Taking into consideration the first wave of anthemic, erotically charged music in the West, troubadourism, I fail to see how eighties pop rock was in any way offensive to women. All DLR and Stephen Pearcy ever really sang about was how much they worshipped poontang.
test.
ReplyDeleteGood. Yes.
ReplyDeleteBut.
Their worship is wordly: they know that by appearing to worship, they will get laid. i think of most singers the same way, rubbung their stubbly chins and musing, "What can I say that's raw/sweet/emotive/suggestive enough to get some panties dropping?"
From Paul Simon to DLR, from Vince Neil to Jackson Browne, they are all out to woo, and only then get some nonsexual worship. Hell, even good old Levon Helm says as much in The Last Waltz.
Only certain singers are exempt from this rule, to my mind:
Jim Croce
Jeff Buckley
...maybe Cobain.
Those were guys for whom the cookie was just a dessert, a second-order derivative enjoyable only when the first is satisfied: getting buck emotionally naked in front of thousands of people, men and women alike. A pressure valve.
As for women being offended by cock rockers................were they?
It may have been the video imagery (a slice of cherry pie landing in a gal's lap is not an image that even Paglia would apologize for).
it's never particularly pleasant to be reduced to your genitalia. and/or the possibility of access to same.
ReplyDeletethat being said, i don't recall being offended by anything the 80s had to offer -- even "cherry pie" was more silly than anything else. and i still love everything dlr did -- while he still had hair. completely sweet.
and here's the thing: women are well-aware of the agenda. we know what's on tap. this is true even as we're riding the surface of the fantasy. we know.
Worldly and timeless.
ReplyDeleteTaking issue with the motivating virtue behind artistic pursuit is...perplexing. So I'm going to take the obvious route: Where can you find great art (I do believe there was art in all the cock rocking) that isn't preoccupied by the flesh, even from the aforementioned monks of rock? They may have avoided fucking on camera but look at what they wrote, sang, danced, painted ...lived...we are always being reduced to something. And we always have been.
And who's offended? What other path were we to take. Women needed to pass through half shirts, frizzy bangs, neon and Andrew Dice Clay. Less then 50 years earlier we were still hiding our ankles. Naughty, trashy, deliciously tasteless was inevitable.
So, I guess, rub your shiny pink crotches against the camera boys because I'm pretty sure women came out on top. Pun intended.
And we've learned to pluck our eyebrows.
--
absolutely, sara: all art taps the sexual. what always amuses: the male assumption that women aren't in on the joke. when men are described as "worshipping poontang," there's an implicit punch-line -- just not necessarily where the describing party intends it to be.
ReplyDelete"... we are always being reduced to something. And we always have been." This comment plugs into a particularly rich alchemical meme; the philosopher's stone. Accordingly, "reduction" implies a certain passivity whereas the purposeful distillation of our gross humanness into a sort of individuality/authenticity represents a more active, egotistical approach. Therefore I guess it's me (white/male) who is offended by the persistence of the pursuit of cherry pie (and I am simply projecting); so much energy and creativity in pursuit of that obscure object of desire. Do the ends justify the means? (Same goes for professional sports IMO.)
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteLivingstone, offended? The passivity is inherent in the historic cultural memory, not to say that there is not specific memory, intention, will and response. For me, it is too comfortable an idea that without "purposeful distillation" the cherry pie would eventually not be the object(the poor bastard Ego really does get a bad rap). But purposeful or not, I chafe at the implication that the pursuing is wasted time. To me, that smacks of a shame that is, ultimately, more offensive than the objectifying and far less productive. We have wanting to thank for "Much Ado About Nothing", and probably the rest of the folios, the romantic poets, rock and roll...So my question is, when do the ends justify the means?
Let's cut to the chase: deoxyribonucleic acid is an end in an of itself. This entire discussion boils down to ethnicity, issue, and the purity of our precious bodily fluids. Cockblocking is not only interference, it is a crime against God/humanity.
ReplyDeleteRight. Let's not spill the seed. Done. And an excellent diversion. distillation. reduction.
ReplyDeleteHey, Jumpy. Isn't it about time you started in on the sounding smart? And no. This is not cockblocking.
Virgins aren't the greatest sex partners, but you do tend to remember them more keenly. Memories are our ONLY currency as we near the end of our lives. And memories of lovers are, for men and women, precious. So don't cockblock me, or any human, when s/he's trying to bed a newcomer to the realm, because you are robbing that person of one of their final possessions.
ReplyDelete"Sweet cherry pie," croaked the old man as he expired. Why? Because he had good friends.
A cock rocker thinks: Straw woman? Sure, I guess I'd hit that, too.
ReplyDeleteArt and sex: when the sacral chakra spins, it spins both. Someone like Kurt Cobain - who wasn't just a rocker but a writer - will have had his throat chakra spinning hard, too. Pressure's off, second chakra. Weight is shared. The focus tips to art, without abandoning the sex. Pure cock rockers might only feel the spin as sex.
A joy however you slice it.
David Lee Roth is prematurely rolling in his grave at how much we're talking about this. He hopes we at least have a hand down our pants. "What are you pussies yammering on about?!"
And how did pussy become the word for the cowardly? That's hilarious, cock rockers and friends. The flinchier organ is yours. What do we humans do with pain? We bear it. Oh, right.
That said, I do love the word and fully condone its use. Finn will be calling me a pussy before long, undoubtedly. This mouth, I can't do a thing about it.
ReplyDelete