best songs by female artists, 2010

sleigh bells – “rill rill”

I have seriously had this song on repeat since it came out this summer.  Though Sleigh Bells is very much loud, noisy grunge pop – think Amy Millan of Stars singing over the Ramones – I wasn’t expecting a relatively slow, summery song with a finger-snapping accompaniment.  If you ever sat under the bleachers in high school watching your best friend walk away from you for someone “cooler” this song is exactly what that moment sounds like.

 

best coast – “boyfriend”

Thankfully, although they share a title, this song has nothing to do with the atrocious Avril Lavigne song from when I was in middle school.  While the melody and lyrics are remarkably simple for such a highly praised indie band, that takes away nothing from the song, which is the perfect soundtrack for when you’re lying in bed wishing a certain someone would be there next to you.  Lo-fi stoner surf rock at its best.

 

robyn – “dancing on my own”

Yes, it’s the “Show Me Love” one-hit wonder chick.  And yes, she has staying power in the music industry.  In my humble opinion, she’s on the same level of perfecting pop music as our lady Gaga herself.  “Dancing On My Own” is a single from her flawless album Body Talk and exudes a level of emotion not heard in any dancey pop song in recent years.

nicki minaj’s verse from kanye west’s “monster”

It’s rare that a verse by a relative newcomer eclipses the raps of industry pros, but Nicki Minaj made it happen.  She, in less than two minutes, practically curb-stomps Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Rick Ross, and she does it in killer heels too.  Her debut album may have been less than impressive, but as long as Nicki keeps contributing guest verses that kick this much ass, the day of the female MC may one day come again.

 

katy perry – “teenage dream”

While I generally disapprove of K-Perry (I don’t care if “Firework” is supposed to be an LGBT anthem, this is the woman who brought us the bisexuality-as-a-trend anthem “I Kissed A Girl) I can’t deny I spent my whole summer singing this at the top of my lungs.  It definitely deserves the title of the best pop song produced in the States this year.  Then again, what’s the competition?  Ke$ha?

 

lissie – “cuckoo”

The best not-really-country country singer of the year.  Lissie (real name Elisabeth Maurus) has a wonderfully organic-sounding voice – that’s right, no autotune here – and a style of songwriting that makes you feel like you’re flipping through your diary.  When I hear this, I want to get in a car, roll the windows down, and drive somewhere, blasting “Cuckoo” at high volume all the way.

Call the first witness

I just had the good (maybe) fortune to witness an INTERNET ARGUMENT!!!! about why Supernatural is apparently more damaging and sexist than Twilight.

Exhibit A: Internet argument.

Now, I have my issues with Twilight (YES, KATE, WE KNOW say the readers) and my issues with Supernatural, as much as I love the show and my boys.  But the two series are not really comparable.  They may both be paranormal stories aimed at a teenage audience, but the most important thing is the way the characters are presented to the (mostly teenage female) audience.

Exhibit B: Dean Winchester

I will not deny that Dean Winchester is a sexist pig who doesn’t know the first thing about respecting women.  He continually refers to the female characters as bitches, whores, and sluts; he’s not there for his romantic interests (the love ‘em and leave ‘em type) and he makes fun of his brother’s emotional side by making sexist comments.  If I knew Dean in real life, I would knee him in the balls the moment he opened his mouth.

However. Dean is also a very flawed young man.  (You would be, too, if you spent your childhood killing demons with your father.)  And he’s portrayed as such.  When is it ever implied that Dean is an entirely good person, a healthy partner in his relationships?  It doesn’t excuse the things he says, but I think we can all agree that Dean was never meant to be a role model or be the perfect boyfriend.

Which brings us to:

Exhibit C: Edward Cullen (+ hanger-on)

Edward Cullen.  Here is what girls have to say about Edward Cullen:

“He makes sure you know that you are all he thinks about and that he would find some way to die once you were gone”

“I think all guys should read the books and maybe even watch the movies and should strive to be like him, the books should be like a dating bible.”

“if one realizes that Edward is an immortal being who has fallen in love with the clumsiest most accident prone person in the universe, then I think his behaviour would be justified and then some”

You know why none of the fans will admit that Edward has abusive tendencies?  Because Stephanie Meyers presents him to us, the readers, as THE PERFECT BOYFRIEND.  Caring, totally obsessed with a girl, and protective of her to the point where he will do whatever it takes to keep her.

You know what that sounds like?  An abusive relationship.  Oh, he only keeps her from seeing her friends and RIPS THE ENGINE OUT OF HER CAR because he loves her and he’s jealous!  Yeah, I’ve heard that before.  “He only hurts me and controls me because he loves me.  He knows what’s best.”  Jealousy taken to that level is not cute or romantic: plain and simple, it’s a control tactic used to hold power over Bella.

Not once, not once in the series does the author address the fact that Edward and Bella’s relationship is controlling and semi-abusive, and not ideal at all.  Barely any of the fans of the series share this opinion.  To S. Meyers and her readers, Edward Cullen is the perfect man.

And this is where Dean and Edward differ – in presentation.  It’s one thing to write a character with problematic views purposefully and demonstrate these problems in the series, and quite another to pretend the character has no flaws and can do no wrong.  Supernatural may be sexist, but at least some of it, and practically all of Dean’s character, is on purpose.  Twilight doesn’t show or comment on the blatant sexism, and it almost seems that Stephanie Meyer doesn’t even know the implications of what she’s writing.

In conclusion: the Winchester boys need to stake Glitter-boy through the heart, and fast, before any girls end up hurt because they’re just looking for their own jealous, controlling Edward.

And Dean needs to take Womens’ Studies.

twihard with a vengeance

Most of you have probably guessed by now that I’m, um, not the biggest fan of the Twilight saga.  And no, it’s not just because Robert Pattinson’s eyebrows look like caterpillars that are apt to crawl off his face mid-interview.  Nor is it that when it comes to pretty vampires, I’d take Thomas Raith over a Cullen any day.  My problem is, thankfully, a little less superficial than that.

If you’ve ever met a “Twihard”, ever set foot into Hot Topic, ever frequented a paranormal romance message board, you’ll know that the fans divide themselves into two groups: Team Edward and Team Jacob.  (Not counting the small fraction of fandom that’s into the whole Bella-and-James thing, which is just a whole other can of WRONG AND ABUSIVE.)  According to fans – and, hell, the books and films themselves – the heroine (AND I USE THIS TERM QUITE LOOSELY HERE) Bella must be with one of the two.  She MUST have a man.  So much for letting a girl love the single life – that’s ridiculous.  She can’t live, let alone have a happy and fulfilling life, as a single woman, or at least that’s what the books imply.

But wouldn’t our lovestruck protagonist be better off on her own?  I mean, look at the choices.

Hundred-plus year old vampire Edward is the first choice.  Yeah, I said it, he’s over a hundred.  You know how old Bella is?  SEVENTEEN.  That, my dear readers, is as far as I know ILLEGAL.  And also statutory rape and pedophilia.  Ebebophilia?  Whatever.  That’s still, like, a century’s difference.  Ick.  Also, he watches her while she sleeps and follows her around, controlling who she can and can’t be friends with.  Oh, and did I mention that in the final book, when he, ahem, deflowers Bella, he BREAKS THE HEADBOARD OF THE BED and she wakes up covered in bruises?  DOES ANYONE ELSE FIND THIS AS DODGY AS I DO?

On the other hand, there’s Jacob, a werewolf.  (With quite fabulous hair in the first film, I must say.  If only Taylor Lautner didn’t have an eight-year-old’s face and a male model’s abs…)  Now, I like Jacob quite a bit better – he’s the snarky, less flashy everydude to Edward’s perfect and eternal sparkliness – but even he’s a bit of a jerk.  Despite Bella’s protests, he forces her to kiss him, which is icky enough and then when Bella’s father finds out, he congratulates Jacob and laughs.  LAUGHS AT HIS DAUGHTER BEING PRACTICALLY SEXUALLY ASSAULTED.  What the hell, Stephanie Meyer?

Quite honestly, the only thing that could lessen the overwhelming aura of squick that surrounds Twilight for me would be if “TEAM BELLA” T-shirts started popping up.  If Meyers herself admitted what a twisted and semi-abusive relationship her leads share instead of presenting them as the picture-perfect, albeit undead, couple.  If Buffy somehow found her way into Forks – okay, now I’m going into personal wish fulfillment territory.

But seriously.  It would be awesome.

It’s okay because he’s pretty.

A friend of mine recently informed me about an incident where British scenester and alt-heartthrob Oli Sykes (the emo-haired, tattoo-covered frontman of hardcore screamo band Bring Me The Horizon) tried to get a girl to sleep with him.  Now, there are many girls who would give an arm and a leg to have intimate relations with such a well-known celebrity, but this particular girl turned him down.  (Probably because she didn’t want to get chlamydia.  I’m just sayin’.)  And instead of moving on to the next hot girl with a shrug of his shoulder, or even going home and jacking off to On-Demand porn, this charming man decides to PISS ON HER.

YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT.

HE.  PISSED.  ON.  HER.

And where was the outrage from the band’s fans when this happened?  Nowhere, actually.  They were too busy making Facebook groups titled “I wish Oli would pee on me too!” and such.  I wish I were making this up.

And why did he get away with this?  Oh, right, because he’s a good-looking, popular celebrity.

This happens a lot.  Korean pop star Jay Park, formerly of 2PM, was kicked out of the chart-topping boy band because of homophobic and racist comments made on his MySpace.  Fangirls?  Still standing up for him and trying to justify what he said.  And according to rumors now circulating the Japanese entertainment community Arama They Didn’t, Nishikido Ryo recently kicked a girl he was wooing out of their taxi because she didn’t want to sleep with him.  Predictable, ATD’s comments weren’t the most… enlightened things ever:

Oh lmfao. Ryo I love everything about you and your life. Fierce he is fierce.

How dare she turn down the Nishikido peen. Ho obviously had it coming.

This makes me love my Ryo-chan even more ) I’m not surprised even a tiny bit!

I just… Ugh.  I can’t think of an intelligent way to finish this post.  So I’ll see you again when I get back from punching babies and kicking adorable puppies. >8(

Confessions of a Geek Girl

Written for the Carnegie Library teen blog.  Hey, a girl’s gotta work off her library fines somehow.

I am a geek.  And usually, I’m quite proud of it.  (Except when my father’s friends assume that I am eight years old because “your room is covered in those cartoon posters, I just thought…”  No, you didn’t think, you stereotyped.  But that’s a story for another day.)  I go to anime conventions, read fantasy and science fiction, and aspire to own a sonic screwdriver.

You would think with the amount of media about male freaks and geeks -  Freaks and Geeks, Revenge of the Nerds, the ever-present Anthony Michael Hall geek in John Hughes’ films – that society would devote some time to nerdy girls.  I mean, chicks who are cute (in that shy, glasses-girl way, of course) and can whup your ass at Halo?  What in the world could be better?

I don’t know the answer to that question, or why girls like my friends and I are so underrepresented in popular culture.  Sure, it’s a popular trend in teen fiction to cast the main female character as “the outsider” – doesn’t shop at the cool stores, not a cheerleader – but then they go on and have that same character decry LARPers, comic fans, and Those Guys Who Don’t Like It When They Put Corn In The Chili as, oh my god, such freaks.  Where as male main characters, such as Fanboy in The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, can be as geeky as they’d like.  Boys never have to take off their glasses and put down their hair for a happily ever after; the girl learns to appreciate them for who they are inside.  For girls?  Get the prom dress and show off your boobs and he’ll miraculously realize that you’ve been beautiful all along!

Apparently girls like me don’t exist.  Girls only read books with pink covers and lots of kissing.  Girls only use the internet for social networking and flirting with random Myspacers; girls only watched the Star Trek reboot film for Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine.  (Although I must admit, seeing my favorite ability-stealing TV villain-slash-object of much fangirling on the big screen… I enjoyed that a little more than I should’ve.)  There’s no reason for people without a Y chromosome to enjoy any aspect of Supernatural other than Jensen Ackles and Jared Paledecki (nope, not even the frickin’ badass actions of their characters.  We are the shallow sex, after all.  It’s not like men watch certain movies just to watch stacked model types prance around in bikinis or anything…)  Girls play video games like The Sims and Wii Sports.  Female fans of games like Bioshock, Silent Hill, and Metal Gear Solid don’t exist.  (They’re all genetic anomalies!  They’re created by the government to trick you into thinking that some women are – gasp – allowed out of the kitchen!  Insert other conspiracy theories here!)

Sometimes, of course, the attempt to put nerd girls in the media… misfires.  Greatly.  Take Gamer Girl, by Mari Mancusi.  THIS BOOK.  AAAAAGH, THIS BOOK.  The main character is a know-it-all anime fan who wants to draw her own manga, hates “old” anime and manga and takes potshots at Sailor Moon.  (For shame!)  She’s the epitome of the stereotypical American otaku, throwing random Japanese words into descriptions (which apparently all anime fans do.  Uh, yeah, newsflash: we do not throw “kawaii desu ne?” into every sentence.  The sane fans, anyway.)  Also she seems to think that .hack// is a good anime.  The poor, misguided child.  (Then there’s the whole issue of the boy she flirts with on an MMORPG being the most popular guy in school, which she finds out when they make plans to meet offline.  FIRST RULE OF INTERNET SAFETY, LEARN IT.  Christ on a cracker, think of the impressionable young girls reading this and thinking it would be a good idea to do the same!)

Gamer Girl makes the mistake of turning the story all about the main character’s “weirdness” because of her love of nerd culture.  What teen literature (and movies, and TV) really need are central characters whose entire plotlines don’t revolve around that.  A coming-of-age story where the main character just happens to be a WoW-playing girl.  A story of a boy romancing a girl who happens to be a Harry Potter fanfic writer.  Something like that.  I’m not saying that everything should be about the pursuit of geekiness, rather that it’s accepted and not just a “boy thing” anymore.  Do it for the nrrrd grrls.

The Taylor Swift Purity Machine

Back in the day (and by the day I mean a year or two ago) I liked Taylor Swift.  I know, hardly a cardinal sin.  What is there to hate about someone so wholesome, the anti-Britney, the countrified Miley Cyrus with no pole dancing shame to speak of?

Call me a bitter, jealous bitch, but there’s a lot there to dislike, actually.

There is nothing wrong with Taylor the girl in my eyes.  She seems sweet and genuine in interviews, and you have to love a girl who plays her own guitar and writes her own songs.  But an excellent role model for today’s young girls?  Really?  Taylor may not be pushing drugs, sex, and all night partying in her songs, but she’s preaching something just as dangerous: the Disney Channel gospel of “pure, unassertive girls always finish first” (see also: High School Musical, but that’s an entirely different story).  Some people say that Bella Swann is helping to set the feminist movement back by thirty years; one particular Taylor Swift song may be doing that all on its own.

Meet “Fifteen”, an unassuming little pop-country song from Taylor’s chart-topping album Fearless.  It’s about, well, being fifteen.  Or what being fifteen must be like for doe-eyed Disney princesses with no dreams of their own.  Let’s start with the chorus: “Cause when you’re fifteen, and somebody tells you they love you/You’re gonna believe them.”  Speaking as an actual fifteen-year-old?  No, I’m not gonna believe them.  I’m going to laugh in your face and say “You don’t have your driver’s license yet.  I doubt you know all that much about love.  But I will totally go to the movies with you, just shut up about love already.”

Then there’s the line where Taylor and her friend Abigail laugh at the other girls for “thinking they’re so cool.”  Pray tell, what is wrong with thinking you’re cool?  Is having self-esteem a mark of a “bad girl” now?  I’ll admit I’m no poster child for confidence, but I don’t see why girls should think it’s wrong to have it.  Or victimize other girls for their confidence, either.

Completely going against anything she’s ever said in any of her songs, Taylor then preaches that “in your life you’ll do things greater than dating a boy on the football team.”  Oh.  Really.  Then why are all your songs about that?  And are you saying that all teenage girls have no dreams beyond dating?  Let me tell you, TSwift, I know a lot of fifteen year old girls.  One is determined to become a professional writer, one wants to be a doctor, and one – okay, me – wants to become a young adult librarian.  Maybe some teenage girls are so short-sighted, but not all.

And finally, the topping on the “have we just teleported back to the 1960′s?” cake.  Abigail hooks up with a boy who pressures her to go too far and then dumps her.  A lot of girls go through this; the situation isn’t the problem.  It’s how Taylor presents the situation: “Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind.”

Okay.  Apparently virginity is all girls have.  Nice to know that.

Then there’s “You Belong With Me,” the video for which is also known as “Big hipster glasses totally make you a geek and totally misunderstood, oh my god.”  In this particular travesty, Taylor – you guessed it! – pines for yet another boy, but his cheerleading, short-skirt-wearing girlfriend’s in the way.  Because, you know, girls who don’t dress like nuns are all horrible people.  It’s a scientific fact.  Taylor talks about how she was picked on in high school in interviews, yet she’s just continuing the vicious cycle by writing girl-hating pop songs.  Even if it is the reverse of the stereotypical popular-to-unpopular-girl hatred, it’s still girls hating each other because of social status and looks, and that’s just sad, really.

Taylor Swift, I hope for my sake that you grow up, realize your mistakes, and stop writing this sort of song.  Go to college, get a degree, read some feminist/equalist blogs.  Train puppies if you must.  Just for the love of (Insert Deity Here), stop pushing this message on impressionable young girls.  Because honestly?  I don’t want to go to jail for smashing all your CDs the next time I’m in the record store.

Edit: Autostraddle says it much better than I ever could.