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Karen Brooks

20th Jan 2021

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn and Reflections on the Romance genre and Bridgerton

After watching the Netflix series, Bridgerton, and enjoying it thoroughly, I was encouraged by a dear friend to also read the books by Julia Quinn. It’s been a long time since I picked up a book marketed as purely “historical romance” – especially one with the kind of cover that looks like something Barbara Cartland would have adored (and I adored her and her books when I was a teenager). Yet, as I read the first book in the Bridgerton series, The Duke and I, staying up far too late, laughing, sighing, being transported to a different time and place, I wondered why had I waited so long? What is it about the word “romance” and especially when it’s applied to a genre, that has people either flatly refusing to read it or denying the pleasures it offers? When I thought about it, every book I read (and write), regardless of genre, either has romance at its heart or is unashamedly romantic – even if it’s a love affair between the words and the reader. But what is it about the term “romance” and romance books and their writers generally that sees them excluded from serious evaluation in the review pages of newspapers, scathingly referred to (and usually by people who have never, ever read one), and ignored when it comes to awards unless they’re specific to the genre? As one writer recently pointed out in The Times, the romance genre, which sells in the squillions, is what keeps publishing houses and, indeed, writers in other less finically viable genres afloat!  Try as I might I cannot get the link to damn well work!

Well, what I really, really love about both the “Bridgerton” book and the Netflix series, is what they remind and/or teach those who either don’t know or have forgotten about what the “Romance” genre – literary or visual – contributes to popular culture and social discourse. Often dismissed as “chick-lit”, or as only dealing with women’s concerns (as if women’s concerns weren’t relevant or significant!), it is, as I said above, overlooked in favour of more “serious” genres. Yet, “Romance” deals with everything from sexual desire, love – fulfilled and unfilled, sexual identity, morals, mores, gendered norms, restrictions and freedoms imposed by femininity, masculinity, challenges to these, violence, coercion, familial bonds, professional and personal boundaries, feminism, friendship, expectations in relationships, break-ups, heartache, marriage, mother and fatherhood, misunderstandings, personal histories, and so much more. Historical romance locates all of these within different pasts, contributing to our understanding of how far we have or haven’t come. Not only that, but they’re well-researched too.

If you don’t believe me, then just look at all the conversations – civil and uncivil, posts, newspaper articles and more that both Quinn’s books and the recent Netflix series have generated. I don’t think a day has passed where I haven’t read or seen people discussing how much they loved or loathed the show or books, their reasoning, and then heated defences of these positions with many examples. Whether it’s Daphne “stealthing” Simon (SPOILER: she has sex with him when he’s drunk and he ejaculates inside her after trying, for various reasons not to), the violent dialogue and masculine braggadocio of the male characters, how like the  book it places an emphasis on friendship, or the casting of the show. The latter particularly has facilitated many debates as, despite the book having all white, Anglo characters (in keeping with Britain’s colonial past and the Regency period), Bridgerton, the Netflix series, chose to include people of colour and different cultural backgrounds in their cast – as Dukes, royalty, middle-class merchants, the ton etc as well as servants and ordinary folk. While this definitely doesn’t adhere to historical “fact”, as Quinn herself said, her books aren’t factual and Bridgeton is not a documentary! Even so, it’s amazing how many people this casting choice offended (it wasn’t “colour blind” as some have suggested which, as Shonda Rimes the Executive Producer says, infers it wasn’t deliberate, which it was), simply because this didn’t happen in the past. So what? It’s been fabulous seeing so many different cultures and colours represented in ways they never have been on the screen. Even if the premise for them having different social roles is convenient (it’s also really nice – I think it’s episode 4 where it’s revealed) it works at so many important social cultural and televisual levels. But neither did women have trimmed pubic hair at that time, but you don’t read or hear so many complaints about that (!), but I digress… Likewise, some argue that the show presents women as commodities (sorry, in some ways, that’s very historically accurate!) and their (naked) bodies are there for men’s viewing pleasure alone; some talk about the violence and “pornography” of the sex scenes as opposed to the way in which the books deal with sex as mutual pleasure etc etc etc.

Look, I’m not going to debate every little point, some of which I wholeheartedly agree with and others which I don’t. What I do want to reiterate, however, is how much I love all the different conversations this kind of book, this GENRE, this oft-demeaned, belittled and snubbed (except by those of us in the know) genre generates. And not just these books or the series. This has been going on for decades! Important discussions which lead us to examine everything from relationships, race, culture, gendered behaviour, social change, bigotry, prejudice, colonialism, class and so much more.

Mind you, I find that so many different genres do this – sci-fi, fantasy, speculative fiction of all sorts, horror, historical fiction, crime – in other words, any darn good story that engages the reader. Yet, so often, these genres if not poo-pooed, are disregarded for prestigious awards, for reviewing in newspapers and magazines – a point that is worth repeating. But, just like their more “literary” counterparts, they deal with so many of the same issues but in easily accessible and often relatable and very entertaining ways. I mean, who doesn’t want to find love, for example? Yet, they’re “punished” for it! Go figure.

So, back to The Duke and I – after all, this IS a book review! While possessing a deceptively simple title that smacks of the historical romance it so cleverly embraces, it also has so much heart and, like the show based on it, deals with an abundance of social, sexual and gender issues. The Bridgertons are a wealthy family, overseen by the widow, Violet who has eight children. The fourth, her eldest daughter, Daphne, is of marriageable age. Focussed on trying to make a good catch for her, after all, not only will that ensure Daphne is secure socially, economically and in every other way, but potentially, her younger siblings (and older brothers) as well. It’s all about connections – familial and otherwise. Yet, after meeting the Duke of Hastings, who has more baggage than a coach-and-eight, a handsome young man who finds the social scene of the ton and its incredible expectations abhorrent, they come up with a convenient arrangement to get mothers off their backs – one where they’ll pretend an interest in each other. In doing so, the Duke will be left in peace and Daphne, well, now that she’s seen to be desired by someone top of the pecking order, will be inundated with suitors and able to choose her future husband with ease. But this a romance and Cupid has a way of throwing even the best laid plans awry.

A clever, witty delight – not without its issues – but like the show, this is what makes it so worthwhile and so damn social media and water-cooler worthy.

Now, off to unearth my Georgette Heyers, thank you!

Tags: The Duke and I

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8th Jan 2021

Being Janus-faced: Looking backwards to look forwards

Well… here it is. It’s 2021 already and despite a new year ticking over, it doesn’t feel as if that much has changed… yet. But there is hope on the horizon, whether that be the roll-out of a vaccine, a change of President in the Whitehouse, and an election year here in Australia. Even so, borders are opening and shutting like swing doors on a saloon, and folk are still going in and out of lockdown, even though, Down Under, we’ve done so well to combat the virus – none more so than our gallant Victorians. Thank you.

Rest assured, I’m not about to launch into a political tirade. I might not stop! Nor am I going to write about Covid-19 or the situation in the USA (as much as I might want to do both those things). What I really want to write about is books. Well, the power of stories, really.

For so many of us, last year was one of high hopes and/or despair and gamut of emotions in-between and which we’re still processing. It was a roller-coaster, there’s no doubt – professionally and personally for everyone.

For me, I had a new book released on the cusp of Covid breaking out and, like so many other creative artists, felt its impact as promised tours and promotions, signings and all sorts of events were cancelled. I think I joked half way through last year that for those in the creative industries, “cancel culture” took on a whole new meaning. My fellow writers, singers, actors, musicians, painters, dancers, we all lost gigs and income. What replaced these to some degree was ZOOM events and there’s a great deal to be said for those (as well as disadvantages) and I know I enjoyed attending so many and “meeting” and interacting with people I might never have otherwise as well as attending concerts and exhibitions etc. I also want to do a shout out to the generous authors who welcomed others onto their pages and extended their extensive social networks to help lesser known writers get some traction. You are wonderful!

As for personally, apart from my husband having a terrible health scare in the middle of the year and from which he is still recovering and our brewstillery, like thousands of other small businesses, taking a major kick, I lost two darling cats, one on the 30th of December, the other only weeks before that. My heart is still cracked. Also, one of my very close family members has been given a terminal diagnosis. But I don’t want to talk about that – not yet. Too hard. Then, The Brewer’s Tale, published in 2014 in Australia/New Zealand, was released in the USA as The Lady Brewer of London in December – yep, just as the virus and the President were competing for headlines and people were just trying to survive both. All of this contributed to the shitness that was 2020.

But this blog is not about that… well, it is a little bit, clearly. It’s also not about acknowledging the good that came out of last year, though I do and am so damn grateful – the friendships, the kindness of others, sometimes complete strangers. How we DID connect, despite the fact the ability to physically meet was largely taken away. How we swooped in and helped or called out to those we didn’t know, reached out to people we not have otherwise and learned about them and ourselves in the process. It’s testimony to our better natures, resourcefulness and, for all we bitch about it (or is that just me?), the internet. Again, I digress…

This blog is actually about me making up for being a really crap book reviewer in the latter half of last year and to sort of make up for it and to bring you up to speed on not only some great books I read, but also (if you’re interested) on where my own writing and book-related stuff is.

So, the reason I let reviews fall by the wayside a little wasn’t that I was not reading. Oh. No. On the contrary … All I can say is that books and writing were my salvation last year. As I said above – the power of stories to move, entertain, shape, escape, allow us to vicariously walk in others’ shoes, understand that this too will pass and experience fictively other’s resilience – sometimes in much harder situations is immeasurable. Books were what I turned to over and over when the going was tough or not – well, them and Netflix and Prime (The Boys, Star Trek: Discovery, The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, Queen’s Gambit, The Crown, Bosch, Goliath etc. etc. – so many wonderful series!). But because of what I said above, I found any heart-space I had left, any valuable time, I devoted to starting my next book – The Escapades of Tribulation Johnson – and editing the one that’s to come out later this year – The Good Wife of Bath: A (Mostly) True Story (I’ll be able to do a cover reveal soon – wait until you see it! It’s absolutely gorgeous! I am really excited) and reading without pressuring myself to do proper reviews (I did star them on Goodreads and other platforms where possible).

I do love sharing when I read great books (I won’t review ones I really don’t enjoy – sheesh! There are so many others prepared to chow down and point out all the flaws and negatives they found in a book, describe how much they loathed it, as if the author went out of his or her way to ensure it greatly displeased the reader – to personally offend them. Ouch, that hurts! I won’t contribute to that kind of reviewing, but I will critique; I hope fairly and generously). Anyhow, I thought I’d do a quick recap of some of the books I did love but didn’t review the last few months and then start 2021 as I mean to go on.

Anyhow, that’s my explanation for being slack. But I also wanted to wish everyone, wherever you are in the world – in lockdown, liberated, able to resume your usual life or rolling with the punches for all our sakes (and thank you), healthy, struggling physically, mentally or emotionally (huge hugs), a better, kinder year than the last in every way. And, if you’re struggling, can I recommend some good books to help you? There are so many out there and frankly, there’s no better way to escape the present, look forwards and backwards simultaneously and reflect safely, than by opening the pages of someone else’s fabulous story and stepping into it.

Books I didn’t properly review but loved in 2020.

Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series. (I read them all – ten of them)

My goodness. How had I not read this woman before? How did I not know about the wonderful Will Trent and his partner in solving crime, Faith, his indominable boss, Amanda, and his various complex personal relationships. Magnificent books. Every. Single. One. I think I rated all 5 stars!

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

O.M.G. This and Dictionary of Lost Words were my pick for last year. This was such an original, compelling, heart-wrenching and clever book about a young woman who, 300 years before our time, makes a pact with the devil(?) and gets to live life on her terms as an immortal. Or is it her own terms? Just sublime.

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith

It seems to have become fashionable to pile on on J.K. Rowling aka Galbraith, but I do like this series so much and really, really enjoyed this latest instalment in the adventures – that should probably be misadventures – of Cormoran and Robin.

The One by John Marr

A clever satire on modern dating. What would you do if genetic testing could put you together with your perfect match, “the one”, regardless of whether you were single or in a committed relationship? Would you do it? More importantly, would you be prepared for the results? Fantastic.

Follow me on Goodreads for other fabulous reads and here on my website for my reviews. I will try to be better at providing them… that is, until life and my own writing throw up some more challenging hurdles to leap! Onwards and well, onwards!

xxxx

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16th Jul 2012

Book Review: Destined to Play

I have to admit something before I review this book: Indigo is a friend of mine and I have followed her exciting and short road to publication with great interest while shouting support from the sidelines and I am so happy for her. She is so lovely and has worked hard on this (written well before E.L. James became a sensation). OK… My conflict of interest is declared 🙂 Now, I have another confession to make – I’ve not read Fifty Shades of Grey, the book to which Bloom’s is compared. I also don’t think I ever will. But, I have read Destined to Play amd I read it in one session because I simply had to know what happened.

But before I proceed with my review, I just want to say something about the whole “erotica” thing – as in, erotica, as a genre or as an integral part of a novel has been around ever since Trimalchio first had his dinner party (and even earlier). From Greek writers to the Romans, to Marquis de Sade, the Victorian writers and plenty since, there has been erotic and pornographic fiction. What I am struggling with at present, is the way the “sudden” interest or mainstreaming of erotica is being represented in the media. Terms such as “mummy” or “mommy porn” are being bandied about and female readers are referred to as “desperate housewives” (as they were in a Today Tonight story last week). There is this need to somehow “tame” this interest, control it by corralling it with the use of pejoratives or reminding women of their real role – their biological imperative as mothers, the fact they belong in domestic space, thereby softening their desires and the pleasures they receive from reading erotica and the potential threat to domestic peace this arousal and interest may cause. There’s also been a need to infantilise the interest and the terms used to describe both the readers and certainly the much-touted origins of Fifty Shades reveal this. The fact it started out as Twilight fan fiction, the way readers are often shown as giggling and flushed, like women of the Victorian era who suffered hysteria and were masturbated to orgasm by doctors to make them feel better – yes, really. It’s as if these erotic books are legitimised dildos so we can “get off” and then get back to the important things in life – our “real” purpose as women. The fact reading these books is giving our male (or female) partners pleasure is also emphasised. They serve a purpose after all – it’s what female readers do to others that is ultimately the most rewarding things about these books and why they’re tolerated and promoted – they are constructed as medicinal; as literary relationship therapy!!! The salve to passionless relationships, to putting heat back in the bedroom. Puhleez! It’s been amazing to watch the way, yet again, female sexuality is seen as a cultural threat that needs to be contained, suborned and, above all, controlled. Women do actually enjoy sex and reading about it- they’re curious, sensual and delighted that with the renewed interest in this genre and its mainstreaming, they can openly discuss these desires and more.

That’s one side of the erotica coin. The other that bothers me is two-fold. One is that these books so often feature women who like to be controlled by men – who surrender their agency to a man for his and, sometimes, hopefully, their own pleasure. I find that the most confronting and confounding thing about these books – I don’t get that aspect. But because they’re fantasy and sexual fantasies particularly are all about taboo things and meant to break cultural, sexual, gender and social boundaries, I can deal with it – I don’t have to like it though and that says more about me and the milieu I grew up in the influences around me. The other thing that annoys the hell out of me is that with the popularity of Fifty Shades, we’re now seeing a race to publish as much erotica as we can to grab the readers’ dollars. Publishers are falling over themselves to grab the next EL James. Fine. Go for it. Only, I don’t want to see what happened to book shop shelves with Twilight happen again, but I fear it will. Where once there was a variety of books and genres for readers, we will see sections dedicated to erotica and our choices will be limited. There will be a sex glut. Just as entire section in stores have given over to vampire/paranormal books. On the upside, there’s been some wonderful authors come to light, on the downside, there hasn’t been and haste and the drive to meet a market before it moves on to the next big “thang” has been sacrificed for both quality and variety. As a writer and a reader I despair. Please, let’s not see bookstores fill with erotica at the expense of other great books and their writers. Let’s keep quality over quantity and preserve reading culture.

Rave over. Now for the review 🙂

This novel, Destined to Play, the first in a trilogy, tells of Dr Alexandra Blake, mother of two who lives in Tasmania in a stable but fundamentally passionless marriage. Flown to Sydney for the beginning of a few days of lectures and presentations (including one to the AMA), Alexandra’s family are conveniently dispatched to the Tassie wilderness for the duration. In Sydney at the beginning of her tour, Alexandra arranges to catch up with her best friend from university and former sexual partner, the wealthy, smoking (as in divine) George Clooneyesque, Dr Jeremy Quinn – a world leader in his field. When they meet, the old sparks ignite and Alexandra is quickly consumed but, when her former lover proposes that she surrender herself to him for forty-eight hours, leaving every decision to him, trusting him completely, Alexandra finds herself at the centre of a sexual adventure like no other and the subject of an experiment that challenges her erotically, physically, emotionally and, above all, psychologically.
While the sex is graphic and charged (as expected in this genre) what interested and challenged me as a reader most (and this is a huge credit to Bloom) is how an intelligent woman, consumate professional who has a fabulous reputation, who is also a mother and wife (therefore has responsibilities) could surrender herself so readily to Quinn. I struggled with this… But so does Alexandra, and it’s the internal,dialogue she continuously has, as well as her vacillation between the depth of her physical and intellectual responses to Quinn particularly that make the book so fascinating. Just as we wonder why she is allowing things to continue, so does Alexandra. Just as she desires answers, so do we. Taken on this dark adventure with her, we are left anxious, breathless and on edge. Playing Alexandra might be destined to do, but a game has never been so dangerous… Something the final pages of the novel makes all too clear.

Issues such as trust, sensory perception, doubt, anxiety, depression, sex and sensuality are all explored, as are the limits to which a body and mind can be brought. The book certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone, not becuase of the sex – I have read much more graphic material – but because I found it difficult to deal with a woman surrendering so completely to a man under the circumstances that Alexandra does. I also found the manipulations of Quinn to be disturbing even though his notion that motherhood and female sexuality should not be mutually exclusive appealed to me.

This is a book that will, i’ve no doubt, generate a great deal of discussion and be quite polemical. Just what an author wants. If you like erotica or books that challenge you, read this!

Tags: "mummy porn", Destined to Play, EL James, erotic fiction, fifty shades of grey, Indigo Bloome

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3rd Jul 2012

Is celebrity gossip women’s domain?

I was drawn to write my column this week on this topic because of something Australian Today show host, Karl Stefanovich said during the segment “Girls on the Grill”. Discussing the recent Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes split, he made the observation that he didn’t know a single bloke who was interested in this story. That comment served to get me thinking. I initially bristled, but then I started to wonder if it was true and then try and balance the positives and negatives of women’s (or men’s or both) intense interest in the lives of celebrities. There are many more reasons than I came up with  – and I did only have just over 700 words to get my point across! Yes, that’s a defense 🙂

The published piece is here if you’d like to read it, otherwise, the unedited version is below! Would love to hear your thoughts as well!

When discussing the recent split between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Today host, Karl Stefanovic asked why didn’t he know any men who cared about this story.

The implication being that interest in celebrities, their lives, marriages, divorces, children, hopes and dreams was firmly women’s fodder.

Frankly, men don’t give a damn.

Is celebrity gossip something that one sex is exclusively, if not genetically, programmed to heed?

While I wanted to deny that women are the main consumers of all things celebrity and the minuscule trivia of their often-vacuous lives, it was hard.

Celebrity business caters to a largely female audience – you just have to look at the content of major women’s magazines for evidence.

Not that all women relish it.

Celebrity gossip has become not only an industry; sadly, it’s a significant proportion of what passes for real news these days.

There are dedicated news segments, entire shows, magazines, books and websites, never mind careers (spin-doctors, handlers, consultants, PR experts, photographers etc), built upon and reliant on the ever-grinding mill of celebrity gossip. Professor Graeme Turner from the University of Queensland describes it as “the celebrity-industrial-complex”.

As Todd Leopold from CNN.com writes, “like any capitalistic enterprise, [it] only exists as long as interest continues.”

Superstar scandal, when reported, attracts the greatest amount of commentary, emotional investment and online bile – and not just from women.

Journalist and author, John Birmingham, in an article on the changing media landscape last month stated: “most readers are less interested in hard news than they are in complete tosh… A story about a celebrity wardrobe malfunction, especially if it comes with images, will totally bury an item of reportage about, say, hospital closures, or waterfront industrial action, or a review of defence policy or legislation for plain packaging on cigarettes.”

Is this women’s fault alone?

There’s a huge drive by vested groups to persuade us that celebrity stories are not only worthy of attention, but possess intrinsic value – even when a great deal is manufactured to protect and generate sales of a related product (an actor’s movie, book etc.).

While it’s easy to dismiss celebrity gossip and our apparent insatiable appetite for it, it’s useful to try and uncover why this plays such a significant role in our media-driven society and, apparently, women’s lives, and examine if it’s harmless or toxic.

Firstly, discussing celebrities not only functions as a moral yardstick by which behaviour can be monitored, thereby letting others know what’s acceptable and unacceptable among a group and within wider community circles, it’s a safe way to police social and personal boundaries.

If someone you’ve just met loves a celebrity, TV show, or film (or politician) you loathe, or vice-a-versa, you’re given a swift insight into whether further contact – digital or real life – should be avoided or pursued.

Secondly, celebrity gossip is also an anodyne social lubricant. Talking about a celebrity – whether it be they way they look, act, their relationship or parenting, creates a universal language and can serve as an ice-breaker in communal, professional and cyber-situations – hence the importance of  “water-cooler gossip.”

Thirdly, and problematically, celebrity gossip tends to focus on domestic issues and appearances, long constructed and naturalised as the realm of “women’s business.”

Reinforced through a variety of cultural devices, such as women’s magazines, this gender exclusive space where celebrity tales reign, legitimates and prioritises concerns that were once dismissed as insignificant – those that centre on home-life.

Discussing celebrities also reminds women that their priorities lie in private space and in keeping their partners happy – whether it’s through appearance, sexual performance, food, how the children behave, or how they maintain hearth and home.

It’s reductive and anachronistic.

But it also provides stories of women (and men) who break the rules, are indifferent to various social stigmas and not only survive, but thrive. Some examples are successful adoptions, gay stars, single parents, and those who experience divorce, loss, grief, disease and myriad other issues.

In this way, it’s liberating and affirming.

The pervasiveness of this culture and its attendant gossip is such that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or woman. We can’t complain about or dismiss it so long as we maintain such a high level of interest and passive involvement.

Anderson Cooper, journalist, author and TV personality sums up most people’s feelings when he states: “The whole celebrity culture thing – I’m fascinated by, and repelled by, and yet I end up knowing about it.”

 

 

 

 

Tags: Anderson Cooper, celebrity gossip, divorce, domestic space, gender, John Birmingham, Karl Stefanovich, Katie Holmes, Professor Graeme Turner, sex, social, Today, Todd Leopold, Tom Cruise

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22nd May 2012

Sexiness fails to raunch in music videos

This is the unedited version of my column that appeared in the Courier Mail, Wednesday 23rd May 20102.

Music mogul, 60-year old Mike Stock, who was part of Stock, Aitken and Waterman, the trio responsible for producing many hits in the 1980s and 90s, and for launching Kylie Minogue’s career, has publicly condemned the risqué and hypersexual performances of contemporary singers.

In the Mail Online, he accused music artists of using sex to sell when their talent fails. Stock describes the “new breed of rap and Lady GaGa types” as “sluttish.”

He worries that “young girls think they are someone worth emulating.”

Stock is not the first to make these kinds of claims. For years, experts from around the world have spoken of the harm the hyper-sexualisation of pop culture causes young girls and boys. The American Psychological Association even linking it to poor mental health and unhealthy sexual development.

Like Stock, and others, I’m so damn tired of all the pornographic, tasteless and trashy videos littering the current music scene. The use of the singular is pertinent here, because there seems to be only one scene with an interchangeable star.

The lyrics are occasionally good, the melody fine; it’s the visual accompaniment that’s so often boring, predictable and trashy.

Ever since Cher straddled that cannon in “Turn Back Time” and the Pussycat Dolls threw down the “hotness” gauntlet, female artists of varying talents have tried to out-pout, kiss, suck, lick, gyrate and dry-hump (cars, poles, men, women) each other in what passes for music video these days.

I say, enough already.

Even 42-year-old Jennifer Lopez’s video, “Dance Again”, doesn’t incite shock so much as it does a yawn. And that’s a pity for while its lyrics celebrate the elation that comes from loving again after heartache, and the beat is joyous, the clip features an orgy of writhing bodies and limbs, close-ups of the singer’s famous derriere and a carefully choreographed “love scene” with her new beau, 24-year-old dancer, Casper Smart.

It’s so constructed and banal that it failed to “raunch” anything but tiresome sighs that such a good artist can be so unoriginal.

Likewise, Madonna, someone who has proven her talent as well as her cultural and social capital over and over, persists on demonstrating, through humdrum and, frankly, laughable moves and costumes, her “sexiness”.

Age has nothing to do with it really, there’s just something so unsexy and derivative about trying so hard. Rhianna, Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus, are the same.

We don’t want or expect singers to come overall Amish, after all, sexiness and music have long gone hand in hand, but the reductive displays, the fact we’ve seen it all before, makes it so dull and uninspiring.

What’s interesting is that while girls are reduced to “sexy” spectacles in music – whether they’re the principal artist or back-up dancers/props, boys like Justin Beiber and One Direction, for example, have other options.

Dannielle Miller, CEO of Enlighten Education writes in an excellent blog that, “In music video world, all too often the message is: when a young guy wants to show he is now a man, he can get a leather jacket and pout; but for a young woman to show she is grown up, she has to get it all off and grind.”

Miller uses Ricki-Lee’s latest video, “Do It Like That” as an example of what’s become the stock-standard aesthetic for female performers – running around in underwear.

Lingerie, faux nudity, impossibly high heels, torn stockings, and/or a corset have also become normalised. While we’re checking the boxes, there’s the young man/men to fawn over, the pole to grind, the car to stroke, as well as her own body. And don’t tell me this is “empowering”, “liberating” or simply the means by which young women express their sexuality.

I’m sick of the language of feminism being exploited and misused to excuse/defend what’s fundamentally a new sexism and women’s complicity in it. I will not be silenced as an out-of-touch wowser.

Women are no longer simply being seen as sex objects, we’re going out of our way to become them and encouraging our daughters to as well.

In her book, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, Natasha Walter writes, “When we talked about empowerment in the past, it was not a young woman in a thong gyrating around a pole that would spring to mind…”

I am woman see me whore…

The pornification of pop culture has codified and diminished sexiness, turned it into a parody, a Playboy delusion, and sold it back to us. Too many arestill buying it – copying the images and taking them into the world beyond.

We’ve been short changed.

Sexuality and its healthy expression are normal – stripping it of the possibility of intimacy, connection and emotion and adopting it as a public identity and calling it “liberating” or “empowering”, for either gender, is not.

 

 

Tags: boring, connection, Dannielle Miller, empowering, Enlighten Education, feminism, intimacy, JLo, Justin Beiber, liberating, Living Dolls, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, music video, Natasha Walters, One Direction, pornification, Rhianna, sex

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15th May 2012

Double standards for women in the workplace

This is the unedited version of my column which appears in the Courier Mail, 16 May 2012.

 

If there’s one thing our culture is absolutely superb at, it’s promoting double standards. Over the last few days, this has become more than apparent, once again, in the area of women’s appearances.

First, there was the fuss over 64-year-old Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State and one of the most powerful women in the world, having the gall and/or gumption, to appear without make-up when she was addressing an official meeting in Bangladesh.

That her appearance au naturel made global headlines and was labeled “brave” by some is an indication of how much emphasis is still placed on women’s looks.

Why are we so obsessed with this? Photos of stars with and sans make-up sell. While it might be argued that these are offered as an antidote to photo-shopping and function to debunk the unrealistic expectations set around women’s appearances and help with self-esteem issues, they also reinforce these and feed insecurities by continually drawing attention to them.

While “dressing-up” and wearing make-up etc. are associated with certain display-based occupations such as modeling, dancing, acting, and other fields where a woman’s looks are integral to her job, as far as other professional spheres are concerned, it’s been a woman’s performance, her capacity to do her job well, that’s important.

Lately, however, this has shifted.

Last week it was revealed that some of Australia’s top law firms, banks and accountancy companies are not only engaging stylists to “advise” female workers about make-up and dress standards, but providing lists of fashion dos and don’ts by which it’s anticipated the women will abide.

Workers at a Brisbane parking firm received a memo regarding dress codes and changes to rules a few weeks ago telling the women to “wear conservative make-up at all times,” even when they didn’t engage with the public. Confused workers wondered not only what constituted “conservative”, but also for whom they were being asked to do this.

While on the one hand, reasonable dress codes are important and professional firms do have a reputation to uphold, on the other, advising women to avoid lip gloss, dangly earrings, wear matching shoes and handbags, sheer stockings and conservative make-up, appears to be more about asserting control, policing women’s bodies and satisfying the eye as opposed to job criteria.

business professional women attire Professional Business Dress Women to Wear at Work

In response to accusations of discrimination, firms such as Westpac, Clayton Tuz and Pricewaterhouse Coopers defended introducing these codes saying they’re about offsetting the increased “casualisation of the workplace” which they attribute mainly to Generation Y.

In her book The Beauty Myth, feminist Naomi Woolf writes about what she calls The Professional Beauty Qualification, and how many professions in which women have made strides are being “reclassified – so far as the women in them are concerned – as display professions.”

She argues that women continue to experience the “dualistic experience of being ‘feminine’ and ‘business-like’ at the same time, while they do not perceive men experiencing the same contradiction.”

Social commentator, Nina Funnell, states “isn’t there something a little bit patronising about a company that trusts you to manage multimillion-dollar deals but doesn’t trust you to pick out your own earrings?”

There’s no doubt that we literally fashion identities for ourselves through clothing. Whether it’s Peter Slipper reintroducing the traditional regalia of the Speaker and trying to insert some gravitas into his role (and thus onto himself), going to a job interview, dressing for a school formal or donning a uniform for work.

However, this policing and sexualizing of women’s workplace dress and therefore their bodies by specifically dictating what they can and cannot wear potentially sets up different expectations of appearance, accountability and treatment of women – by colleagues and the public – by emphasizing the feminine over and above the professional; a person’s sex over their abilities.

It dresses up conformity and control as professionalism.

It turns the workplace into a catwalk.

Meow.

My grandmother always told me to dress – not to impress – but to respect. Don your daily clothes to show the people with whom you interact, publicly and privately, that you respect them. If you’re attending a function – show your respect for the nature of the event through your attire. If you can’t – don’t go.

But respect needs to go both ways.

While some people may require help with what not to wear, and need to understand that when they’re at work, they’re the public face of a private firm, dress codes must be reasonable and not sexist.

Suggesting or prescribing aspects of a wardrobe or make-up is neither equitable nor appropriate.

These stringent “professional” dress codes are of a concern, just like the negative reactions to Clinton’s “natural” look, not because they reflect a company style, but because they’re about reinforcing a cultural version of acceptable femininity that has nothing to do with a woman’s capacity to do her job.

They tell women that how we look is more important than what we do.

 

 

Tags: double standards, dress codes, fashion, Hillary Clinton, Professional beauty qualification, Women's appearance, wprkplace

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