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Taylor's body
Nitsuh writes: "One reason I wouldn't want to be a film critic......is that they're working in an area where it's a legitimate part of the job to describe and comment on people's appearances, and how we might feel about looking at them." (Etc.)
Tom replies: "Is it not a legitimate part of a pop critic's job?" (Etc.)
I am so inarticulate when it comes to visuals that I'm not the man to do this well, plus the ilX scum who called me a p43do just for writing about teenpop certainly had a chilling effect, and not just on me, but I did try to write appearances in one of my Taylor Swift pieces ("Dresses Are My Weakness, Seriously"), writing not about her body so much as her apparel, but I made note of the body that the apparel adorned. (I'm even more inarticulate when it comes to clothing, possibly the least qualified person in the world to talk about it, but no one else was talking about it, and it jumped out as critically important.)
In any event, if you look to your right and down a little* you will see an embedded video on my sidebar featuring a then-17-year-old, often described merely as "pretty," who looks utterly fetching in a short glam-trash blue dress and boots, thin, tall, and gorgeous with her guitar, facing the world, telling herself she only has one shot, not to miss her chance, but half-baiting her audience as she does so. She's slight but she knows how to accentuate her curves and show lots of leg and at times is willing to show a little bit of the little cleavage she's got, and she doesn't come off coy doing it, 'cause she's not. Just straightforward, likes to play with her look and try out different styles of beauty. This was always very relevant but has become more so as critics are coming forth to claim that she codes as "wholesome" (which I'll go along with, whatever it means) and "normal" (not so sure about that*), and a "nice girl" (yes but only as a sociological category since she can write anger as well as anyone and at 16 was self-righteously calling out and embarrassing exes, but then again she was just 16).
It's bizarre and dishonest when people call her sexless, ignoring the evidence of their eyes - I suppose if you don't particularly find her sexy that's your taste, but if you claim she's sexless you're simply a social imbecile. I've read a couple of "analyses" recently, one saying her school-girl innocence was bliss and the other saying she doesn't sing about sex, when in fact there was little bliss and she does sing about sex - I'm not going to repeat my whole spiel (click on the "Taylor Swift" tag and you'll get loads of Frank spiel), but her very first single, which is the very first track on her very first album, starts with her out parking with a guy late at night and he's on the make and feeding her a line and she lets him know she knows it's a line, but she wants to be there and in her heart she wants it to be true, and the song doesn't tell you how far they go, but they go all summer long. She wrote this when she was fifteen. If you define "innocent" as not having intercourse then for all I know she was innocent and may still be innocent; if you define "sophisticated" as having a mind and a heart and some idea of what people are like, maybe she's pretty sophisticated. I don't know. Honestly, the 20-year-olds I know seem very young and vulnerable; Taylor's young and in new territory; I'm not sure where she is on any social map or who before her has been in her situation - she and GaGa and the Black Eyed Peas are the biggest features on the pop landscape all of a sudden, maybe it's not the same old landscape, and if she's on the wholesome side, well, this means wholesomeness is as audacious as anything else. Sexiness and desire and romance are part of her but she's seen her friends get eaten up by it (try "Tied Together With A Smile"). Her body's not signaling a come-on and a promise, 'cause she doesn't know what to promise, or what will be. But hope and ache and scads of distrust are in her. That's what her songs say.
The one song that made me cry last year was "The Best Day," the thank-you song to her mom, vignettes from when she was 5, and 13, and 3, and it made me cry because it was about an adult coming though big time for a child, but that's not all it was, and this is one way that Taylor is different - on this song she's made it to Ashlee's league. Here's the second verse:
I'm thirteen now and don't know how my friends could be so mean
I come home crying and you hold me tight and grab the keys
And we drive and drive until we found a town far enough away
And we talk and window shop till I forgot all their names
I don't know who I'm gonna talk to now at school
But I know I'm laughing on the car ride home with you
Don't know how long it's gonna take to feel okay
But I know I had the best day with you today
Notice the balance in the lyrics, one line with mom, the next line Taylor's mind back at school. Her mom came through as big-time as a mom could - but for Taylor, at 13, that wasn't necessarily enough.
(Sorry. That's not about her body. It's more interesting than her body.)
Here's the "Tim McGraw" vid, for that very first song of hers. About the third time I've posted this. See what the camera sees, right at the start, neck and a little below, straps of what at first could be a slip, revealed to be a thin white dress (while the lyrics tell us it's a black dress, and it's night), Taylor thin, prone. Fragile and not fragile.
Also see "Nice Girls' Suppressed Anger."
*Tim Finney called her "aggressively normal" but I saw that comment copied rather than in its original context on a gigantic ILM thread that I haven't had time to read through, so I don't know what qualifications and elaborations he added. He's a subtle, smart guy. But I don't see her that way at all, in fact see her refusing the country cult of normality; this doesn't mean she parades transgressiveness; what it means is, in her case, artistry. I talked about it at the end of my country critics ballot:
Within her chosen topics she never cheats. E.g., compare to Brad Paisley's pretty good "Anything Like Me," which is full of standard events, boy climbing tree that's too tall, and so on, an implied, "You know what this is like, you know what childhood is like, you know what we're like." Well, Taylor doesn't assume that you know what it's like, so she's going to tell you, whether it's a day in school or a day with her dad.** And if the country genre does accept her - which it sure seems to, and she's now its biggest seller - that means she's part of a process where country rewrites what life is like, doesn't take its sharing of experience for granted.
**Hadn't yet figured out that "The Best Day" was written for her mom, not her dad.
***Dreamwidth footnote: Look down and to the right on my LiveJournal sidebar, that is. If it's possible to embed videos on my Dreamwidth sidebar I haven't figured it out yet. But anyway, here's the Taylor that's on my lj page:
Tom replies: "Is it not a legitimate part of a pop critic's job?" (Etc.)
I am so inarticulate when it comes to visuals that I'm not the man to do this well, plus the ilX scum who called me a p43do just for writing about teenpop certainly had a chilling effect, and not just on me, but I did try to write appearances in one of my Taylor Swift pieces ("Dresses Are My Weakness, Seriously"), writing not about her body so much as her apparel, but I made note of the body that the apparel adorned. (I'm even more inarticulate when it comes to clothing, possibly the least qualified person in the world to talk about it, but no one else was talking about it, and it jumped out as critically important.)
In any event, if you look to your right and down a little* you will see an embedded video on my sidebar featuring a then-17-year-old, often described merely as "pretty," who looks utterly fetching in a short glam-trash blue dress and boots, thin, tall, and gorgeous with her guitar, facing the world, telling herself she only has one shot, not to miss her chance, but half-baiting her audience as she does so. She's slight but she knows how to accentuate her curves and show lots of leg and at times is willing to show a little bit of the little cleavage she's got, and she doesn't come off coy doing it, 'cause she's not. Just straightforward, likes to play with her look and try out different styles of beauty. This was always very relevant but has become more so as critics are coming forth to claim that she codes as "wholesome" (which I'll go along with, whatever it means) and "normal" (not so sure about that*), and a "nice girl" (yes but only as a sociological category since she can write anger as well as anyone and at 16 was self-righteously calling out and embarrassing exes, but then again she was just 16).
It's bizarre and dishonest when people call her sexless, ignoring the evidence of their eyes - I suppose if you don't particularly find her sexy that's your taste, but if you claim she's sexless you're simply a social imbecile. I've read a couple of "analyses" recently, one saying her school-girl innocence was bliss and the other saying she doesn't sing about sex, when in fact there was little bliss and she does sing about sex - I'm not going to repeat my whole spiel (click on the "Taylor Swift" tag and you'll get loads of Frank spiel), but her very first single, which is the very first track on her very first album, starts with her out parking with a guy late at night and he's on the make and feeding her a line and she lets him know she knows it's a line, but she wants to be there and in her heart she wants it to be true, and the song doesn't tell you how far they go, but they go all summer long. She wrote this when she was fifteen. If you define "innocent" as not having intercourse then for all I know she was innocent and may still be innocent; if you define "sophisticated" as having a mind and a heart and some idea of what people are like, maybe she's pretty sophisticated. I don't know. Honestly, the 20-year-olds I know seem very young and vulnerable; Taylor's young and in new territory; I'm not sure where she is on any social map or who before her has been in her situation - she and GaGa and the Black Eyed Peas are the biggest features on the pop landscape all of a sudden, maybe it's not the same old landscape, and if she's on the wholesome side, well, this means wholesomeness is as audacious as anything else. Sexiness and desire and romance are part of her but she's seen her friends get eaten up by it (try "Tied Together With A Smile"). Her body's not signaling a come-on and a promise, 'cause she doesn't know what to promise, or what will be. But hope and ache and scads of distrust are in her. That's what her songs say.
The one song that made me cry last year was "The Best Day," the thank-you song to her mom, vignettes from when she was 5, and 13, and 3, and it made me cry because it was about an adult coming though big time for a child, but that's not all it was, and this is one way that Taylor is different - on this song she's made it to Ashlee's league. Here's the second verse:
I'm thirteen now and don't know how my friends could be so mean
I come home crying and you hold me tight and grab the keys
And we drive and drive until we found a town far enough away
And we talk and window shop till I forgot all their names
I don't know who I'm gonna talk to now at school
But I know I'm laughing on the car ride home with you
Don't know how long it's gonna take to feel okay
But I know I had the best day with you today
Notice the balance in the lyrics, one line with mom, the next line Taylor's mind back at school. Her mom came through as big-time as a mom could - but for Taylor, at 13, that wasn't necessarily enough.
(Sorry. That's not about her body. It's more interesting than her body.)
Here's the "Tim McGraw" vid, for that very first song of hers. About the third time I've posted this. See what the camera sees, right at the start, neck and a little below, straps of what at first could be a slip, revealed to be a thin white dress (while the lyrics tell us it's a black dress, and it's night), Taylor thin, prone. Fragile and not fragile.
Also see "Nice Girls' Suppressed Anger."
*Tim Finney called her "aggressively normal" but I saw that comment copied rather than in its original context on a gigantic ILM thread that I haven't had time to read through, so I don't know what qualifications and elaborations he added. He's a subtle, smart guy. But I don't see her that way at all, in fact see her refusing the country cult of normality; this doesn't mean she parades transgressiveness; what it means is, in her case, artistry. I talked about it at the end of my country critics ballot:
Within her chosen topics she never cheats. E.g., compare to Brad Paisley's pretty good "Anything Like Me," which is full of standard events, boy climbing tree that's too tall, and so on, an implied, "You know what this is like, you know what childhood is like, you know what we're like." Well, Taylor doesn't assume that you know what it's like, so she's going to tell you, whether it's a day in school or a day with her dad.** And if the country genre does accept her - which it sure seems to, and she's now its biggest seller - that means she's part of a process where country rewrites what life is like, doesn't take its sharing of experience for granted.
**Hadn't yet figured out that "The Best Day" was written for her mom, not her dad.
***Dreamwidth footnote: Look down and to the right on my LiveJournal sidebar, that is. If it's possible to embed videos on my Dreamwidth sidebar I haven't figured it out yet. But anyway, here's the Taylor that's on my lj page:
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Basically dude this is a massive can of feminist worms. I may try and open it and count up said worms at some point.
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It probably really helps when one assesses the sex that you're not attracted to! I enjoy, and feel more comfortable, talking about female pop stars'/actors' appearances (and the numerous ways in which they use their appearance for effect, both sexual and non-sexual). With dudes I default lazily to "fit y/n?" if it's a throwaway comment. I justify this by calling it payback for how girls are scrutinised.
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Taylor sings in "Tied Together With A Smile":
I guess it's true that love was all you wanted
'Cause you're giving it away like it's extra change
Hoping it will end up in his pocket
But he leaves you out like a penny in the rain
Oh, cause it's not his price to pay
It's not his price to pay...
Which could have been from an 18th century novel, but I'm sure it felt dead accurate to Taylor in her world. What if she's right? Then looking pleasing in a boy's eye could be both a joy and a trap, and the idea of a Madonna and a GaGa taking control of the process could just be a shuck when it comes to the actual lives most girls actually lead.
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Well, exactly! The bullies had nothing to do with the practise of your assessing appearances, because you weren't really. (They came out because - simply - they didn't think the kind of artist you were discussing, with the target audiences they had, merited lengthy, smart discussion. It was basically "high school lunkheads pick on nerds", except w/the slightly pathetic fact that the wannabe-lunkheads were nerds themselves.)
Jezebel - I can't speak for Autostraddle - is usually a really good, and really important site for assessing the appearances of women in the public arena, or at least making the case that one CAN do this, and it is FUN to do this, and that it can be done without being unfeminist, misogynist or just plain ignorant. Or without deriding someone's appearance! (Or deriding *them*, more accurately.)
This is why I got het up about their Taylor vendetta in the first place, it's not like Jezebel is usually idiotic (plus even if the writers can be uh myopic, the commenters usually provide intelligent balance, inc re: Taylor, though the entire episode soured the site enough that I haven't really gone back there v much since).
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Let's face it, Swift is a parent's wet dream. Finally a pop star that caters to teens who isn't singing about sex or dressing like she's ready to work the corner. Swift has the perfect clean image that gives Disney an erection and kids a wholesome role model. Her music is literally a teenage girl's diary translated to song.
My hypothesis is that the guy who wrote that never actually listened to her albums straight through and didn't bother to check which label she records for or notice all the stations she gets played on, though there might be other interpretations of what he wrote. (I mean, maybe by "singing about sex" he means "describes sexual intercourse," in which case he's correct, Taylor Swift's songs don't describe sexual intercourse.*)
My point here is that the frame that the fellow puts Taylor in is so fucked-up (I'd call it "juvenile," except that would be unfair to juveniles), the hyperbolic ha-ha-ha of parents having metaphoric orgasms and Disney getting erections over Taylor's cleanliness, and the choice he gives to Taylor (since she's not dressing like a whore she could not possibly be singing about sex). And I'm not saying that all of society puts that frame around her - otherwise she wouldn't be a hit, since she doesn't fit the frame - but rather that we know that someone's out there ready to put Taylor in this frame, and put us in the frame if we write about Taylor, even if we don't get to her appearance.
How to describe the frame? Well, it's both oversexualized - if Taylor isn't singing about sex then for the writer the issue is THE ABSENCE OF SEX, no matter what she's actually singing about - and undersexualized: he doesn't notice the actual eye-level life-sized take on sex in Taylor's lyrics.
Paradoxically, since in her actual songs Taylor does bring up the issue of sex, sex does then pertain to all her romance songs (the romance usually problematic), there when it's there and there when it's gone, but as a genuine, important but life-sized issue, not as the big tittering does she/doesn't she of that guy's frame. (Or the vicious Is she for it and us or is she agin it and us? of the Jezebel frame.)
*By the way, Radio Disney now plays 3OH!3, whose "Follow Me Down" appears on the Almost Alice faux soundtrack on Disney-affiliated Buena Vista Records. I'm sure the Disney people are salivating over 3OH!3's clean image. Also, not having heard their albums, I don't know if any of 3OH!3's songs actually describe sexual intercourse either. But for sure 3OH!3 don't dress like they're working the corner, so hurrah!
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Would you be willing to link it?
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http://studvest.no/kultur.php?seksjon=anmeldelser&art_id=11535
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Wolves in a few clothes
"I do not know where I am colored by this experience" - I love that. Is that Norwegian idiom, or just a mistranslation? I wish I could talk about how an experience colors me.
One reason Shakira's own English is so original is that I think in her head she's still fundamentally thinking in Spanish, and doesn't have a full grasp of Anglo-American clichés. On Laundry Service she sang, "There's nothing like your smile made of sun," which is vastly better than if she'd said (as an American would have) "There's nothing like your sunny smile."
Of course she is an original anyway, imagining herself as a werewolf in a closet!
Here was my review of Laundry Service, before I'd even seen her belly dancing and her ass wiggling free and independent of the rest of her torso.
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On the whole it's a pretty impressive attempt by the Google bot to do me justice, even if I seem a little neanderthalian reading that translation. Maybe the Norwegian language is that simple.
The title is a (brilliant) pun. "A wolf in sheep's clothing" is "ulv i fåreklær" in Norwegian, while "få klær" means scantily clad.
Shakira, in interviews, seems to have a very confident grasp of the English language. I'm sure she likes to make it sound foreign, though.