21.05.12
This is my good friend Kate. She writes for hearty magazine too. She also takes pictures. She’s got something to offer the world. Plus, I’d use any excuse to post this photo of Kate with corn rows and a White Lung shirt.
EXTRA HELP
Kate Brown
Monday, May 21st, 2012
“BAD LIKE ME” OR THE BAD GIRL ISSUE OF BUST 1996
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
Life is a bad girl issue
I first came across “Bad Like Me” by Courtney Love when I was a teenager. I was trying to find the infamous 1991 Vanity Fair article on Love (I was deep in my Courtney-Love-Is-God phase) and I came across her sexual power manifesto published in the Spring/Summer 1996 issue of BUST. Jack pot. I was convinced it was magic.
When I first read this essay, my whole idea about my sexual power changed. Forget all the name-dropping, Grammy stuff Love talks about near the end of the article (she might have been high on pills) and pay attention to the messages a teenager would get from this:
“Most bad girls are not as libidinous as good girls. Sex is intrigue – not looks, it’s build-up and mind warping.”
“Bad girls are ‘femmenities’; we like our dark Nars lipstick and LaPerla panties, but we hate sexism, even if we do fuck your husbands/boyfriends.”
“If you are a single girl on the make, I suggest power. You have to work hard to acquire it and no one will help you.”
I remember reading this piece over and over. Her language was frank and had a valley-girl-teenager quality to it. It spoke to me right away. I felt like I was being taught by a way cooler, way older sister who knew it all. “Duh, asshole.” That spoke to me. Love was so unapologetic when it came to infidelity or assertive flirting and so real about the in between areas of stereotypically good looks, sexuality and power. I loved the dichotomy she created between bad girls and good girls and how, when you really laid it out, the bad ones were the good ones and the good ones were bad. I had always wanted to be bad, felt people thought I was bad, but knew I was really good. I had love to give. I had insecurities, but I knew how to hide them under my big bad girl shell. I was a good girl in bad girls clothing hoping no one would ever find out.
Of course, when I read this now I realize new things about it. I do not want to deny the genius of her feminist statements about power, swallowing and faking orgasms (bad girls never fake), but this essay is also about Love having a platform to tell off certain so-called “good girls” she doesn’t like without actually having to tell them all the while asserting her possibly mean actions to said “good girls” as valid. It’s kind of genius actually, because she challenges the “girl code”. I really like it when people challenge “girl code”.
Just read it, and when you do, try to read it from the view of your 18-year-old self. Enjoy.
THINGS (ON THE INTERNET) THAT ARE MAKING ME HAPPY PART 2
Sunday, April 29th, 2012Back in September, I was using the internet heavily. Nothing has changed. I always say that the internet is one of my top favorite places to vacation. So, to continue on with that post from September last year, here it goes. “Things On The Internet That Are Making Me Happy Part 2″.
REAL HOUSEWIVES OF VANCOUVER EAT TIT SOUP
I have wasted a few hours of my life watching Real Housewives of Vancouver. I’m a big fan of Real Housewives of Atlanta (and by “big fan” I mean, I like the one with the wig who gets drunk all the time.) When I’m watching T.V. with my critical-feminist-thinking-hat on, the whole Real Housewives phenomenon bums me out because all it does is reduce the female participants is caddy, uninventive, useless piles of skin who contribute nothing but booze breath to the world. Then again, when I’m hung over and eating home fries off a piece of newspaper, this show acts as the perfect thing for me to scream at. Why do I need to watch these ladies eat lunch at the Cactus Club when I could just go to Yaletown and watch them first hand? Seriously, Cactus Club? The top dish there is, like, tit soup. I thought these “housewives” were boring, but after reading this blog post that Christina “The Gold Digger” wrote about her participation in the show, I think she is onto something.
MEGAN FOX IS ABOUT TO GET FAT
The only girl I’ve ever know who likes Megan Fox as much as I do is Kelly McClure and I’m pretty sure Kelly’s thing with Megan is purely sexual. In fact, I know it is because she wrote about Megan’s looks in her now debunked column “Kelly’s Krush Korner“. I’ve liked Megan Fox ever since she bent over a motorcycle in Transformers and then started talking about her sex life with Brian Green in every interview she did. She’s got this whole Slut-Without-A-Cause thing going on and it works. Recently, it has been rumored that Megan is pregnant. Baby bump with Brian Green’s troll face! Think about it this way, if Megan talks openly about hand jobs, what the hell is she going to say about her pregnancy? “Well, sex is harder because I’m worried Brian might poke the baby’s eye out with his dick or if the fetus is a boy, maybe his dick will touch the baby’s dick?” I wish. I wouldn’t expect any less from Megan because she is the G.G. Allin of girl talk.
“NEW GIRL” THEME SONG
I don’t believe in “guilty pleasure” television or music. When I like something, I like it. No shame. That being said, I like Zooey Deschanel’s sitcom, “New Girl”. I love that show. I come from the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Generation. I can’t help but fall for quirky, sexually charged shows about four single, Los Angeles natives living happily in a loft. As much as I like snuggling up to my Mac Book for a Putlocker session of “New Girl”, it’s the theme song I’m really after. Sometimes (and when I say “sometimes” I mean every single morning) when I walk to work, I sing it in my head and replace “Jess” with “Mish”. I may or may not have done this pose while humming my own name.
GENEROUS VS. ATTRACTIVE OR EVERYONE CAN BE A LEGIT WHORE
It feels like one morning I woke up and the rest of the world was participating in weird pay-for-dates sites like “What’s Your Price“. Have you seen this? Basically, this is a site where you can bid on dates with people in your region. Not only is it a way for people to meet their life mate but they can make a little extra dough doing it! Cute bombs! When you sign up for the site, you must classify yourself as a “generous user” or an “attractive user”. Generous Users bid on dates while Attractive Users says how much a date with them is worth. Surprise! Generous Users are almost all men while Attractive Users are almost all women. The CEO of WhatsYourPrice.com was aware that people might think this is a little close to prostiution, so he had a disclaimer:
“When capitalism is mixed in with dating, all of a sudden people start concluding “it must be prostitution”. But does paying money for a cup of coffee every morning mean Starbucks is engaging in prostitution? Does paying for gas every time you fill up at the gas station mean that Mobil or BP is pimping? Does donating money to the Church every Sunday morning equate religion to prostitution? Obviously NOT, and obviously buying a First Date isn’t either.”
This site is weird and fucked up and wrong in a lot of ways. On the other hand, if I knew this was what the adult dating world would reduce itself to in 2012, I would have started charging for hand jobs in high school, at least I’d have RRSP’s by now.
MISH X MICHELLE + GRIMES
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012Check out the new issue of Color for my interview with Claire Boucher of Grimes. Photography by my living conscious and best friend Michelle Ford. Collaborating with friends (and making money doing it) is, like, the perfect cookie.
PHLO FINISTER: THE OUTTAKES
Friday, March 30th, 2012
Photo outtake by Hayden Shiebler
I recently did a feature on my favorite R&B up-and-comer, Phlo Finister. The piece turned out beautifully, but so much of the conversation between Phlo and I didn’t make the cut. Here’s some of the little bits that you missed (and you really shouldn’t have).
It’s a really cool merge that you are doing taking this mod 1960’s fashion with R&B music.
Exactly, but that’s why it ties into the lifestyle because of the fashion of it! That totally inspires my music. I want to cross over into a rock n’ roll genre. My lifestyle is more rock n’ roll than my music. It’s the fashion of it. I’m living it. I’m not just emulating or copying anyone. I stay true to that.
What do you love so much about mod fashion?
I love all the girls with the mod make-up like Edie Sedgewick. They were all so different but they were in a movement together, that is what I really like about it. The 60’s mod fashion was very proper. I liked that the women didn’t have to take off their clothes to be sexy. Classy but sexy. It was pretty clothes verses no clothes.
You want to redirect the way sexuality is seen in women’s fashion?
Exactly. You are on point.
That’s a hard thing to do. I think it’s interesting the way that you are developing your image. I love how your style is in contrast to your music.
Even if I’m wearing baggy jeans and Tommy Hilfigher or a cute jump suit, there are similarities there. I have clothes on. I am projecting style. I make music according to fashion trends, the trends that I feel are going to be important to music because fashion and music are so close together.
How do fashion and music merge in your world?
I see them as something that connects. I’m always forecasting and looking for that next thing in fashion that is going to change the sound of music. Okay, so you have popular music, down town thing, the whole Andy Warhol thing, the 15 minutes theory of that era and all these different artists then you have the classic 90’s where women were dressing more androgynous and singing from a male perspective… it was because of the clothes they were wearing in my opinion.
Is it really important for you to keep your femininity?
Yes, I’m a woman. I speak for women and I speak for the youth. It’s important, as you said, to change the way sexuality is perceived. As a woman, I need to be feminine, classy, on point about the way I look and feel because there are going to be young girls who are going to look up to me.
You just seem as fearless to me. Does anything scare you?
[Hesitates]
You can say nothing if you want.
The only thing that scares me is waking up and realizing that I am famous.
Really?
Yeah. That’s scary to me… becoming an icon. What if I can’t maintain or handle that?
It’s a big role.
You become like a God. I don’t think I ever imagine myself that way, because you can’t turn back after that. Like, okay this is my job and I’m famous and that’s it. Once you are known, you are known. Once you get it you live it and that scares me. I think what scares me most is that you can’t turn back and you just have to ride it out.
I did an interview with Joan Rivers and she said to me that anyone who thinks of themselves as an icon is an idiot.
It’s true!
Yes, but there is also a massive weight that is put on your shoulders because people look up to you and you have to respect that. It’s a balance.
Some people don’t give a shit. They think they are famous and can say and do whatever they want. You have to come out of yourself for a moment and look at yourself and realize how much your position affects change. One word, one song can affect things. People need to be a bit more responsible. People think too, like… if you don’t give a fuck then people want to be like you and they won’t give a fuck too. You have to care, be humble and deal with success.
All photos by Hayden Shiebler
WHITE LUNG IN NYC IN APRIL
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
I play in a band called White Lung. I'm an editor at hearty and I have a column in VICE called "The Waste Coast". Read more of me at mishway.com
