as you have quite rightly commented, Lulu looks better now then she did many years ago. Claims of using the women in a sexual way to sell music sound a little hollow when she obviously still places great importance on looking younger than she actually is. I rather suspect those little dresses she wore in the sixties well above the the knee were designed to titillate!
And yes, singers do have to look fairly good – where’s Michelle McManus now!
Fact of the matter is sex and the female form is a commodity which has a price from the day of Henry 8th when fathers sold their 8 year old daughter’s hand in marriage to the best financial or political prospect (and their guaranteed virginity as well!) to the man who buys the Sun newspaper’s page 3 girls 2009 calender. Men will pay for the idea that such an openly sexual and beautiful looking woman could possibly (ok usually in their dreams) be interested in them and women will take their money because, well, you’re daft enough to pay it.
As for teenage pregnancies, the immorality of young women, etc, etc being blamed on this sort of media exposure I’m pretty sure girls and women up to the age of 25 are being influenced by other sources then MTV and little bit of commonsense wouldn’t go amiss.
Never mind equality – there’s no such thing – Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus and never the twain shall meet. Why should it – I personally am sick of the ‘new man’ and wouldn’t object at all to a man thinking I’m the sexist bird he seen in a long time, particularly if he looks like James McAvoy!
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Mark, If you consider my earlier comment an accusation of a negative nature then you’ve missed my point – Treating the frivolous seriously is very much a Camp way of looking at things. I feel the Mr Owen’s article does just that and should be applauded for it. I’m not suggesting that anyone should agree with what he’s saying, but should just recline on a chaisse longue and read it appreciatively!
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Wilhelm, let me just get this straight: You think that society’s sexual obsession and the way young girls are encouraged to dress sexually – something encouraged by the media, fashion designers and pop singers – is frivolous. Have I got that right?
I take it you’d be quite happy for a young child to dress up like her favourite Pussycat Doll, would you? That wouldn’t bother you at all?
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Mark, no you haven’t got it right and how you’ve managed to extrapolate what you think is being said suggests you have failed to heed the advice you gave to Lucy W.
The sexualisation of everything and in particular it’s promotion to minors is a serious matter indeed – the article on the other hand treats it otherwise.
Perhaps you don’t understand Camp – I suggest you read Susan Sontag’s ‘Notes on Camp’ and then maybe you’ll understand it better – you’ll find it on the internet easily, try to read it carefully.
Treating serious matters frivolously and vice-versa is a Camp way of looking at things.
Therefore, the article’s references to Lulu, Bananarama and the White Stripes is to accord a serious matter frivolous status – ergo it is Camp.
Get it ? Got it ? Good.
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