I really enjoyed this piece in Bitch and Moan zine online, thought y'all would too...
http://bitchingandmoaning.org/archives/2005/05/1000_stevies.php
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quote:
The lip synch, the artful pose, the mystical illusion, the twirl that seems to floats on air - this is what it means to be Stevie Nicks. And likewise it is the unfathomable, the elusive, the shifting moods and cycles, the feminine mystique, that many see as the essence of what it means to be a woman. But these may seem like the worst stereotypes imaginable of what womanhood means. Don't feminists want women to be strong and certain, rather than galloping around on unicorns and spouting fuzzy-headed mythopoetic verse? Can real power be derived from these femmy qualities, or does a woman have to butch herself up in order to get somewhere in this world?
Far from being an abstract question, these kinds of debates are acted out in the musical realm all the time. On one side you have the Natalie Merchant-Sarah McLachlan axis, and on the other you've got your Suzi Quatros and Joan Jetts. Occupying somewhat of a middle ground, Stevie Nicks definitely rocks more than Sarah McLachlan or (god help us) Jewel, but she is certainly no butched-up Suzi Quatro or Joan Jett either.
Women in a post-feminist world must constantly straddle this line. Be strong and in control, yet at the right moments, pull out the femininity all-stops. Bring home the bacon one moment, and the next become softly yielding and sexually inviting. Female musicians are not at all exempt from this. Artists as diverse as PJ Harvey, Courtney Love, and Tori Amos have taken the Nicks template to the next level, combining unabashed femininity with a willingness to kick your ass into next week. This uneasy relationship between femininity and feminism, as they're both understood, is very much at the wild heart of Stevie Nicks and her fan base, and even more so at an event like NOTS that takes femininity to the extremes of self-parody.
Idealizations of femininity from the earliest days have always been devices to deprive one of freedom and self-determination. The contemporary fashion industry's icons of feminine beauty themselves are a type of coercion to conformity -an attempt to get the public in general to confine thier thinking about attractiveness to a very narrow standard. NOTS, I think, has always been, from the outset, a powerful demonstration that femininity is a quality inherent in everyone, and taking control of one's femininity is an act of self-empowerment, especially if you were not a biological female at birth. So NOTS was, and is, another instance of cultural innovation and barrier breaking,(aside from its amazingly fun and enjoyable entertainment value, and its status as a great platform around which to throw a truly memorable party) as has been so much of gay and lesbian artistic practice. Jackie 60's initial dominatrix and SM flavor was an endorsement of de Sade's underlying principle, that eroticism was a limitless appetite that played freely and had an unquantifyable capacity for its forms of gratification. Reversing the idea of a feminine stereotype as being a kind of identity jail, NOTS explodes the restricted value and discourse assigned to femininity. Underneath and on top of the wild party all at once, NOTS plays out the unforseen consequence of the Stevie archetype in a radical dissemination of sexual perogative and conjures up a highly unique unity for gender priviledge. Aside from that, there are very few events that provide such a combination of opportunities for intoxication in every way.
Okay, I'll stop my satiated view from the balcony here.
Okay, I'll stop my satiated view from the balcony here.
seven, don't stop......
am reminded of the tribal leaders putting on animal/god masks to invoke an animal/god while dancing to 'conjure' those spirits. the familar 'feeling' about NOTS is that ancient.
there are very few feminine architypes at the moment. most celebrity females look like men with boobs these days. and being feminine has nothing to do with gender. this jackie experience seems to invoke the great mother in us all more than the woman and our recognition of ourselves in this pantomime may be that adam was an amaphrodite anyway.
am reminded of the tribal leaders putting on animal/god masks to invoke an animal/god while dancing to 'conjure' those spirits. the familar 'feeling' about NOTS is that ancient.
there are very few feminine architypes at the moment. most celebrity females look like men with boobs these days. and being feminine has nothing to do with gender. this jackie experience seems to invoke the great mother in us all more than the woman and our recognition of ourselves in this pantomime may be that adam was an amaphrodite anyway.
2005!!! What NOTS Cave have I been living in???
This is some great writing here...Loved it, & I thought I was paying attention
This little bugger slide right by me...Thanks yall for sharing this...Interesting, very interesting!!!!
Spins Twirls & Love,
Lizzie*~
Enchanted Gypsy*~...
This is some great writing here...Loved it, & I thought I was paying attention
This little bugger slide right by me...Thanks yall for sharing this...Interesting, very interesting!!!!Spins Twirls & Love,
Lizzie*~
Enchanted Gypsy*~...