"[Naomi] Wolf argues that beauty is the "last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact". Somehow we've been flogged the idea that to be beautiful (which we must, or else no one will love us) we have to look a certain way: thin, youthful, smooth-skinned, small-nosed, silky-haired, etc. Hey presto: your average woman feels ugly her entire life, and old, too, for most of it. What better way of keeping her in her place?
Wolf uses the phrase "cultural conspiracy"; it's hard to imagine exactly who the conspirators might be. Then big money makes an entrance, and it all gets nice and clear: women who feel old and ugly will buy things they do not need. An "anti-ageing" cream, say, or a blouse very little different from the blouses they already have."
Emily Wilson, 'A quick reminder ... The Beauty Myth' (2005)
The main subjects of third-wave feminism - female self-empowerment and body image - is something that's no stranger to mainstream music. Female pop stars, being subject to intense public scrutiny for their looks and weight, are very aware of the fact that the music industry is no exception to the advertising adage that 'sex sells', of the slippery slope between between lookism and sexism. But unlike the Photoshopped models that grace the pages of fashion 'bibles', singers have a voice - and are (supposedly) well-placed to make a statement about the present state of affairs.
In "Pretty Hurts", Beyoncé sings 'Perfection is the disease of a nation/ ...It's the soul that needs the surgery', while KT Tunstall takes on the subject of plastic surgery in "Saving My Face". If these songs engender an emphatic identification with lyrical personas torn apart by the socially-ingrained desire for physical perfection, Lily Allen's postpartum and highly controversial "Hard Out Here" pushes the envelope further, launching into an all-out satirical attack on Western society's double standards for men and women before ultimately concluding on a pessimistic note: 'Inequality promises that it's here to stay/ Always trust the injustice 'cause it's not going away'.
Berlin-based Swedish synthpop musican Molly Nilsson certainly shares Allen's pessisism in "Ugly Girl", which is addressed to an off-stage chauvinistic male antagonist:
'When you tell me beauty comes from withinIts the most stupid thing I ever heard‘Cause let me tell you you’ll still be an assholeEven if we redefine the word'
Nilsson's lyrical persona has given up all hope on this man's ability (and perhaps the ability of men as a whole) to empathize with the modern woman's insecurities about her body image and self-esteem. Instead of presenting a rallying cry for feminist activism and political reform, however, Nillson channels her hopes for 'justice' into the Buddhist concept of karmic retribution, imagining the chauvinist living a second or third life in the shoes of an ugly girl: 'In your next life, in your next life or the life after that/ You’re gonna be an ugly girl'.
With her characteristic blend of tragic-romantic lyricism, vintage electronics and retro-gazing aesthetic, Nilsson makes the question of gender inequality seem timeless and irresolvable. The battle of the sexes can only persist, and genuine cross-gender emphatic identification is something that takes multiple lifetimes to achieve.
