Let's Talk About Sechs

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"Isn't sex the point of pop?" asks the Lex. I dunno about the point, maybe a point, but is there really a lot of sexy pop around? (And what would that mean anyway?)

I have (I think!) enabled ANONYMOUS COMMENTS on this post if anyone would like to use em. No, I haven't, ignore that bit.

Comments

Re: My 2p

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Good point! A large number of women seem to assume men are attracted by the kind of lass you see in FHM. Though the evil part of me thinks that if they're that dumb they deserve to feel miserable about themselves.

Re: My 2p

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

But don't most women go overboard with the obsessing-over-weight thing for other women? In a kind of weird competitive thing? I dunno, sleb bodies may make them feel shit but most of the women I know seem to manage to have a fairly healthy attitude towards their weight, sleb culture etc despite all of this. I don't think I know anyone who's consumed to the point of madness by trying to attain the perfect figure.

We're veering away from the topic but what the hell I could do with a rant

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

No - only a very few girls will go absolutely bonkers over their body image, it's usually just an ongoing background miserableness. It's also a fairly taboo subject - if a girl says "boo hoo am I fat?" then NO-ONE will say "yes, you're fat" unless they want to be 'nasty'. Even if they ARE fat! You have to be immensely tactful. Even if you're naturally skinny like me then you are almost made to feel guilty about not having to worry about being fat! I wonder how many girls have just read the words 'naturally skinny' and instantly thought "oooh, the lucky cow"? [This is one of my gripes, arggh, sorry.] Despite being a healthy weight, insecure girls will still ask the question, not believe the answer, decide to lose a stone, fail and feel miserable. Repeat. I'm not having a go at anyone for being insecure, quite the opposite - I'm angry at this unwritten rule that losing weight is the be-all and end-all of body image.

Lex I'd hazard a guess that the women you know are either intelligent enough to ignore all the bollocks/very well adjusted - or they just don't talk about it. Do any lady poptimists want to back me up/set me straight here? What about you chaps out there?

Re: We're veering away from the topic but what the hell I could do with a rant

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I don't really have a coherent thought other than the question of looks (attractiveness, ugliness, desire) is a huge half-buried problem in most progressive conversations or scenes (totally including indie).

eg as a fat bloke I feel excluded from images of the perfect male bod as peddled by FHM etc. But I feel even MORE excluded from and resentful of images of more androgynous male beauty eg. emo boyz, Bowie clones, japanese boybands etc. - because those already represent a challenge for the 'power dynamic' of male attractiveness but it's a challenge that STILL manages to leave me out.

Now when I say "excluded from and resentful of" it's a minor niggle rather than a neurosis - I yam what I yam and at 34 most of my emotional body image scars have long healed over (also I'm used to being a tubbo which will give me an advantage when mid-life crisis hits my male peers!). But it's an example of how confusing the whole area is.

Re: My 2p

[sbp.livejournal.com]

In my life I've known two or three girls who really were bulimic. I can't say what all the contributing factors were. But this was both in the '80s and the '00s, so I don't even know if anything's changed.