A Good Feminist’s Dillemma: Kelly Clarkson and Feminism
Posted on | March 17, 2009 |
Last week, Kelly Clarkson released her newest CD “All I Ever Wanted,” featuring the hit song “My Life Would Suck Without You.” The song is an upbeat tale of love and dysfunction that, although not the model of great relationships, is probably closer to the truth than many of us are willing to recognize. I wasn’t a fan of American Idol when Kelly won, but I found her music upbeat and catchy and her voice infectious and it stuck with me. I’ve seen her in concert at least twice and have purchased all of her other albums. That being said, I wasn’t planning buying her new release.
Why? Because she has openly exclaimed that she’s “not at all” a feminist while stating that the old boys’ club is alive and well in the record industry. Fankly, I’m sick of today’s idols, whether they be American or otherwise, disassociating with feminism because it isn’t the in thing. Just like people boycotted Domino’s when Tom Monaghan still owned it or spilled Coors in the streets of San Francisco, I wasn’t ready to spend my money on someone who wasn’t willing to work for it.
Being a feminist for many years has become a very unpopular thing. Not being a feminist might not quite be calling yourself a misogynist, but it certainly bears a certain amount of responsibility when misogyny is left unchecked. Could you imagine that happening with any other cause célèbre?
But I don’t need to go on and on about the failure of my generation to associate itself with the term feminist while simultaneously degrading themselves to the lowest common denominator on VH1 reality shows for a quick buck. That is a fact that needs no exploration. What does need a bit of exploration is why I’d allow myself to boycott Kelly’s album when I own Eminem’s greatest hits, the majority of Kanye’s records and other such profoundly unfeminist accounts of life in musical form. I don’t boycott them (usually because I think boycotts are silly, but also because I really like their music), yet I’m willing to boycott Kelly’s passive transgression.
While the fault of people, especially women, like Kelly who don’t identify as feminists is their own, the failure on my part to recognize that we need to support women in all lines of work is clear as day. Does Kelly need to own up to her feminist beliefs? Damn straight, she does. But so do I. And after being tricked into buying her CD by a friend who placed it in my basket at Target only to end up in my bags later, I’m not mad. It’s a good CD by a good artist and I’m not going to allow myself to make her the victim for a culture that abhors feminism while rewarding misogyny. I’ll hold her accountable in my own way (namely this blog), but I’m not going to treat her like the plague because she formed an opinion.
That’s what feminism is all about, isn’t it? Opinions.
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Tags: consumerism > double standards > Eminem > Feminism > Kanye West > Kelly Clarkson > media > music > refusal to identify as feminist
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April 22nd, 2010 @ 12:04 pm
I stumbled across this while reading on the “Kelly Clarkson boycott.” I can only speak on what I have learned from speaking to different women, certainly not from my own experience, being male; I don’t think a lot of women necessarily “abhor feminism.” My experience has been that many women are not willing to label themselves as feminist either (a) because they don’t label themselves, period - there’s some truth in the idea that when any of us label ourselves, we limit ourselves to being defined in only one way, or (b) don’t call themselves feminist because the only exposure they have had to mainstream feminism is the “Don’t get married because when you do you’re making your life dominated by your husband,” extreme-NOW brand of feminism. People do, whether we understand it or not, have a tendency to lump everyone together, usually under the banner of the most extreme viewpoint. That’s unfortunate since, at its base, the cause of feminism, like the cause of equality, has some very basic, very good points. The takeover of these causes by extreme points of view, however, has caused people to shy away from them, I believe.
I do agree with your comment about our culture still rewarding the views that denigrate women, though I would say a word like “misogyny” might be a bit harsh. (I can honestly say I’ve never met a man yet who hated women, or sought only to see them abused/misused) The only way to stop that, unfortunately, is for the women who have an active role in doing it (sitcoms, magazines, channels like VH1, Spike TV, etc) to stop doing it - so long as they do, it undermines any attempts at trying to change womens’ images, in my opinion. Yes, men should stop supporting those things as well, but I don’t think it’s fair (real or implied) to place the blame all on men as though they’re the cause and reason for this happening.
In any event, thank you for the chance to post this - hopefully my points have been clear, and also balanced, since I do believe that “blame” exists on both sides in this issue - and more importantly, it’s only by both sides coming together that it will ever be resolved.