Posts by Danielle
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Up Front: Fringe of Darkness, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
I know what oxytocin is. I've only recently stopped wearing maternity bras. But it's actually deeply weird to place all the responsibility for nurturing and protection on women and then "other" men as people that aren't emotionally and morally invested in protecting their own kids. Why are we divesting them of that responsibility? It's the sort of approach we used during the temperance movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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Could we maybe dial down the weird separate-spheres gender essentialism in this thread? Like, dichotomising women into nurturers and men into... not-nurturers... is the sort of approach that limits everyone as complete human beings.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to ,
Twitter is killing this place.
I think Twitter is great for this place because it allows people to a) form their thoughts before they're posted here (which is what I do quite a lot of the time) and b) removes a lot of noise that might be kind of unhelpful at PAS (if I become annoyed with something I can tweet about it and then come back here to be more polite, having cleansed it from my system).
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Beatlenerd fact: the opening line of "Run For Your Life" - "I'd rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man" - was lifted directly from Elvis Presley's version of "Baby Let's Play House", 1954. IT'S MISOGYNY ALL THE WAY DOWN.
Speaking of which, this is the most beautiful version of a traditional song about the senseless, bloody murder of a woman. (Seriously, it is ass-kickingly great. Those close harmonies! It is also incredibly disturbing.)
I think my larger point, which I ranted about on Twitter earlier, is: we all have to accept that we are soaking in all manner of horribleness like misogyny in ALL pop culture. Because it reflects AND inspires us, it's hard to draw causal relationships. So the only thing to do is critique and discuss and critique. And everyone has to draw the line of acceptability where that line feels comfortable for you - and maybe the discussing and critiquing, perhaps from voices outside the mainstream, changes the placement of that line for you. Maybe it changes more than once. Moreover, maybe the artists respond to the critiques and THEIR line of acceptability changes. So yeah, discussion is great; waving lyrics around, divorced from the song itself, as if they're some immutable proof of anything is... not.
PS I do not think "a bunch of women sang along to the song so it isn't misogynist" is a particularly convincing argument. There is such a thing as internalised misogyny. Shit, I bet *I'd* sing along to that song in the right context, but I'd still know it was kinda fucked up.
PPS Here's an example of my "line of acceptability": I'd still pay to see a Woody Allen movie, but I wouldn't pay to see Bill Cosby. Now, I know that to a lot of feminists the line is closer. Woody Allen is dead and Bill Cosby is BEYOND dead, and that's totally valid. Maybe I'm terribly wrong. But here I am with my line, my not-so-secure judgement call. Maybe I'll change it one day? I'll have to keep thinking, and reading, and re-deciding.
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Well, Rosemary, I'll be sure to let you know when my child is directly inspired to commit violence by his square parents' old hiphop, OK? Then you can say I told you so.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
I listen to quite a lot of "objectionable" material in the car or house with my five-year-old. I think I made the decision not to censor our music out of laziness - I couldn't get rid of offensive songs without spending weeks or months doing the weeding! - but I have found it interesting to discuss what he picks up on and what flies right over his head. He will tell me off for singing along to "bad words" but seems to have no concept of elaborate lyrics being able to tell stories just yet. As he gets older I imagine we will have more discussions with him about lyrics and what they signify, whether they're sending us a useful or worrying message, whether they should be taken seriously or not.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
I don't think it's hugely helpful to use lyrics as a signifier of anything in particular, which is why I was rather less supportive of Odd Future being refused a visa. Lyrics can often be the sentiments of an adopted persona, or an expression of chutzpah or humour or a bunch of other things. His actions are what matters here.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Rich Lock,
the thousands of fans who were not only willing to turn a blind eye, but who were actively justifying his actions, and seeking to shout down and suppress dissenting voices
There are even people in the comments of the police report article Russell links to doing just that, which boggles the mind.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to B Jones,
It was a while ago, you can’t hold a grudge forever, give a guy a chance to turn his life around and be a good role model, he makes lots of people happy.
What’s weird about this is that both of these cases were particularly egregious (Brown’s police report – and the photos of Rihanna’s face that are out there, if you care to search for them – is just absolutely awful, and we all know the detail’s of Veitch’s assault). I mean, obviously there is no such thing as an acceptable domestic violence incident but these required ongoing, deliberate rage and callous disregard for their partners for lengthy periods – they weren’t just a flash of anger. And neither dude has exhibited much, if any, remorse. It makes me wonder just what *would* be unforgivable in society’s eyes.
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Speaker: Rugby, Racing and Emotions, in reply to Hilary Stace,
It's probably just my friends, but I maintain a pretty total radio silence on all World Cup things because I have the opposite problem!