Rebecca Lynne Clark Mane
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©Copyright 2012 Rebecca Lynne Clark Mane i Using Female Empowerment as a Cover Story for Whiteness and Racial Hierarchy in Pop Culture: Interrogating the Intersections of Racial Appropriation and Feminist Discourse in the Performances of Fergie, Gwen Stefani, and Lady Gaga Rebecca Lynne Clark Mane A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2012 Reading Committee: Christine Harold, Chair LeiLani Nishime Ralina L. Joseph Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of Communication University of Washington ABSTRACT Using Female Empowerment as a Cover Story for Whiteness and Racial Hierarchy in Pop Culture: Interrogating the Intersections of Racial Appropriation and Feminist Discourse in the Performances of Fergie, Gwen Stefani, and Lady Gaga Rebecca Lynne Clark Mane Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Christine Harold Department of Communication This project contends that the pop cultural production of the subject of third wave feminism — an empowered sexy yet tough, glamorous yet powerful woman — is deeply entangled in racial symbolisms that ultimately re-assert whiteness and maintain racial inequity. Investigating the songs, videos, and public performances of three contemporary white female pop stars — Fergie, Gwen Stefani, and Lady Gaga — This analysis unpack the ways that racial symbolisms, sublimated cultural memories, and repudiated racial narratives circulate in these stars’ music, lyrics, and video narratives as well as visual indicators such as fashion, hair, make-up, and posture. Because these performances represent and promote female empowerment in ways contested, yet consistent, with third wave rhetoric, some feminist critics tend to dismiss the racial dynamics as incidental or include them only in apologetic footnotes. This project not only re-centers race as a primary investigative lens, but examines how many of the discourses of female empowerment circulating in these pop performances are dependent on racial hierarchy for their efficacy. Using a critical semiotics approach, the aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the bigger project of decolonial feminism by cutting through the feminist alibi that allows feminism to serve as a cover story for the cultural reproduction of whiteness and racial hierarchy. Keywords: Third Wave Feminism, Women of Color Feminism, Popular Culture, Whiteness, Intersectionality, Lady Gaga, Alibi. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................................................... iii INTRODUCTION (CHAPTER 1): ALIBIS, RACE, AND THE PROBLEM WITH SINGLE-AXIS FEMINISM 1 The Contemporary Figure of the Empowered Woman ....................................................................................... 5 Race and alibi in Feminist Pop Cultural Analysis ................................................................................................ 18 Notes on Method and the Texts .................................................................................................................................. 29 Chapter Preview ................................................................................................................................................................ 34 CHAPTER 2: PUT ON THE SUIT AND PLAY THE MYTH: WHITE FEMINIST APPROPRIATION OF THE CHOLO/CHOLA IN POPULAR MUSIC ............................................................................................................................. 45 Lean like a Cholo; Fight like a Chola .......................................................................................................................... 47 The chola as third wave vehicle .................................................................................................................................. 63 Displacing the Chola: Empowering White Femininity ....................................................................................... 81 Chapter Summary .......................................................................................................................................................... 102 CHAPTER 3: ‘I’M LOOKING AT YOU LOOKING AT ME:’ WHITENESS AND THE FEMINIST SUBVERSION OF THE GAZE ........................................................................................................................................... 110 Gender and the Power of Looking and Being Looked At ............................................................................... 112 Reversing the power relations of the gaze: —"To-be-looked-at-ness" as a site of empowerment ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 115 White Femininity and the politics of Race in Gaze Empowerment Discourse ..................................... 126 Chapter Summary .......................................................................................................................................................... 151 CHAPTER 4: DANGEROUS MISCEGENIES: FEMINIST PLEASURE, RACIAL DANGER, AND CONTAINMENT IN THE TROPE OF BLACK MEN DESIRING WHITE WOMEN .......................................... 159 Historical context of the racial taboo .................................................................................................................... 164 Flirting with danger: the black male gaze as the “sanction” of female empowerment ..................... 167 Taming the Beast: Rape Dare and the (feminist) politics of “Look but Don’t Touch” ....................... 174 Containing Dangerous Miscegenies: Protecting the White Family at the limit of white female empowerment ................................................................................................................................................................. 188 Chapter Summary .......................................................................................................................................................... 202 CHAPTER 5: EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD: RACE AND FEMINIST FANTASIES OF POWER IN THE MUSIC VIDEOS OF FERGIE, GWEN STEFANI AND LADY GAGA ..................................... 208 The “Sheba principle:” “Money,””Worldly Power,” and the Plantation Mistress ................................ 212 i Racialized Labor and the production of the Gendered Celebrity Brand ................................................. 225 Colonial Savior/Great White Mother ..................................................................................................................... 239 Chapter Summary .......................................................................................................................................................... 248 CHAPTER 6 (CONCLUSION): FROM ALIBI TO ACCOUNTABILIY .................................................................... 254 Feminism without Alibi –Love and “Infinite Responsibility” ...................................................................... 271 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................................................... 277 ii LIST OF FIGURES Fig. Title Pg. #: 1.1 Lady Gaga gets arrested in "Paparazzi" 1 1.2 American's Kick-Ass Sweetheart 5 1.3 Hit Girl from Kick-Ass 6 2.1 Pink as Rosie the Riveter 45 2.2 Pink as Cholo 45 2.3 Cholo Style 47 2.4 Homies character Cruzer 49 2.5 Old English Tattoo 49 2.6 El Pachuco from Zoot Suit 50 2.7 "Zoot Suit" Riot by Cherry Poppin Daddies 53 2.8 Sublime album cover 54 2.9 Gwen Stefani as cholo/chola in "Just a Girl" 56 2.10 Cholas from Mi Vida Loca 58 2.11 Sweet Pea, the chola 58 2.12 Gwen Stefani in lowrider in "Hollaback Girl" 65 2.13 Gwen Stefani takes over the school 65 2.14 Stefani becomes the chola in "Luxurious" 69 2.15 Stefani drawing lips like a chola in "Luxurious" 69 2.16 Stefani as tough girl, wielding her chancla and a bat 70 2.17 Fergie as chola in "London Bridge" 72 2.18 Fergie's cholas in "London Bridge" 72 2.19 Cholas in Lady Gaga's "Telephone" 76 2.20 A comparison of Lady Gaga and Maluca Mala 77 2.21 Pussy Wagon in “Telephone” 78 2.22 A bored Gwen Stefani in Jail 88 2.23 Harajuku Girls as Police 88 2.24 Gwen Laughing at Police 88 2.25 Lil Kim arrested in "Whoa" 90 2.26 Black men under police surveillance 90 2.27 Cholos in "Big Girls Don't Cry" 95 2.28 Cholo for Sale by Stefani 99 3.1 Manipulating the male gaze in Suckerpunch 110 3.2 Gwen Stefani in L'Oreal Ad 131 3.3 Gwen Stefani in Aviator 133 3.4 Stefani as Rapunzel in "Sweet Escape" 134 3.5 Citing King Kong- Gwen Stefani and Fay Wray 134 3.6 Golden-Haired Fergie in “Glamorous” 135 3.7 Fergie with vintage blond glamour 135 3.8 Comparison between Lady Gaga and Warhol's Monroe 137 3.9 Comparison between Lady Gaga and Madonna 138 3.10 Laga Gaga's house of whiteness 139 3.11 Blonde girl in front - Suckerpunch 143 3.12 Fergie framed by cholas 145 3.13 Fergie framed by the club in “London Bridge” 145 iii Fig. Title Pg. #: 3.14 Gwen Stefani framed by her Harajuku girls 146 3.15 Gwen Stefani framed by her Harajuku girls II 147 3.16 Lady Gaga out front "Bad Romance" 148 3.17 Lady Gaga out front in "Alejandro" 149 3.18 Lady Gaga out front in "Born This Way" 150 3.19 Lady Gaga emerges in "Born This Way" 151 4.1 Ludacris gazes upon Fergie 159 4.2