I really applaud Pink's 2006 endeavor on her fourth CD, I'm Not Dead, to re-direct her pop-culture roots towards the finer things in life...like social awareness.
So why the hell am I still blogging about this in 2007?
Actually, it was recently suggested that I listen to Pink's song (also from I'm Not Dead), Dear Mr. President. The song is sweet...good for her for questioning the status quo in America.
Anyhow, this talk of Pink re-sparked an old fire. While I really dug the song Stupid Girls, I still cannot contain my anger regarding the music video. So now that I have a blog and a mental erection on the matter, feel free to watch the whole video...or skip until the time remainder is 1:37...to the portion that I believe is quite counter-productive to actual understandings of women and eating disorders, and any actual progress regarding mainstream perceptions of such diseases.
I am quite bothered that Pink would use a song geared toward female empowerment, and drive it into the ground by reinforcing cultural stigma that misunderstands, humiliates and alienates bulimics.
The video clip wraps the disease in a pretty package, associating it quickly and easily with stupid, ditsy and superficial skanks.
To clarify, the majority of people (men, too) who suffer from eating disorders are intelligent, driven and perfectionist-to-a-fault.
I just want to know why any one would find it fitting to mock a bulimic...because clearly there is nothing more entertaining than an emotionally, spiritually and physically decrepit person who cannot bear the feeling of nourishment, has a chronic inability to process thoughts and feelings, has a deficiency in relationships with others and self, and suffers so desperately from guilt and personal disgust that s/he is willing to suffocate her/himself and reverse a natural and instinctual biological process to be cleansed of “sin.”
Check out an older post of mine to better understand how eating disorders are not really about food.
And on another note...I would also like to dispel this myth that women who adhere to certain hegemonic criteria of "good-looking" are inherently stupid. Take a walk around USC, and you will learn that many fake-baked, bleach blonde Barbies riding on pink beach cruisers, giggling and inserting "like" every 4 words while texting on bedazzled blackberries are actually ambitious young women and high achievers in school.
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2 comments:
On your last bit... out of curiosity, how do you view the dichotomy then of seemingly buying into the crap being fed to people that you need the fake tan and the bedazzled blackberry and being an 'achiever'? Maybe I'm phrasing this wrong, and maybe you've inspired me to a forthcoming cynical post, but your choice of the words 'ambitious' and 'achievers' do not necessarily make me think 'not inherently stupid' as their appearance projects a seeming adherence to life goals that I usually consider not all that worthy (ie. being ambitious to get a high paying job so you can buy a big house and an SUV).
What I am trying to say is that these women are not dumb as door posts just because they look a certain way.
True, this does not necessarily mean they share your values and more cultivated perception of intelligence...but ignorance is also different than stupidity.
I do not believe that mono-focus on high income/SUV/consumerism is a direct link to IQ level. People are products of experience, opportunity and other global viewpoints (and excessive influence from family, religion and media).
Don't get me wrong...I am not making excuses for civic disengagement and political apathy...I am just saying that it is a gross over-simplification to tie it directly to intellect.
In order to cultivate actual change, it would be effective to frame pertinent issues to actually shine through to different lifestyles and meet people where they are.
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