Has anyone else noticed that the new volume of Women & Song has a track by the Pussycat Dolls on it? Anybody else annoyed?
Not that I was attached to the series… or ever owned any of the other nine compilations. If I like an artist I’ll just get their cd. And I like a woman with a bit more spitfire and sass then you tend to find on these things (please see Amos, Tori and Elliot, Missy). But I could swear that when this series started it was about real female musicians - and not troops of highly skilled pole dancers that pretend to sing. (OK, one of them sings.)
The Pussycat Dolls? Honestly. If they don’t want us to think all the decisions are made by fat old men with cigars who love nothing better than to think of new ways to exploit women for profit, they shouldn’t act like it.
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five comments
I don't know, but I think there might be a little room for debate on this one. I can't help myself, but I actually enjoy burlesque and don't always assume that women putting themselves out there sexually is akin to "exploiting women for profit." I tend to think "pole-dancing" and pornography have a place in feminist thought, and it certainly has a place in "Women & Song," which never really claimed to have a mandate bigger than its title suggested. Just women and some songs.
Okay, I know there's a huge difference between The Pussy Cat Dolls and, say, The (very pro-women) Scandelles (www.thescandelles.com) - the Dolls have certainly changed a lot since their 1993 "modern burlesque" inception and Viper Room residencey, but their start had little to do with "fat old men with cigars" and more to do with a female founded (thanks Christina Applegate) return to playful burlesque sexuality.
Granted, the group has been re-cast, re-vamped and and transformed into an crap-tastic R&B; pop-fest with interchangable players, but I think its burlesque roots can be described with as much "spitfire and sass" as Tori or Missy. Incidentally, the same guys responsible for TPD are also responsible for Vanessa Carlton, who was on W&S; 2. So this cigar smoking exploitation started 7 discs ago.
Ultimately you're right in the sense that the Dolls don't fit in the 9 disc collection of strong talented female musician with piano/guitar, but they are women and they have songs, and do have some noble (depending on your brand of feminism) beginnings.
I guess its up for debate?
Posted by Stacey May
January 9, 2007, 5:10 PM
At least there's really good Canadian representation? (In what could be named the most, ahem, ecclectic compilation ever?)
1. The Wreckers - Leave The Pieces
2. KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See
3. Faith Hill - Sunshine And Summertime
4. LeAnn Rimes - Probably Wouldn't Be This Way
5. Sheryl Crow - Always On Your Side
6. Sass Jordan - What You Gonna Do
7. Rihanna - Unfaithful
8. Cassie - me&u;
9. The Pussycan Dolls - Don't Cha
10. Divine Brown - Twist My Hair
11. Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On
12. Jewel - Good Day
13. Leslie Stanwyck - Where Will We Be Tomorow?
14. Feist - Mushaboom
15. Sarah Harmer - Oleander
16. Theresa Sokyrka -Waiting Song
17. Amy Millan - Skinny Boy
Bonus Tracks
18. Serena Ryder - Just Another Day
19. Sarah Slean - Lucky Me (Live)
Posted by Stacey May
January 9, 2007, 5:15 PM
Wow, that is a REALLY eclectic compilation.
As much as I agree with you Stacey May, that the expression of female sexuality, in particular female sexual desire, is missing in our culture and desperately important, I don't think the Pussycat Dolls are that expression. Though I love dancing to "Don't Cha" in my underpants, I'd be the first to admit that it has some of the most misogynist lyrics in a pop song that I've ever heard, compounded by the fact that the misogyny is sung by a women.
But while I think it's nice to have a compilation of all female singers, I also don't think that Women & Song has ever really meaningfully been for the advancement or benefit of women. Just like Vanessa Carlton and the Pussycat Dolls, it's another sickatating ploy to appeal to a "niche market" which is actually not really a niche, but half the world. Kinda like pink tasers...
Posted by Thea
January 10, 2007, 7:31 PM
Wow, I never thought we could fit pink tasers and the Pussycat Dolls into the same post (although maybe in my fantasies... kidding!).
I certainly don't think all women who enjoy their sexuality and their bodies are doing so for the benefit of fat men with cigars. But I think clearly this compilation was put together by some FMWC at the very first disc. It's just so directionless and generic. It just smells like somebody thought of a quick and easy way to get women to buy something, in a subtle way cashing in on the women's movement and our ideals of solidarity. Would men be expected to buy a record with nineteen random artists, just because they were all men?
Oh my, Thea, if "Don't Cha" has some of the most misogynistic lyrics you've ever heard, you clearly are unfamiliar with Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None)" ... I just looked up the lyrics to post an example, and there's no way I can here!
One more point I must make: Christina Applegate was brilliant as the ditzy Kelley on Married Without Children (I forgave her for portraying a terrible stereotype, because everybody in the family was horrendous), but if her appearance in Jessica "Buffalos Don't Have Wings?" Simpson's video for "Public Affair" means they are actually friends, then Applegate clearly has no brains either. I pray that she did it just to further her stagnant career.
Posted by zoe
January 10, 2007, 11:52 PM
I think "Don't Cha" trumps other bland, run-of-the-mill pop misogyny just because it's articulated by a woman. It's a truly insidious attack, and makes a very convincing argument for why women should hate each other, and why women should try and contort themselves into being "a freak like me" or "fun like me" - b/c apparently those contortions are the only way they can get
1) approval for their sexual demeanor
2) which in turn proves that they deserve to exist
3) which in turn can only be awarded by men.
Posted by Thea
January 11, 2007, 9:40 AM
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