I'll admit it. I love American Idol. I watched it since the second season, and I've been to two American Idol Lives concerts. It's almost scary. But I haven't let my love for American Idol cloud my heterosexism radar. That's still very much intact. It beeps extra loud when performers change gender pronouns to connote a heterosexual relationship.
Two examples of this come to mind, and in my opinion, the performance suffered from the change of lyrics. Last season, Syesha Mercado sang "Me and Mrs. Jones," a really great song. But she changed "Mrs." to "Mr." Yesterday, Casey Carlson sang "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic," which is one of my favorite songs by The Police. She changed "she" to "he." Also yesterday, Anoop Desai (my favorite contestant so far) sang "Angel of Mine" by Monica and changed all the "boys" to "girls."
Come on. We all know these aren't their own songs. They're singing someone else's song and should sing the lyrics that the original performer sang. If it sparks any rumors about their sexuality, who cares? The only people who would make that leap are idiots whose opinion don't matter. Are these contestants really that insecure and afraid?
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Song Lyrics, American Idol, and Heteronormativity.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/12036
I can kind of see the argument that the song lyrics were changed so that the singer, being whatever sexual orientation they are, identify with original singer so they can pour whatever true emotion they have into the song.
But, I could also see how singing a song with real heart and feeling from a perspective different from your own would show some acting and showmanship talent, too.
I always like when songs play with gender. For example, "I Could Never Be Your Woman" as sung by a man. Also, Sarah McLachsn's "Aida," sung from the perspective of someone in love with a woman. There's also Nick Cave's duet of a man and a woman that Cave gets another man to sing with him. It just makes it a little more interesting, IMO.
Singing love songs originally written by a person of another gender is innately gender-bending. Because songs are part of entertainment, which always holds elements of method acting, one must, according to the rules of method acting, convince her/himself about their act in order to convince the audience. Thus, if you identify as a "straight female" and desire to sing a sexually-charged love song directed toward another female, you sorta have to begin the process of jumping out of your identity and into anOTHER identity. Talk about a scary place for heteronormatives, i.e. otherness.
ps your username made me piss my pants.
Naah, I don't mind. My last band covered "All Day And All Of The Night" by The Kinks, and I changed "girl" in the lyrics to "boy" - "Boy/I want/to be with you..." etc. It worked for me because a) I had a specific he in my mind when I sang it, despite performing to a whole audience, and b)I like the idea of a female gaze, and the male being the one admired and desired, the female expressing her desire without shame. Also changed Pink Floyd's "Dirty Woman" to "I Need A Dirty Tranny" (shrug) Trannies are hot.
But mostly we performed original material.
I think that's a well thought-out reason for changing the lyrics. I just think that American Idol is trying to be family entertainment and have a squeaky clean image, and I think they see anything less than totally straight as a threat to this image.
The "trannies are hot" bit seems a bit objectifying, or is it just me?
I think it depends on the context. The history of sexism and misogyny in this country would make a "she's hot" type comment from the mouth of a man sound objectifying to me. However, I frequently hear this expression used in the LGBTQ community. i.e. lesbians who say "wow, she's hot" or "that's hot"...and indeed, I myself have said this to women and have had this said about me as well (both to no offense). Perhaps it's a cultural thing within the community. IDK why, But it has never bothered me when used in the LGBTQ community/queer context, however it does bother me when coming from the mouth of a man (in reference to a woman).
Regarding use of the word "tranny" Again, I think use of these types of words all depend on the context. For example - I frequently will call myself a "dyke" or "flaming lesbo" and whatnot...LGBTQers also may refer to each other as "queer", "tranny", "dyke", "fag" and whatnot. However, it would be extremely offensive, if say another person were to use those words in order to insult us. i.e. There was this guy who tried to flirt me, I rejected him/told him to stop - however, when he pressed me as to "why", I told him that I'm not attracted to men. So he went off on a big homophobic rant: "dyke" this and "bush muncher" that. Obviously insulting. However, I don't think all usage of these types of words are necessarily offensive...I just think it depends on the context, intent, and who is using them.
I'm a singer and I hate when people expect you to change the gender of the subject of a song, or get miffed when you don't. I always try to stay true to what the original song intended.
A) People should be able to understand that a cover song is not written by the performer.
B) My orientation isn't anyone's business, and people shouldn't assume anything one way or the other based on some lyrics.
C)TheYoungVote said something about getting out of your identity and instead identifying with the songwriter or the "character" (for my own lack of a better word) of a song. It's totally true. When I sing about a she, I think about a she. When I sing about a boy, I think about a boy. That's what performing is.
What really bothers me, is that after the contestant who sang "Every Little Thing She Does", the other female judge, I forget her name, (not Paula), told her that she should sing something more 'girly'. She said the same thing to another female contestant as well. So girls should stick to singing songs that are 'girly'. And apparently, they should dress ideally 'girly' as well, since they have always made comments on the female contestants' outfits, and hardly the males'.
It would seem to me that the music industry today wants to keep music and entertainment in this little gender conitioned box, which ultimately is oppressive and flat out boring. Where are the 80's superstars when you need them?
I do remember Kara saying that. And I totally didn't know what she meant by that, so it slipped my mind.
Ah, I just remembered why I don't watch American Idol anymore.
I completely agree! Everybody sings along with songs in the car not even thinking about whether they say "he/she".. there is emotion in songs that can be heard past the pronouns. Why it suddenly matters when someone is performing it is beyond me. I guess like you said.. they want to maintain their image.
"If it sparks any rumors about their sexuality, who cares? The only people who would make that leap are idiots whose opinion don't matter. Are these contestants really that insecure and afraid?"
It would be folly to assume that idiots can't have an impact on an election.
Seriously though, making incredibly minor changes such as that so that they might better identify with the song hardly makes implies fear or insecurity.
This is the kind of silly stuff that alienates so many folks especially young women from feminism. You are like the reverse homophobes sometimes.
Reverse homophobe? You mean like someone who isn't afraid of gay people? Thank you!
In every disease, there are lots of symptoms. Some are small, you might call them silly. Parkinson's, for example, often starts with small involuntary movements in the fingers and toes. Insignificant. Silly. Many people ignore it. But it's still a symptom of a serious disease. And I consider heterosexism a serious social disease. Treat the symptoms and cure the disease.
Sing the lyrics to suit you. God this is why so many young women don't want to be identified with feminism. It like you're hetero-phobic sometimes. I like guys, I'll sing about guys. Cuse me for not carrying the flag.
If you are so scared of being seen as a lesbian that you can't even sing a song with its original lyrics, then I feel sorry for you. I'm straight and young and *gasp* criticising heteronormativity isn't alienating me! And it wouldn't alienate any of my friends. If you have such a problem with gender-bending or at least recognising that heteronormativity can be harmful to society, then I suggest you reexamine your feminist values.
"Cuse me for not carrying the flag."
Oh yes, be very afraid of that "homosexual agenda" that's going to force everyone to sing "gay" songs. Contrary to what you might think, singing a song in it's original form and not changing all the "she's" to "he's" will not cause you to catch "the gay".
I was listening to Ra Ra Riot's cover of Kate Bush's "Suspended in Gaffa" and I noticed that even though the band has a male lead vocalist the pronouns (even self-referencing uses of "she") are unchanged. It's kind of cool.
That said, I think it's the prerogative of the singer and what they need to do to be convincing and sound good. If they are intent on preserving the original song, they might want to leave it as is. But if it's a love song and they need to use the pronoun of the gender they are attracted to (especially if imagining a specific person) to be convincing, that's fine too.
Though I'm less perturbed by changing "she" to "he" and vice versa (or "boys" to "girls and vice versa) than I am by changing "Mrs Jones" to "Mr Jones." Being that it's the song title, and it's a very well-known and recognizable song, I would think it is in the best interest to preserve the original structure. Plus "Mrs" sounds very different in the line than "Mr."
But again, it's a creative decision that only the individual performer can make.
I'm not entirely sure it's the performers making that decision or American Idol. It happens so often that it's hard to believe that all of the contestants feel the need to change the pronouns. Then again, maybe it isn't.
I don't know. When I sing (as an amateur) I change the gender pro nouns in the song so I can feel more connected to it. But that's just me.
So do I, and I march in gay rights parades in the States and share a bed with a male gay friend and coworker here in Namibia. Thank goodness AUF is here to tell me I'm homophobic, since I do associate romantic songs with women... I never would have guessed.
No reason not to change the pronouns. I mean if you want to do it and if your strait and not comfortable with that, cool. If your gay you can switch the pronouns to your preferred sex that's cool to.
Is this post an intentional parody or unintentional?
I agree with Meghan Elaine. There is no need to make excuses or doubt yourself when discussing something that is offensive to you or a group of people. It does downplay misogyny. It is similar to a lot of the posts where people here use the word "rant" to describe a post that is usually the opposite - thought-out and intelligent, not just emotional and violent. And maybe emotion and violent speech are necessary at times - if you are saying it, you feel strongly about it, but our culture tells us that our outrage against sexist, racist, or other offensive language or terms bedroom furniture or ideas is "ranting" in a bad way - too emotional, coming from overly sensitive people.