People are debating the late France Gall's claim that she didn't 'get' the innuendo behind Serge Gainsbourg's lyrics, and saying of course she did: that she wasn't naive.
It's much more subtle than that. What she didn't 'get' was the degree of manipulation behind getting a gamine female singer to sing lyrics that turned men on. Young women in the music industry have always been pressurised to sell sex to men, both through their appearance and through sexual sonic identities. Look at Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow- fourteen years old and simulating sex sounds, told by Malcolm McLaren that she was making the 'sounds of falling off a tower'.
There is no choice; young women are on a production line in a fickle industry and if one woman won't 'do' it, then another one will. Despite her provenance as the daughter of a successful musician (and perhaps because of her providence as the daughter of a successful musician: did her father collude in this?), the young woman was duped into voicing the fantasies of a middle aged man.
Did I say 'dirty old git'? No, I wouldn't dare to. #WoodyAllen etc etc etc.....
2 comments:
As a middle-aged man, can I just point out that most of my fantasies revolve around having enough room to lay out a decent trainset.
Regrettably, I have just chanced upon 'Naked Attraction' on Channel 4, and I can only think I missed the moment when society finally flushed itself down the toilet. Are people really so desperate for their 15 minutes of fame that they expose themselves on TV to be judged? Why mention this? Because I don't recall Ms Lwin complaining when she was having her 15 minutes. Manufactured pop groups do what they are told to do to sell product. The cynical bit is letting them believe they are important (wrong word, can't think of the right one).
And, just to make absolutely sure I'm off the guest list, yeah, I do remember the controversy about Ms Lwin's age, especially when they recreated a famous painting with her naked on it (a bonus point to whoever can name the painting. Degas I think). But would that have caused a problem in, say, Italy, where the age of consent is 14?
Exploitation of any sort is wrong. But aren't the exploited sometimes willing participants?
I should get my own blog, only no one would read it
Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe. Manet
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