When Pitch Perfect hit screens last year I was desperate to see it. It was everything I dreamed it would be and more. But the best part, hands down, was that it reminded me of an old favourite band: Salt-n-Pepa.
For those of you who don’t reminisce fondly on a ’90s childhood with a couple of cool cat cousins from downtown Detroit who sold you their old gameboy colors and introduced you to the sweetest tunes, Salt-n-Pepa were (hands down) the best hip hop girl group of the decade. Possibly of all time.
But they were more than that- they were hardcore feminists of the best variety: honest, confident, and willing to rap it out to a generation that was quickly falling in love with, arguably, the most sexist music industry in memorable history. Childhood me lived for that stuff.
Salt, Pepa and DJ Spindarella were pop industry feminists well before their time- even now mainstream music is packed with girls who churn out stereotypical, pining-for-my-prince chart toppers year after year, with the occasional F***-you-I’m-over-your-stupid-face variation. If the music industry were a movie it would never clear the Bechdel test, all the women ever talk about is men. Today, the trio still stands out as a breath of fresh air- and their song “Let’s Talk About Sex” is radical enough that it could shock some of the more liberal sex-ed teachers I met in high school.
So let’s talk about sex. Not the fun kind, I’m afraid, but the which-parts-are-in-your-panties kind. Why does such an insignificant thing run so much of our world? Why do we segregate peeing? Why is there still a wage-gap? Why is women’s medicine still so under-researched? Why does the government get a say in what I do with my uterus and when?
And most importantly, why is the music industry, with all of its shock factor sexuality, not much much more progressive? We talk about sex a lot, but we’re still really bad at talking about the issues that surround it. Which is why I’m really (really) excited to discuss the biopolitics of gender in ASTU next semester.
Some closing remarks:
Another thing which brought Salt-n-Pepa to mind again recently was an example of music industry feminism I found a lot less impressive. Like the M.I.A video Heather posted a couple days ago, it’s a little controversial. Unlike M.I.A’s there are few blurred lines:
The internet community has responded, as one might expect, with a great degree of outrage.
I must admit that I was predisposed to love this song. It’s catchy, the lyrics are great, and I love Lily a lot. The music video was off to a great start, although the liposuction scene made me a little ill. But then Allen juxtaposed her line “don’t need to shake my a$$ for you, ’cause I’ve got a brain” with women of colour twerking in the background, pulling the ultimate white feminist faux pas: forgetting that if your feminism isn’t intersectional, it isn’t feminism. I love Allen’s anger and her attitude, but we head down a slippery slope when we whine about discrimination while demeaning others who don’t share our privilege.
So let’s talk about sex, and let’s really talk about it. The world could use some dialogue across races, genders, and sexual expressions about the measures by which we discriminate against each other that extends well beyond the academic spheres of gender and women’s studies. Because it’s only by airing our species dirty laundry and engaging in these subjects openly and earnestly that we have any hope of putting this dark era of sexist, racist music behind us.
Thanks for a great semester guys! I’m looking forwards to the next one.