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He hit me and it felt like a kiss He hit me and I knew he loved me If he didn't care for me I could have never made him mad But he hit me and I was glad

A verse from a sickening love song? Confusing love with violence? Misogynist? Antifeminist? This song, “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)” was written by Carole King and (then husband) Gerry Goffin, and released in 1962. It was sung by the chart topper female singers of the era, the Crystals, and produced by Phil Spector—considered by some as one of the geniuses of the music industry. Was the song’s theme a reflection of its times, when there was less understanding about domestic violence? Not really. In fact, after the song was released and had gotten airplay, protests soon emerged causing the song to lose radio promotion. King herself later even declared her regret over her involvement in the song.

The idea of the song came from a conversation with the couple's babysitter, Little Eva, who became a singer and had a big, albeit brief, success with the song “The Loco-Motion” (which King and Goffin wrote for her the same year). King and Goffin realized that Little Eva (her real name, Eva Boyd) was being beaten by her boyfriend regularly. However, Eva believed that his violent actions toward her were an expression, and even proof, of his love for her, using the controversial phrase as she explained to King and Goffin; hence, the title and lyrics of the song.

As controversial as the phrase in the song is, other artists have covered the song. Notably, Hole has covered the song and performed it on MTV Unplugged in 1995, where lead singer, Courtney Love introduced the song as “a really sick song” (but Hole chose to cover it, I assume they have a deeper perspective about the song). At the end of the song, she sarcastically commented, “Nice feminist anthem.”

Still, I beg the question, is “He Hit Me” really a sick song?

Lana Del Rey used the line “He hit me and it felt like a kiss” in her 2014 song “Ultraviolence” (as a reference to the song, as she typically references lines from other songs). This has brought some vicious criticism, accusing her of glamorizing domestic violence and setting women back hundreds of years. In response, Del Rey stated, “I’ve been honest about the challenging relationships I’ve had. That’s just how it is for many women.” She also argued, “There has to be a place in feminism for women who look and act like me … the kind of women who get their own stories and voices taken away from them by stronger women or by men who hate women.”

However, Del Rey had said in an interview that she now omits the line during performances of ‘Ultraviolence’ for the reason that it could be triggering for survivors of abuse in the audience.

Still, I beg the question, is “He Hit Me” really a sick song? Was King and Goffin so distasteful in writing such a song? Is it Antifeminist? Was Del Rey using the controversial phrase to create a distorted image of violence against women?

Well, if we think about it, King and Goffin, just as Del Rey, were telling a story through their song by reflecting on a situation or experience, and revealed a snapshot of reality through their lyrics. Certainly, that’s what artists and writers do through their work. It does not always mean it is an endorsement, on the contrary, it can be a critique of society, as we know many artists and writers do this.

There should be a space for survivors to voice themselves, not a platform for others to dictate the narrative.

In reality, many women and survivors of gender-based violence have confusing emotions about what they are experiencing or have experienced because of the society that we are raised in, where women are treated like property; where ownership of the female in heterosexual relationships is romanticized as love.

I think the last verse of the song illustrates my point.

Yes, he hit me and it felt like a kiss He hit me and I knew I loved him And then he took me in his arms With all the tenderness there is And when he kissed me, he made me his

There should be a space for survivors to voice themselves, not a platform for others to dictate the narrative. We praise Gisèle Pelicot for owning the narrative and deconstructing the shame of rape. Nevertheless, empowerment is a complicated process. We cannot turn a blind eye on or shame and blame survivors for how they feel.

(Looks like this is my last post for 2024 on this blog, Happy New Year!)

-Some Thoughts from the Cappuccino Girl- (2024)

#music #gender

You might be interested to read: FEMICIDE: Crimes of Passion, Honor, and War

Image: Lana Del Rey by Nicole Nodland (theguardian.com, 2012)
(updated 2 January 2025)
Sources:
Taysom, Joe (2022) 'The controversial lyric Lana Del Rey now refuses to sing.' Far Out Magazine. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/controversial-lyric-lana-del-rey-refuses-to-sing/ [Accessed 2 June 2024].
Wikipedia (2024) He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=He_Hit_Me_(And_It_Felt_Like_a_Kiss) [Accessed 31 December 2024].
Wikipedia (2024) Little Eva. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Eva [Accessed 31 December 2024].

It’s exaggeration and mockery that goes beyond sarcasm, specifically posed on the feminine. It tells the story of the ugly and morbid sometimes with a hint of wit. It may sound fictitious but at the same time exposes what has shaped reality. It expresses what the “truth” could not capture. It is poetry, parody, tragedy, agony, anguish, and irony; all combined to shock conventions and empower the marginalized. It is called Gurlesque.

Mocking and Celebrating the Female

She looks like the Sunday comics She thinks she's Brenda Starr Her nose job is real atomic All she needs is an old knife scar

Who remembers this punkish pop late 70’s song from Blondie? It tells a girl vs. girl tongue-in-cheek story, you know, like when the popular girls in school compete against each other. The ref goes like this:

Yeah, she's so dull, come on rip her to shreds She's so dull, come on rip her to shreds

And that is the title of the song, “Rip Her to Shreds”. It’s a comical take on how women mock each other in rivalry. The next verse goes on to describe this reality in a parody fashion:

Oh, you know her, “Miss Groupie Supreme” Yeah, you know her, “Vera Vogue” on parade Red eye shadow! Green mascara! Yuck! She's too much

In a BBC interview, Deborah Harry, the lead singer of Blondie and who also co-wrote this song with band member, Chris Stein, said that the song was actually about what gossip columns do to people’s lives.

This suggests that the song is a reflection of how the media portray women and influence the readers’ perception about women. The song reflects this reality through exaggeration of the female experience and by depicting it in its extreme. What you get is a tune that is tastefully sarcastic, funny and fun at the same time. Even more fun as Debbie sang it with an in-your-face feminine tone, and when performed live, with a badass grrrl attitude that was not yet popular in the 1970s. Thus, ironically, this narrative of female stereotyping which demeans women has brought the female experience from the margins to the center.

Now fast forward to the 80’s, an era where female solo artists, bands, and band leaders were slowly emerging. An anthem of female celebration had hit the charts in 1984—a cover song, “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, sung by a quirky red Mohawk female vocalist, Cyndi Lauper, which was released a year earlier. This was timely as this was when pop videos were the music industry’s new trend and youths were glued to MTV, thus amplifying the song’s message to youngsters through visualization. The storyline of the song’s video centers around Cyndi walking home under the morning light in last night’s gown and telling her parents that “girls just wanna have fun”.

I come home in the morning light my mother says when you gonna live your life right Oh mother dear we're not the fortunate ones And girls they want to have fun Oh girls just want to have fun

And in another verse of the song:

Some boys take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world I want to be the one to walk in the sun....

Afterwards in the video, Cyndi and her female friends come together in one frame, singing “girls just wanna have fun” and later they are marching and dancing in the streets with male onlookers, some even joining them, creating the narrative that women as a collective are changing values.

The song does not explicitly talk about discrimination or equal rights or anything else as such, but just the simple message that women, like men, are entitled to enjoy their lives (have fun). The video illustrates this in a comical and parody manner just as the way the singer presents herself in a comical, playful female—sometimes self-mockery—image, quite different to the typical sexualized female representation promoted by the music industry.

Interestingly, the song was originally penned by male songwriters Robert Hazard and Lolly Vegas and was intentionally written from a male perspective. Cyndi changed parts of the lyrics and the sound, shifting the narrative and turning it into a female empowerment anthem.

The 90s: Gurelsque and Grunge

Fast forward again, now to the 90s. This era not only saw the emergence of more female musicians, but also a different way of representing women through music and fashion. In pop culture, women wearing leather and jeans or unisex attire had been typically associated with female autonomy and independence. In contrast, the 90s popularized babydoll-like dresses that had begun resurfacing in the 80s.

Babydoll dresses were typically associated with femininity, but the 90s had given them a whole new meaning in expressing female sexuality. Not only because the skimpy babydoll attire was worn with masculine boots, but because the new babydoll mixed the pure with the profane, vulnerability with empowerment, and the virgin with the whore. Not surprisingly this babydoll version of the 90s was subsequently known as the “kinderwhore dress”, which was made fashionable by female rock musicians, particularly in the grunge scene.

... the new babydoll mixed the pure with the profane, vulnerability with empowerment, and the virgin with the whore.

During the same time, a new poetics had emerged—the Gurelsque—which was employed by majorly female writers and poets who used parody and mockery to describe the female experience. This form of poetry and writing disrupts traditional values about the feminine by transforming femininity in its extreme into subversiveness that challenges the power structures. This decade also saw the birth of Third Wave Feminism which principles (such as diversity, inclusiveness, and intersectionality), resonate with Gurlesque aesthetics. Gurlesque was initially used to describe a form of poetics, but it has then been expanded to other forms of arts such as music, although probably unintentionally by the songwriters as Gurlesque was a term initially created by scholars.

Gurlesque (later also known as New Grrly Poetics) was first coined by American feminist poets and scholars Arielle Greenberg and Lara Glenum to describe a new female poetics that emerged in the turn of the millennium. However, there are earlier writers commonly associated with Gurlesque, such as Sylvia Path and Gertude Stein. Moreover, Gurlesque is influenced by other forms of arts which arose further back in history.

... Gurlesque ... challenges what is considered normal or natural in relation to society’s norms on gender and femininity by using mockery and ridicule ...

The word Gurlesque derives from girl culture, burlesque, and grotesque. Burlesque (Italian—burla: joke, ridicule, mockery) is a musical and theatrical parody popular in early 17th century Europe. Initially, grotesque is a term used in literature and drama to describe something strange or unusual, but generally it describes something comical, ugly, distorted, bizarre, or shockingly and disturbingly inappropriate. Combine these with girl culture, then you get Gurlesque—an artistic expression which challenges what is considered normal or natural in relation to society’s norms on gender and femininity by using mockery and ridicule, and by transforming these norms into a different feminine culture that may appear bizarre, ugly, and disturbingly unacceptable to society.

In the 90s, Gurlesque was attributed to female solo artists or bands led by female musicians, particularly in grunge, a genre which emerged on the onset of the 90s. Hole, the grunge band led by main songwriter Courtney Love, and particularly their album “Live Through This” (1994), is regarded as displaying Gurlesque features in its compositions, such as lyrical expressions of morbidness. The songs in this album, which almost all were co-written with lead guitarist and band co-founder, Eric Erlandson, are generally considered to represent feminist themes—the experiences of unjust women endure in society through female objectification, sexual violence, motherhood, and personal relationships. These themes are in line with Third Wave Feminism that rose in the same decade.

Live Through This album cover (Wikipedia)

The cover of the “Live Through This” album is a good example of what would be called Gurlesque art by those who use the term. The cover shows a woman with a blondish feathered haircut wearing a beauty queen crown. Her smudged eye make-up almost running down her cheeks due to tears of joy, her wide gaping smile and her arms tightly embracing a bouquet all display a sense of eerie exaggeration, mockery, and ugliness. It’s a parody of what it means to be beautiful in a male-dominated society—the tragedy of being female. The album cover is now an icon of the grunge decade and of Hole as one of the best grunge bands. The iconic cover and the album’s songs are also celebrated for their feminist symbolism and as the legacy of an era.

Gurlesque: Challenging Power through Subversiveness

Gurlesque was a term used in the 90s by feminist scholars, arising from their observation of the arts and literature during this decade that employed the use of girl culture, burlesque, and grotesque to describe the female experience. Nonetheless, the essence of Gurlesque can be found earlier in the works of a few (song)writers, poets, and artists. Gurlesque serves as an awakening and resistance as it transforms femininity into a form of subversiveness that challenges the power structures which oppress women as a social class.

Gurlesque continues to find its relevance in the 2000s, where a number of poets are associated with this form of poetry. You can check out some of their works published in the book, Gurlesque: the new grrly, grotesque, burlesque poetics (Lara Glenum and Arielle Greenberg, eds.).

-Some Thoughts from the Cappuccino Girl- (2024)

#music #subculture

Top image: Courtney Love in a babydoll dress performing with her band, Hole (Pinterest)
Sources
Cooper, Sabrina (2019) 'The Story Behind Hole’s Iconic Live Through This Album Cover.' AnOthermag.com. https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/11646/the-story-behind-hole-s-iconic-live-through-this-album-cover-ellen-von-unwerth. Accessed June 15 2024.
Oliva, Melanie (2016) 'What Is Gurlesque Poetry? A third wave of feminism, sexuality, and femininity revisited.' The Odyssey Online. https://www.theodysseyonline.com/gurlesque-poetry. Accessed 1 May 2024.
Volpert, Megan (2024) 'The enduring feminist legacy of Hole: 30 years later, must we still “Live Through This”?' Salon.com. https://www.salon.com/2024/04/11/hole-live-through-this-courtney-love/. Accessed 23 April 2024.
Videos
Cyndi Lauper YouTube Channel (2009) Girls Just Want To Have Fun (Official Video). https://youtu.be/PIb6AZdTr-A?si=KQIzN6OcWs4FwpXT. Accessed 17 June 2024.
Warmer Music Videos YouTube Channel (2016) Blondie – Rip Her To Shreds (Live). https://youtu.be/b18RIMN5NBg?si=eJpk4FsZ-wlBk7KM. Accessed 17 June 2024.

Dark, gloomy, with a dash of horror. That is how Goth literature is mostly described. Looking back, Goth gave the stage to medieval women writers challenging the norms of the day. Centuries later, Goth grew into a subculture in the music genre, the fashion world, and as a way of life that represents nonconformity. This element of nonconformity in Goth, often romanticized as being dark feminine energy, has continued to evolve to this day in pop culture, in clubs, in the life lived by today’s Goth generation.

As a literary genre, Goth came out of the post-Romanticism era in medieval England. Some say it is a subgenre of Dark Romanticism. Classic Goth features dark romance with a damsel in distress in a remote, gloomy castle in the mountains, waiting to be rescued.

If we take a look at what, or rather who, the term Goth referred to, we will see that it referred to a Germanic tribe which were responsible for the fall of Western Rome. The ancient Goths, called the barbarians by the Romans, invaded Rome and weakened Roman culture. Their kingdoms rose after the demise of the Western Roman Empire. The two branches of the tribe, the Visigoth and Ostrogoth, where its people were believed to have originated from Scandinavia, paved the way for the rise of medieval Europe while spreading Goth culture. The term Goth was then generally used to describe a style of medieval architecture that was popular in the 12th to 16th centuries. The castles typically featured masonry pointed arches and stained-glass windows—the epitome of Goth architecture.

So how did this medieval genre with its signature chivalry trope turn into a subculture of rebellion and nonconformity?

The medieval setting in literature characterized by remote castles, mystery, and terror with romantic overtones were known as Goth because of its association with medieval architectural type of settings. The first novel to be called gothic was one given such name by the author himself. Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, published in 1764 was the first gothic novel, where he used the subtitle, “A Gothic Story.” He used the term to describe something barbarous and medieval. Other novels following this style of dark and medieval setting with the damsel in distress trope have since been labeled Gothic.

So how did this medieval genre with its signature chivalry trope turn into a subculture of rebellion and nonconformity?

Although it is one of the most classic forms of patriarchy in literature, Goth in fact gave rise to women writers and more women readers. The genre emerged at a time when women’s literacy in England was on the rise as well as the educated middle-class. Women began to write and more were reading. Ann Radcliffe is considered to be the first Goth female writer; her first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dubnayne (1789), was written anonymously. Then she rose to fame and fortune with four more novels during her lifetime. This was an important moment in history as it was around the time Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Although Radcliffe's writing still leaned towards the patriarchal values of the time, over the years, Goth evolved as more women authors began to create less traditional female characters and thus began the conversation of patriarchal oppression and social change.

Radcliffe herself bore the label of being anti-Catholic because her novel The Italian (1797) portrayed elements of Catholicism negatively. Later female Goth authors, such as Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, and Mary Shelley would challenge gender roles and raise issues concerning subjugation, class, and female autonomy through their female characters.

Siouxsie Sioux (Pinterest)

Centuries later, in the music scene, Goth rock became a genre that embraces this attitude of dark fearlessness. This genre is marked by its poetic lyrics that romanticize darkness with themes of nihilism, sadness, pain, and death presented by haunting vocals, heavy basslines, and distorted melodies with an ambience of gloom. Well, of course this is a generalized description, however, the dark music and style of Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cocteau Twins are often used as typical examples of Goth music and fashion, whether the bands like it or not.

Gothic rock emerged during the post-Punk era in late 70s Britain with Joy Division and Bauhaus considered as pioneers. The genre flourished throughout the 80s, and then further evolved in the 90s and 2000s. To go with the music, Gothic fashion reflected the dark mood with its trademark black attire, dark hair and makeup, and often androgynous appearance. However, dark eye makeup aside, Nico (German singer-songwriter, once of the Velvet Underground) with her proto-Goth sound is the godmother of Goth rock.

Women found their voice through Goth literature in 18th century England and women authors used it as a means to express critique of the society they lived in. Because of the famous Gothic women writers and their nonconforming narratives, Goth is associated with women’s equality and modern-day feminism. Fans of Gothic novels will find a somewhat wide range of this literature penned by female authors today.

Interestingly, centuries after the emergence of female-penned classic Goth literature, out of Goth rock emerged a new female image of feminine rebellion and empowerment. Earlier, the punk era saw more women playing in bands. However, during post-Punk, we saw the rise of a few female icons in Goth rock, like Siouxsie herself, and they were definitely no damsel in distress.

Goth is not just a literary or music genre or even fashion trend.

Fashion-wise, Goth faded in the 90s but like the cycle of fashion that repeats itself, Goth has re-emerged—sometimes called Neo-Goth for ditching the black dress code—but still maintains the dark feminine energy that fuels Goth-girl power. Examples are in today’s popular TV series, such as Wednesday, or Goth clubs in different parts of the world.

Goth is not just a literary or music genre or even fashion trend, although it may be for some. Goth actually represents a way of life that is, according to its followers, founded on equality and values outside established norms. Today’s Goth generation tries to live a life of freethinking and sexual freedom founded on a gender egalitarianism which was considered lacking in previous subcultures. Although today’s Goth subculture is post-feminist, it nevertheless faces the struggle of achieving inclusivity and ousting heterosexist norms. The revolution goes on!

-Some Thoughts from the Cappuccino Girl- (2023)

#Goth #gothic #Gothliterature #Gothrock #Gothfashion #music #feminism #gender #subculture

You might be interested to read: Who Were the Mods? Modernism and Paris After the War Check out my other blog, Some Thoughts from the Cappuccino Girl for topics on gender and history.

Top Image: Rob Oo (Wikimedia)
Sources:
Darya (2018) ‘What the Hell Is Goth Music? Brief History of Goth Rock.’ Miss Mephistopheles. https://missmephistopheles.wordpress.com/2018/07/20/where-the-hell-did-goth-music-come-from-and-what-the-hell-is-it-the-history-of-goth-rock/ (Accessed 19 July 2023).
Jarus, Owen (2022) livescience.com. https://www.livescience.com/45948-ancient-goths.html (Accessed 19 July 2023).
Ledoux, Ellen (n.d.) ‘The Female Gothic: From the Second-Wave to Post-Feminism.’ Atmostfear Entertainment. https://www.atmostfear-entertainment.com/literature/books/female-gothic-second-wave-post-feminism/ (Accessed 20 August 2023).
Wilkins, Amy C. (2004) '“So Full of Myself as a Chick”: Goth Women, Sexual Independence, and Gender.' Gender and Society, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 328–349. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4149405 (Accessed 19 August 2023).

Music and fashion in our pop culture eventually become a regular part of our life because we hear, wear, or see them every day. We tend to forget that some pop cultures first started out as a subculture or even a counterculture. In fact, if we look back in history many trends were actually a response to the social, political, and economic environment. Many of course started as a youth lifestyle characterized by the music and fashion youths strongly identified with.

During the 50’s in the UK, a new urban youth culture called the mod (from the word modern, because the youths were into modern jazz) began to emerge. Like other social or cultural changes that have happened in the past, coffee houses were also an important part of the mod social setting. The mods would cruise around the city at night on their scooters and hang out in coffee houses where they listened to jazz and ska out of a jukebox—popular music genres of postwar Britain.

The mods had a distinct style and were very fashion conscious. Influenced by French and Italian art films, these youngsters wore tight suits and pointed shoes. The mods came from urban working-class communities who, because of better economic conditions and job opportunities after the Second World War, were able to live a somewhat consumptive lifestyle of fashion and staying out at night. Buying clothes was an important part of the mod lifestyle, where mods spent most of their wage.

Mod women popularized androgynous fashion by wearing masculine leather jackets as they rode their scooters through the night. Women were quite visible in the mod culture. As working women, their economic independence allowed them to adopt the mod lifestyle.

At a glance, the mod lifestyle may appear to have no political relevance, but it was a political statement in itself: a rebellion against the conventional postwar English life of hard work and conformity. The youths felt that the values their parents held did not get them anywhere better.

In the swinging 60s, the mod style became a trend in London’s center of fashion, Carnaby Street, and overnight the fashion industry launched Twiggy as a mod fashion icon. Likewise in the music scene, mod was the buzzword and new rock bands, such as The Who and The Small Faces, identified as mods. David Bowie also sported the Mod look. Once a counterculture, mod became commercialized and turned into pop culture.

The mods later evolved into the skinheads. These original skinheads had reggae and ska on their jukebox playlist, and were a mixed-ethnic group of working class youngsters; quite different from what would be commonly associated with the skinheads of today.

Fashion and music associated with mods experienced a series of revivals, especially in the ‘80s. Rather than being too fashion conscious, the mods of this era took a lot more interest in political issues. Such is the case with bands like The Jam and The Style Council who sported the mod look.

Nice to see that mod-influenced fashion is still present today, although unrelated to what mod had stood for and only reminiscence of the rebellion the counterculture once inspired.

-Some Thoughts from the Cappuccino Girl- (2019)

You might be interested to read: The Rise and Fall of the Rockers and the Mods https://wordsmith.social/cappuccinogirl/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-rockers-and-the-mods

#Mods #history #music #UK #fashion