Resisting Passivity: Staging Active Female Sexuality in Weimer Era Inspire Cabaret – an Analysis of Performance and Lyrics Of
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Resisting Passivity: Staging Active Female Sexuality In Weimer Era Inspire Cabaret – An Analysis of Performance and Lyrics of Dresden Dolls, Bitter Ruin, and Marcella & the Forget-Me-Nots In Kate McCarthy’s 2006 article, “Not Pretty Girls,” McCarthy highlights the intersection in theorization of women’s performance in rock music and Judith Butler’s deconstruction of gender/sex binaries. She conceives the female body as “not (only) a locus of oppression, but as a kind of performance site, where cultural expectations about gender are rehearsed but also, at least potentially, manipulated and resisted.” (McCarthy, 2006: 70) McCarthy reproduces as common thread in feminist scholarship on women in rock with the concept of ugliness as part of women rock musicians’ resistance to the images circulated in commercialized pop music. (2006: 75) By positioning the overwhelming critical response to Courtney Love (and symbolically extending to other 90’s female musicians Alanis Morissette, Ani DiFranco, and PJ Harvey) as reflecting the “cultural anxiety about women’s acting out of their assigned demeanors, especially that of sexual passivity.” (2006: 77-78) In a similarly interesting exploration of women in pop music, Melanie Lowe investigates the problematic reception of Britney Spears among “’tween” girls. (2003) Lowe points out the contradictory relationship Spears has within her focus groups, attributing the acceptance and rejection of Spears due to the dichotomy of her performance as “good girl/bad girl, slag/drag, and virgin/whore” as these dichotomous identities were being performed concurrently and simultaneously. (2003: 139) Both McCarthy and Lowe highlight the importance pop music performers play in third-wave feminism, specifying that performers are becoming more important to communicating feminist politics than activists and academics. (McCarthy, 2006: 75 and Lowe, 2003: 135-136) However, since the decline of the riot grrrl movement and the rise in both Spears style female musicians and the popularization of progressive women’s rock (such as Fiona Apple and Tori Amos) the overwhelming portrayal of female sexuality is aligned with hegemonic portrayals of female passiveness. (McCarthy, 2006: 89) Passive sexuality is constructed in the pop music sphere of Britney Spears by symbolic positioning of the female body as an object rather than a subject. (Lowe, 2003: 134-135) Even if we view Spears as an agent of her own sexual expression, her musical performance remains problematic in opposition to patriarchal oppression as she fulfills the image of the desirous female of a male gaze. Thus, even while playing the “slut” she remains dependent on a male subject for sexual fulfillment, begging the pursuit of the male rather than pursuing the male herself. (Lowe, 2003: 135) Conversely, the sexual passiveness of contemporary alternative women in rock is largely based on a disavowal of sexuality. Performers like Fiona Apple distance themselves from expressions of sexuality through recurrent themes of rape. Additional methods employed by some of the popular alternative female musicians rely on the performativity and presentation of the body. This concept, perhaps the most common trope, is highly common in post-punk and post-riot grrrl rock groups such as Wild Flag and le Tigre, both built from members of queercore and riot grrrl scenes. Their performances, rather than being sexualized, are more combative of gender rather than sexual expression. While gender and sexuality are inter-related and inseparable, they represent different strategies and focusing on gender performativity separates and ignores the performance of female sexuality in pop music. For example, Wild Flag, described as a female super-group1, only subverts patriarchy by focusing on only their performative skill and ability to combat the stereotypical masculinism of rock performance. The question then becomes whether female musicians can perform a counter-hegemonic sexuality that simultaneously subverts hegemonic representations of femininity and 1 Super-group refers to a musical group formed of members who achieved fame and recognition prior to their current group. Mary Timony, Rebecca Cole, Janet Weiss, and Carrie Brownstein of Wild Flag are all graduates of highly successful bands associated with queercore and riot grrrl movements. simultaneously empowers resistance in the audience. Within the historic continuum of subversive music, cabaret represents a site where music and counter-hegemonic sexualities met as evidenced in Mizejewski’s analysis of feminine sexuality in Fosse’s film adaptation of Cabaret. (1987) While she problematizes the film’s portrayal of sexuality in terms of linking the rise of Nazism to the sexual excessiveness of the Weimer Republic. (1987: 7) The film, based on the musical of the same name, which was based on the book Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, presents female sexuality as “distorted and threatening.” (Mizejewski, 1987: 5) The musical and film represent the closest visual presentation of Weimer Era cabaret, which ceased to exist following the end of World War II and the Allied occupation. Even with the problematic Sally Bowles, it is no surprise that Weimer Era cabaret has become a stylistic symbol to a growing association of musical performers located on the fringes (and at Fringe Festivals) of pop music seeking a form and style that is marked by spontaneity and subversion. (Lidington, 1987: 107) Mizejewski is not critical of the portrayal of [female] sexuality in Fosse’s film, but her observation of Fosse’s construction of the feminization of Nazism, symbolically allying Nazi’s with the “unimaginable Other” and femaleness. (1987: 15-16) If we purely deal with the expression, rather than the historic or filmic context with Nazism, then the sexuality, still grotesque and dangerous, can be recovered. In essence, contemporary female musicians performing in styles and aesthetics derived from Weimer Era cabaret, enact the dangerous and grotesque sexuality, that symbolizes their resistance to hegemonic female sexuality that does not focus on provide the sexual agency for female sexual pleasure. By utilizing both textual critiques of lyrics, music videos and live performances, I will provide evidence to the resistive power of performers symbolically associating themselves with the image of the femme fatale iconic of cabaret era art and literature. This paper will focus on a textual analysis of the lyrics and music of the Dresden Dolls’ “Missed Me,” a narrative analysis of Bitter Ruin’s video “Beware,” and an analysis of a live performance by Marcella and the Forget-Me-Nots. missed me missed me now you've got to kiss me if you kiss me mister you must think im pretty if you think so mister you must want to fuck me if you fuck me mister it must mean you love me if you love me mister you would never leave me it's as simple as can be! (Amanda Palmer, 2002) The story of the Dresden Dolls is told from the subject position of a girl, who entices, stalks, and traps an older man. From the onset, the danger of the female subject’s sexuality is represented in the opening stanza where the simple informing her sister of a kiss will result in the “mister’s” arrest. Palmer constructs the female subject of the song as aware of her ability to be viewed by men as desirable, constructed by the cause and effect of the second stanza. The female subject extrapolates the meaning of her “mister” kissing her to “you must think I’m pretty” to “you must want to fuck me” to “it must mean you love me” and ending in the obsessive “you would never leave me.” The descent in obsession and madness, and male oriented violence, follows with “if you trick me, Mister, I will make you suffer.” Here the typical masculine control of heterosexual relationships is parodied and recontextualized placing the often sexualized “barely legal” female subject as the controller of the relationship. The female subject then goes on to demand the man “take responsibility” because “she is fragile… just like any girl would be.” The inevitable ending of the song, the female subject’s complete descent into obsessive madness and the male’s incarceration, is tinged with ironic ire with the entire blame resting on the male. This song represents several different criticism of the predisposed category of female sexuality in heteronormativity. Despite the enticement behind the repeated motif of “missed me, missed me, now you got to kiss me,” the only individual punished is the male. The symbolic position of the male in the song is emblematic the hegemonic construction of female passive sexuality that prevents women from inhabiting the position of sexual aggressor. In some ways this song bears some resemblance to Lowe’s discussion of her focus groups response to Spears’ “… Baby One More Time” in that the narrator is symbolically linked to the singer, is female, and the narrator is seeking a man to pursue her sexually. The point of divergence is on the nature of “Missed Me’s” demand whereas Lowe’s focus group associates Spears’ song with “begging.” (2003: 135) Palmer’s narrator is demanding and seductive, symbolized in the vocals and the piano. With each repeat of “missed me” the Palmer alternates between bass and treble chords focusing on staccato accents. Moving into the second part of the phrase, the “now you got to kiss me,” the staccato alternation is replaced by a muddied exaggerated turn in the treble clef. This symbolic associates a dichotomous identity to the narrator who simultaneously is built to percussive staccato beats and an ugly muddled turn. This is further developed during the shift in vocal pantomime from soft and innocent of “just like any girl would be” to anger and dangerous for “treat me delicately.” The overall playfulness in the Palmer’s vocal style, echoing the dichotomy of the piano rhythm along with several screams and screeches symbolize the descent into madness as well as suggest a satirical reading of the song.