Tag Archives: Feminists

Choco Makes Lesbian Reggaeton Music for Feminists

Most people only know one Reggaeton song, which is Gasolina. But the genre is wide and diverse, and easily one of the most popular genres in Latin America.

Unfortunately, the genre is also dominated by men and misogyny. It’s nearly impossible to find a song that doesn’t mention using women as sex objects, or a music video that doesn’t twist women into compromising positions.

Choco is changing that.

Choco is the pioneer of lesbian reggaeton and the reggaetonera movement, which is taking the genre from men.

She initially started branding herself as a lesbian reggaeton artist as part of satire. She kept the trademark dembow rhythm and the perrero, a type of doggy-style dance, but changed the lyrics to reflect the pitfalls of male masculinity. In “Lo Que Las Mujeres Quieren” (What Women Want), she sings, “Hey macho reggaeton man, listen to what I say / You don’t know about women / A woman prefers two well-placed fingers.”

However, she also exploits women in her own way. In her music videos, she depicts women in sexual pleasure, albeit absent from men. She also sings, “I like cheaters / I like ugly girls,” and “I like women empoderada (empowered) / But I like it even better if she eats this empanada (slang for vagina).” Because of this, she’s received backlash from women who say she’s doing just as much harm to feminism as the men are. However, she sees her music as an opportunity to shrug off the taboos of sex and allow women to express their love of sex and consensual sexual powerplay.

She also sees herself as part of the reggaeton feminista – feminist reggaeton – movement, side-by-side with other female reggaetoneras like Ms. Nina los Santos (Argentina), Tomasa del Real (Chile), La Favi (San Francisco, US), Farina (Colombia), and Tremenda Jauría (Spain), among others. “Currently reggaeton is the most popular music at all the feminist parties.”

Her debut album is fittingly called Sátira (Satire), because she began the project as a satirical middle finger to the hypermasculine machismo culture. Listen to it here.

Calling Out Sexism | 5 Times Kristen Stewart Flew The Flag For Feminism

Paving her own path in her Converse sneakers and tight jeans, Kristen Stewart has established herself a mighty role model for young women.

She doesn’t shy away when it comes to standing her own ground, despite all the glitz, glamour, and general shallowness of the movie business. She never pretends to be something she is not.

More: Kristen Stewart Calls Out Anti-Feminists

As we all know, at a young age she was thrust into the world of the ultra famous when she was cast as Bella in the Twilight Saga.

To most in the media, her indifference and distaste for fame labelled her the moody actress. However post-Twilight, Stewart is starting to break free from this reputation. She is now the A-lister and feminist spokesperson, and it is great to see a young woman in a high-profile position speak loudly about these facts and unveil the truth of what feminism should mean.

1. Why She Hates Being Told To Smile

“I have been criticized a lot for not looking perfect in every photograph… I’m not embarrassed about it. I’m proud of it. If I took perfect pictures all the time, the people standing in the room with me, or on the carpet, would think, What an actress! What a faker! What matters to me is that the people in the room leave and say, “She was cool. She had a good time. She was honest.”

Kristen Stewart, Vanity Fair

2. Women Having To Be Cute All The Time – Not

“Being a public figure, I’m supposed to present myself in a certain way, but it’s hard and you’re never going to be able to tell people who you are through the media. It’s much easier for a guy to say what he wants and not to be cute and funny all the time, but, if you’re a strong sort of woman, you’re just, for lack of a better word, a bitch.”

Kristen Stewart, The Telegraph

3. Reverse Feminism

“It’s silly to play the devil’s advocate when having a conversation about female roles in Hollywood, because then you’re doing this “reverse feminism” thing that has become weirdly trendy recently. I feel like some girls around my age are less inclined to say, “Of course I’m a feminist, and of course I believe in equal rights for men and women,” because there are implications that go along with the word feminist that they feel are too in-your-face or aggressive…

A lot of girls nowadays are like, “Eww, I’m not like that.” They don’t get that there’s no one particular way you have to be in order to stand for all of the things feminism stands for.”

Kristen Stewart, Wonderland

4. It’s Ridiculous To Not Be A Feminist

“[Saying you’re not feminist is] such a strange thing to say, isn’t it? Like, what do you mean? Do you not believe in equality for men and women? I think it’s a response to overly-aggressive types. There are a lot of women who feel persecuted and go on about it, and I sometimes am like, “Honestly, just relax, because now you’re going in the other direction.”

Sometimes, the loudest voice in the room isn’t necessarily the one you should listen to. By our nature alone, think about what you’re saying and say it—but don’t scream in people’s faces, because then you’re discrediting us.”

Kristen Stewart, The Daily Beast

5. Fake Girl Power Is Revolting

“The whole girl power thing is such a big deal now. There’s, like, an enormous void thathas clearly been proven — that there’s a desire to fill that … If you just change your character name from Bobby to Sue — anything where, like, a girl is punching another person in the face or being really assertive, suddenly they’re like, we’ll definitely look at Kristen Stewart to do this one. Faux girl power is really revolting.

This is a very valid point, because Stewart is saying that a female character being “powerful” is still stemming from the male idea of physical strength. Rather than women being seen as powerful and strong and worthy of powerful and strong characters on their own, female names are simply being tacked on. Adding insult to injury, it’s been proven over and over again that in most action films, the woman will still be wearing less clothes than her male counterparts.”

Kristen Stewart, Conan O’Brien Show

Kristen Stewart Calls Out Anti-Feminists

Unfortunately, the word ‘feminist’ has a heavy, negative stigma attached to it. Despite feminism being the call for equality between the sexes (read: to make things more of a level playing field for everybody) plenty are quick to dismiss the important ideals of feminism and label its supporters as bra-burning man-haters.

It’s a shame that so many people have bought into this thought – that feminism is wrong and that feminists would like to see women become the most powerful gender (as opposed to gender equality) – but it’s a viewpoint often steeped in misogyny and the belief that women don’t deserve to be equal in the first place. And, in many cases, people being anti-feminist (or being against the word) is simply because they just don’t understand what feminism is and so they deride it instead of cracking open a dictionary.

But this doesn’t fly with those who support feminism and now Kristen Stewart is calling them out.

Speaking to The Daily Beast, the actor explains that

“[Saying you’re not feminist is] such a strange thing to say, isn’t it? Like, what do you mean? Do you not believe in equality for men and women? I think it’s a response to overly-aggressive types. There are a lot of women who feel persecuted and go on about it, and I sometimes am like, “Honestly, just relax, because now you’re going in the other direction.” Sometimes, the loudest voice in the room isn’t necessarily the one you should listen to. By our nature alone, think about what you’re saying and say it—but don’t scream in people’s faces, because then you’re discrediting us.”

She adds that roles that are “different, and complex, and not some typical, archetypal girl” are “rare” because the movie industry is “a male-dominated and driven business.”

When asked about the fact that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke’s career hit the skids after just one bad film, Stewart added that

“That’s a thing that women have to do—you must persevere. That’s what we’ve been doing. You need to make something that’s undeniably good. If a woman makes a bad movie, or does something stupid, then the door just slams shut. It’s fucked up.”

As so many of her peers speak out against feminism it’s refreshing to hear Kristen Stewart as the voice of feminist reason above it all. She’s regularly outspoken and should be commended for it. We’ll keep you posted on more of her well-reasoned thinking.

Source: The Daily Beast

How Feminists Have Made the World Better for Women

Correct me if I’m wrong, but feminism has changed the world – and by doing so, it has made people happier and the world better.

To argue otherwise, is to show blatant disregard (or willful ignorance) for the historical record. It is also an argument that insults the legacies of centuries of badass feminists who have bravely fought, failed and ultimately prevailed in the ongoing struggle to empower the marginalised and elevate the disenfranchised.

Here we’ve compiled a pocket edition list of achievements.

They made the western world get serious about gender discrimination.
They brought women out of the household — if they so chose.
They called out rape culture.
They quietly propelled the civil rights movement.
They took on campus sexual assault.
They put a human face to sexual harassment.
They broke barriers for little girls with presidential aspirations.
They joined in the struggle for marriage equality.
They demonstrated why revolutions must include the female perspective.
They realized a balanced court is a happier court.
They forced The world to recognise the importance of birth control.
They focused attention on domestic workers’ rights.
They made the workplace a little more equal — for everyone.
They proved that the next big thing in science could be discovered by a woman.
They used online feminism to give the marginalised a voice.
They pushed pop culture icons to join the fight.

On Shailene Woodley, Hollywood and Why So Many People Think Feminists ‘Hate Men’

“Why Hollywood Desperately Needs Shailene Woodley”, suggests one article citing the feminist ideals and critiques that she supports, “Shailene Woodley on Why She’s Not a Feminist” reads the second headline that’s written on the TIME Magazine website a few months later making us all wonder if Woodley’s opinions are ones that we really need thrown into an already un-feminist-friendly melting pot. This isn’t a critique of Woodley herself; she thinks that her film, Divergent, promotes ‘’sisterhood” on account of it leaving out typical boy-centric girl-fights, she thinks that vampire romp Twilight is unfortunate for the extremes that main character Bella goes when her male love interest leaves her and Woodley herself even identifies as a lady loving lady (she doesn’t fall in love based on gender, she says in one interview) but call her a feminist and she’ll run a mile.

And it’s no wonder either, when the TIME piece discussing Woodley’s anti-feminist sentiments opens with [tweet_dis]“one of the hottest topics in Hollywood lately has been the ‘F’ word” as in feminism is now a dirty slur right up there with ‘fat’, ‘idiot’ and ‘ugly’ [/tweet_dis]and we can half expect it to be used in the latest batch of playground jokes. ‘Yo momma is such a feminist that she believes in the reproductive rights of others!’ That’s the type of micro-aggression that we (we as in women, God help someone recognises that I’m a feminist) are faced with, which is echoed in Woodley quotes such as “[I’m not a feminist] because I love men, and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance” and “I think that if men went down and women rose to power, that wouldn’t work either. We have to have a fine balance.” suggesting that feminism isn’t supported not because of subtle misogyny but simply because people don’t get it.

Of a handful ladies who have advocated for feminism: Beyoncé, Lily Allen and Miley Cyrus, the former previously didn’t identify as a feminist due to views similar to Woodley’s, Allen is a feminist who thinks that ‘everyone is equal’ (despite the stats stating the glaringly obvious – we’re not) and the latter is all about owning her sexuality and the freedom of her body, yet she advocates for sexual assault in the same breath. And it’s easy enough to say that we should take what we can get in a ‘feminism lite’ kind of way but it’s like walking into hospital with two broken arms and a limp and having the doctors ask you which one – and only one – would you like healed up. No thanks, I’ll take a cast on all of my appendages and my basic human rights to go, if you don’t mind.

It’s a worrying trend, the anti-identity phrasing (granted, you don’t have to identify with q word to believe in it or be it but there are definitely some peculiar reasons why feminism isn’t supported) that’s drawing more than a few questions from pop culture fans. One such fan, named Sophie, pointed out to me that Woodley’s questionable opinions go far beyond thinking that feminist women want all the power for themselves as Woodley supports The Other Women, a new film that is notable for avoiding the majority of women vs women tropes but it’s also “that movie about girls that doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test”. Sophie also noted that Woodley’s insistence on women needing to respect each other (despite slut-shaming and body-shaming both being supported and developed by the patriarchy) “annoys [Sophie] so much because that’s one of the biggest things that people don’t understand even if they support equality”.

Indeed, even the most progressive minds will need a bit of nudging in the right direction but with so called ‘strong women’ films like The Other Women failing the Bechdel Test on account of its several named female characters never once talking to each other once about anything other than a man (the criteria for passing), where on Earth is the right direction going to come from? Well for a start, feminism lite isn’t going to cut it and that means films and media that are empowering to all women – black, white, queer, straight and trans* – and it probably means we need to aim far, far higher than two named women talking about something other than a man. I for one don’t spend every waking moment talking to my friends about men and I suspect that you don’t either so not only is the media we’re seeing today an egregious example of a trope, it’s also not representative of any aspect of what women are actually like.

Another interviewee I spoke to, named Grace Kelly, had some suggestions of where Woodley, and others like her have gone wrong, telling me that “When I first read the quotes, I understood what she was getting at with the whole ‘balance’ thing as opposed to wanting to ‘overthrow men’ but then I realised that that’s what feminism is; it’s about creating a balance in the scales which is not in women’s favour (equal pay etc.) and to suggest that feminism is all about hating men is just idiotic. Sure there are extremists but that’s the same with any ideal/belief. In terms of people not understanding feminism; if you believe women deserve to be treated equally with men then you are a feminist.” Kelly even went on to suggest where the incorrect notions of what feminism is comes from people misinterpreting why the movement started in the first place. “Feminism isn’t about burning bras, it’s about changing perceptions in both men and women”, a viewpoint from Kelly echoed by previous statements from women I interviewed in a previous report.

Perhaps Woodley is an outlier, but she’s a bright enough spark to both garner headlines and to garner headlines suggesting that she is the only spark of her kind. But she’s not. Women around the world of all ages, races and identities are in favour of feminism and I’d also argue that it’s words like Woodley’s and Allen’s and Beyoncé’s previous thoughts on the movement that is harming the numbers of more women gladly sewing the ‘Proud Feminist’ patch onto their jackets. But we need people to be outspoken, to identify with the label even when the patriarchy suggests that they’ll be othered, because the more people talking about feminism the better the picture for women becomes as a whole and, critically, the more that feminists can get done.

Image source

Source(s): TIME (1), (2),NME

Tag Archives: Feminists

Choco Makes Lesbian Reggaeton Music for Feminists