The bros go ‘full Janet’ while Janet thinks she shoulda known better
Joseph Gordon-Levitt made a splash on with some hardcore Janet drag. Performing an edit of Rhythm Nation 1814, he dressed up like Janet from the video, complete with ponytail. The most impressive part was his execution of the video’s (and…
Why is there no music analysis in feminist theory?
This MTO call for “Feminist Music Theory” got me thinking…. Feminist Theory is a body of theoretical, philosophical work that crosses women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, literature, film and media studies, art history, cultural studies, ethnic studies, theology and…
BBHMM, Gender, Property, & Sound: part 1, the video
So, here it is, my extra-freezing-cold-take on Rihanna’s BBHMM. I’ve broken it down into three parts, which I’ll publish over the next three days. It’s long and unedited — one of those ‘ima barf out my ideas here for refining…
BBHMM, Gender, Property, & Sound: part 2, bizarro pornotroping
This is part 2 of a too-longread piece on Rihanna’s BBHMM. Pornotroping & Property This destabilization of cisbinary gender in general, and her character’s “sonic” gender identity is one of the main techniques BBHMM uses to reroute the…
BBHMM, Gender, Property, & Sound: part 3, who cares?
This is the final part in a too-longread piece on Rihanna’s BBHMM. In order to redirect the typical flow of property, Rihanna’s character has to turn and deviate the practices of racialized sexual violence that produce post-feminist subjects and bare…
Academic negging
“Negging” is a tactic pickup artists use to get women’s attention. It’s basically the opposite of a compliment: you tell someone something negative about them, comment on a less-than-ideal quality, etc. The idea is that it undermines the recipient’s confidence…
Feelin Themselves
In my 2014 Noisey article on Meghan Trainor & Nicki Minaj, I said that in pop music (and beyond) white feminist aesthetics tend to focus on representations of the body (body image, objectification), whereas black feminist aesthetics tend to focus…
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