TIME dropped it’s list of 100 Music Stars and has declared the common thread between this year’s musical powerhouses was one simple idea: feminism. Charlotte Alter writes, “Beyoncé, Miley and Pharrell aren’t just accidental feminists — they’ve actively promoted women’s empowerment through their songs, videos, and interviews, making feminism an explicit part of their respective public images. With their help, this was the year of pop feminism.”
Yas. I am not super into capitalism because so much of it is selling people beliefs that they aren’t good enough so that they can spend the measly wages they earn on products that will “complete” them (until a better one comes along) and then go back to work for companies who exploit them. So how do we change the fact that fashion has to sell us beauty ideals, that products have to sell us aspirations, that music has to sell us identities, in order for these industries to survive? I don’t want fashion to go away but I do want it to stop hurting people. For me the solution is to sell better messages (along with improving working conditions for employees here and overseas, of course).
Feminism becoming a trend is a good thing. We want feminism to be a trend. We want every person to declare that they support equality for women, we want the world to declare its respect and provide more opportunities for women. We want that to be common knowledge, taken for granted, we want our daughters to never know the pain of catcalling, of sexual assault, of patriarchal condescension, we want the things we suffered and the things our mothers suffered worse to feel so distant and faraway its moment in history is almost forgotten.
So sell me feminism. Sell a feminist Barbie and a feminist Spiderman. Sell a feminist Disney Princess. Sell me songs about feminism on iTunes. Sell me t-shirts with slogans of body positivity. Sell me a car that will sponsor a young girl’s education in Saudi Arabia. Sell me all your good ideas and I will happily buy them.
Feminism isn’t just one idea, it’s many, it’s for all and TIME’s use of Beyoncé, Miley and Pharrell is a good example of the different ways this idea can be embraced and pre-packaged for consumers who aren’t privy to the ideology. Beyoncé showed us that a woman can be a diva, mother, wife, entrepreneur, have sexuality and be a feminist. Miley showed us that a Disney child star, confined to archaic notions about being a “good girl” can still foster and shape her own identity. That she can embrace the sexuality once sterilized by pre-teen demographics and that she can twerk. Pharrell provides a feminism that is necessary for men: the kind that acknowledges the inequality women face and praises them when they excel. Pharrell told Good Morning America, “We’re a species that has a Martian rover on the surface of Mars, but yet we’re still the same species that tries to tell women what they can and can’t do with their bodies.”
Of course none of these singers are perfect but no one is, they’re shaped by their experiences. Pharrell’s feminism on the album G I R L isn’t that deep, it’s basically, “Hey girl, you’re cool and I want to hang with you,” but that’s better than Future declaring good women are trophies in “I Won.” Miley’s use of Black and little people can be insensitive. Beyoncé, out of context, can sometimes come across as arrogant or shallow. That’s par for the course. Missteps and misinterpretations are par for the course because those are the growing pains of progress and enlightenment.
Yet, when we look at how far we’ve come, when we look at the musical landscape and how just a few years ago women were only seen through the lenses of horny rockstars or rappers at strip clubs, I would say this is a win.
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TIME Declares It The Year Of Pop Feminism
