In a recent interview with Q magazine, vocalist and guitarist for Warpaint Theresa Wayman had some choice comments for Beyoncé and Rihanna. She said that Rihanna “could have done something so much more soulful and artful” with her talent than the career which she has pursued, and criticized Queen Bey for “basically looking like a slut” in the videos for her new album, especially ‘Drunk In Love’. She seemed exasperated about the attitude of feminism towards such behaviour, bemoaning the fact that “they all take it as women’s liberation”.
As the majority of people doubtless realize, these comments fall within the misogynist practice popularly termed ‘slut-shaming’. Beyoncé, so the story goes, is reclaiming her sexuality and using it to empower herself. The assumption that she is a victim just because she isn’t wearing very many clothes is demeaning to both Beyoncé herself and women everywhere. And this is OK so far as it goes.
It would be difficult to argue that Beyoncé, or indeed Rihanna, is not in a position of power. She’s had numerous best-selling albums, she is the highest-paid African American artist of all time, she is involved in her own fashion line, she heads a whole host of charitable ventures, and she runs her own label (having significantly severed business ties with her father, who controlled Destiny’s Child, in 2010). Of course Beyoncé’s use of her sexuality in her music videos and live performances does not constitute victimhood. She chooses how to appear in her videos and reaps the rewards.
But we should not dismiss out of hands the comments of Theresa Wayman, who is in a pioneering all-female band characterized by its feminist leanings. Warpaint occupy a wonderful position as an indie band entirely made up of women in a genre mostly populated by groups that consist of four lads enthusiastically playing their instruments, jumping around stage like they’re Dave Grohl’s kid brothers and spending all their parents’ money on expensive UK tours as soon as they leave public school.
And Wayman’s comments highlight what is an important thing to consider in the modern music industry. There is a dramatic disparity between the presentation of men and the presentation of women in modern music, especially in the modern phenomenon of the music video.
Labels and production companies in the music industry are overwhelmingly dominated by men. According to Creative & Cultural Skills, the gender divide across all music industry related jobs is 67.8% male to 32.2% female. A survey in 2012 by the Association of Independent Music showed that only 15% of labels are majority-owned by women. A host of other statistics show that women consistently earn less than their male counterparts.
Sexism appears to be rife in the industry, with Canadian artist and feminist icon Grimes posting on Tumblr last year, saying “I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even accomplished musicians continually offering to ‘help me out’ (without being asked), as if I did this by accident and I’m gonna flounder without them”. Other artists who have spoken out against sexism in the industry include Marina & the Diamonds, Solange Knowles and M.I.A.
While it is not OK to call Beyoncé a slut, we ought to remember that this is not a black-and-white issue. It is difficult to separate the male gaze from music videos which involve beautiful women wearing very few clothes, especially when those videos are paid for, produced and directed by men. After all, let us not forget that one of the most popular songs of last year featured in its music video semi-naked women posing next to the suited and booted stars of the track: the music industry’s most recent villains Thicke and Williams.
Warpaint themselves work within a sexist system, and it is inevitable that the frustration at the constant marginalization that they must experience would be exacerbated if they perceived other prominent women in the industry as ‘letting the side down’. Wayman’s comments are misplaced, but they are not to be ignored.
