Critical Approaches to Gender and 21st Century Pop Music

After learning that Miley Cyrus sees her as a model, Sinead O'Connor wrote her an open letter urging her to see that corporations are using her and will leave her out to dry once she's "used up." Cyrus's unfortunate response on Twitter was to call her crazy.

A parody of Blurred Lines

I thought this music video contributed to our discussion about the theme of the coming of age, "good girl gone bad" story that is of interest in popular culture. It also comments on gender and feminism.

The video for Rihanna's new single Pour It Up. I think its interesting how provocative and sexualised the video is and the timing going up against Cyrus' recent scandals. The importance of twerking in the video as well, Cyrus may not have started the culture but her appropriation of it has definitely made it a more popular trend.

This was mentioned in the article about the Katy Perry Movie. It's pretty amusing and gives you a closer look at some of the lyrics to "Last Friday Night". 

I laughed a few times while reading this. I enjoyed the line by line analysis and completely agree with the overall message he was trying to get across.

Just thought we should look at Lily Allen's less than typical demeanor in the pop world.

The world has taken note on Miley Cyrus's continuous reign of fame. Really interesting article about smart pr steps Miley has taken for herself and her new album promo.

I did not post this necessarily for the article itself, but the comments. Look at the hatred towards her, as well as a few comments about her right to do as she pleases, because she is a grown up woman.

Thanks for the plethora of comments to read through, Neil. I had to stop reading them... I do find the original post interesting for it's title: Why are we concerned that she "violates" objects? Shouldn't people be what's inviolable?

A parody video of California Girls done by Seth Green

This is a link to a film documentary that was released in 2010 which was aired due to the success of Taylor Swift's first world tour 'Fearless'. The film is based around Taylor herself and how she came to be where she is today, and why she it's he way she is today. The world knows her either as a talented, down to earth country star or as a clingy, possibly even "slutty" celebrity with a long trail of boyfriends behind her. Similarly to Katy Perry: Part of Me, this film shows both the highlights and lowlights of being Taylor Swift both now and before anyone knew her name.

The Rolling Stone's interview with Miley Cyrus in which she attempts to explain her reasoning behind her VMA performance, the Wrecking Ball music video and ratchet culture.  

Someone's...interesting view on Telephone.

I personally viewed this article just as a reminder of the "meaning" and purpose of feminism and how celebrities fit into the feminist movement, if they do, how, and why.

This long - over an hour - but Dr. Dines discusses rape and porn culture and it's affect on society and the impact it has on women. I particularly thought her discussion of the Paris Hilton sex tape was relevant to our discussion about Miley Cyrus. She encourages people to "think about the trauma of being nineteen years old and that is circulating everywhere. Just for a moment what it must have felt like, and then, like most women who are traumatized," she had "two choices" to either "hide" or "decided...to embrace that trauma and 'own' it as your own....if you're going to call (Paris Hilton) a slut, then...(she'll) be the best slut you've ever met in your life". This all or nothing attitude that women in our "image based" culture must have to survive. Granted, this talk is about the porn industry, but I think a lot of it can also be used in discussions of women and pop music. Be warned, though, it does include some pretty graphic language. EDIT: Around 45 minutes in she talks about Miley Cyrus's photoshoot for Vanity Fair and the hypersexualization of young girls. It takes place before the VMAs, but she still talks about the transition from Hannah Montana to Miley Cyrus.

A discussion of Katy Perry's comment that she is not a feminist that she made while accepting the Billboard Woman of the Year award. Really, this article uses the comment to discuss feminism in women's pop music as a whole.

Miley Cyrus is featured in Mike WiLL Made-It's new music video for "23." Caught my attention because someone posted this on Facebook, saying the following: "Miley Cyrus... No one wants to 'get like you.' Sorry sweetheart."

Ha! I love how much I agree with that person. I watched this video the other day and found it just awful. She says how she wants to shock people and I think with every video that comes out, she does shock that little bit more. But the shock isn't a positive thing. People are starting to get irritated with her more than anything, I know I am and eventually, the shock and irritation will make people lose interest in her. It is likely that people would have got bored of her had she stayed her usual Hannah Montana self, but at least she wouldn't have been irritating. No matter how hard she tries, she's always going to have a part of her Disney past to her name, similarly, no matter what she does, these publicity stunts she keeps pulling are going to be with her for even longer. The person she is now, she isn't going to want to be her forever and one day she will wake up and realise what an idiot she's made of herself. She'll also realise that this 'reckless persona' that she's made is going to be MUCH harder to shake off. Sorry, that turned into a little bit of a rant. I just have a lot to say on Miley Cyrus!

I agree with you Gina, but i think what the problem is, is that despite people becoming bored and irritated by her people want to see what see does next. Is it going to be more outlandish or shocking than the next? And that is what i think Miley herself counts on. Like she said in her new documentary trailer, she'd rather be talked about for two week than two seconds. So in turn i think that she see's any publicity, even if it's bad publicity, is better than no publicity at all.

I came across this article and it reminded me of the discussion in class where gender is fluid, it changes and what the meaning's on gender and sex were. According to article it describes a culture in Mexico where there are ''Muxes'', these are Zapotec indigenous men who dress and behave in ways associated with women. But Muxes are most commonly known as a third gender, rather than a sexual orientation. It is interesting to see that in the article the muxes aren't ridiculed in their hometown, but actually celebrated, for instance they have a party, and to the muxes themselves they see that it is ''important to have this party to rescue our culture, to rescue who we are and show the rest of the people in this city how we live our sexuality, how we exercise our rights''. On the other hand, mothers in the Juchitan area of Mexico encourage their sons of the muxe leanings because their think the ''Muxes are a blessing from God because their look after you when your sick.....''. All in all this culture in Mexico is very different and when many others see this type of identity as unusual or even disgraceful especially in more conservative places in Mexico.