Yesterday a colleague linked on fb to Beyoncé Knowles’ and Lady Gaga’s new “Video Phone” and (poigniantly referencing post- post-ish waves of feminism), asked for our explanations of it. I replied that among other “reasons to hate” the video, one might consider that it’s a rip-off of M.I.A. — an artist I admire, several of whose songs/videos seem to have been the inspiration of some of Video Phone’s edgiest moments.
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“Reasons to hate” might have been a poor choice of words … I do have reasons to - what? I guess “resist”?) … the first of which I thought my colleague pinpointed nicely with the waves-of-feminism question. I know too many younger women and men who don’t, and won’t, read anything into this music video except “men can be controlled if you can get them to look at you that way” and/or “are those real?”…(see commentary on youtube) … when that’s the position that sells the merch and the banner ads, I think 3rd- (& 4th-, & 7th-wave?) notions of co-opting and redirecting gazes or whatever start to lose their relevance. For me, [seeing the way the glamour/raunch-sexuality narrative plays out in people’s lives] = [reason to loathe this]. Seeing it as an MIA rip-off was reason #2.
But then there’s that tough question of visual/aural pleasure and where to get it. These bodies are cool, these voices are hot, my gaze has certainly been “directed” (not re-directed)… and the pretty colors and shapes make me instantly happy, or at least sort-of happy. Maybe it’s an easier question for some than for others, but with “reasons to resist” this sort of thing (resist/loathe/hate: reductive commodifications of bodies, reductions that simplify and narrow the power available to women, that truncate expression to the sexual?) — what do we do personally, as seekers of pleasure, as artists for example — what do we do with feeling like we “like” it?
Whether you “like” the Vogue body or the Maxim body or the Suicide-Girl body(s), I think this is worth thinking about. So I’m open to ideas… does anyone have good suggestions on “3rd-wave” takes on voyeurism, for graduate-level readers? Something semiotic, maybe? It could draw on Peirce, Lacan, Adorno … but in general, the readers are artists, not theorists or cultural studies scholars. Please post ideas here … or just your thoughts … thanks …