Anna NeonIt's an interesting Tori...
December 24th 2007 08:29
Superheroes and alter-egos.
Tori Amos is a strong feminine voice and a fashion icon.
What is it to be a woman in the 21st Century? It’s both a loaded and significant question indeed. After the sexual revolution of the 70’s, women felt liberated. We burnt our bras, marched in protest, sang songs of both oppression and freedom, but to what end? Today we can wear slacks, go sans bra, cut our hair short, run our own companies, take charge, have a family, be both a housewife and a career girl, cook, clean and hold our own, man, don’t you feel liberated? I feel exhausted.
Women are actually as equally oppressed today as they were prior to said revolution. The fact that we have proved ourselves capable of more than preparing a nutritious meal and an after 5 cocktail means we have effectively become virtual superwomen, taking on all of the responsibility. It’s 1955 Sexual Politics for the noughties disguised as liberation. More choice means more responsibility and unless you’re Paris Hilton, you are probably feeling a little ragged.
And yet, to add insult to injury we are still faced with a double standard. Women are expected to be all of these things; the housewife, the sex kitten, the mother, the career woman, and then we are forced to categorise ourselves as one or the other. Enter the age-old Madonna and the Whore dichotomy. Enter a new take on sexual politics. Enter Tori Amos.
At 43,Tori is not only one of America's highest-grossing touring solo artists, but she is a Sexual Politics Pioneer, currently touring the globe with her American Doll Posse, wowing audience’s the world over and smashing people’s antiquated views on women and femininity. If I was living in the fifties, I’d swoon. American Doll Posse is her 6th studio album to reach the US Top Ten despite her music being relatively non-commercial. In fact, the American born composer and musician, born to a Minister and his wife, has battled the norm for most of her active career, and failing to fit into the box that record companies and even the church garnered for her, Tori has inadvertently become the poster girl for misfits all over the world.
Tori talks about glass castles in her songs, but she is more than aware of the glass ceiling that encourages us to free ourselves of tradition and repression and then forces us into antiquated roles in service of men. If there was ever a time for an American Doll Posse, the time is now.
Featuring five different versions or pieces of Tori; all characters that she has created, American Doll Posse attacks the concept of being a woman in today’s day and age. “The main message of my new album is: the political is personal. This as opposed to the feminist statement from years ago that the personal is political. I know it has been said that it goes both ways, but we have to turn it around…if you are going to be an American woman in 2007 with a real view on what is going on, you need to be brave, and you need to know that some people won’t want to look at it.” Santa, Pip, Isabel, Tori and Clyde all represent strong, unique women, not perfect women, not super women, real women, women that all live somewhere in each of us. Profound? Yes. True? Definitely. And yet people are still trying to pigeonhole Amos.
Once labelled as the typical, hippie, fairy, moonchild, Tori has gone through several transformations, challenging several ideas, stereotypes and preconceptions and yet people still want to shove her into. Well, Ms Amos is putting her foot down. In a Jimmy Choo pump, no less. Tori is as passionate about women as she is about her family and as enamoured of music as she is of a great pair of shoes. Sounds frivolous that someone so switched on about current issues could be so pedantic about what goes on her feet, but Tori sees fashion as seriously as she sees identity. In fact, she sees it very much as a part of our identity.
“To me glamour isn't about being sparkly. We are the real canvases, what's inside us; clothes are just our watercolours…I think of music as sonic architecture, so if you are wearing something that's architectural, too, it kind of works. You can feel the passion or the paradox that's gone into making it through your skin, and that goes through into the composition.”
Serious stuff from a serious songstress who claims Jackie Onassis to be a personal style icon and who defines style as “Someone who is thrilled to be a woman. Being stylish is about enjoying your life and expressing yourself and your inner light.” Amen, sister, there’s more power in your shoes than you thought.
Tori Amos is a strong feminine voice and a fashion icon.
What is it to be a woman in the 21st Century? It’s both a loaded and significant question indeed. After the sexual revolution of the 70’s, women felt liberated. We burnt our bras, marched in protest, sang songs of both oppression and freedom, but to what end? Today we can wear slacks, go sans bra, cut our hair short, run our own companies, take charge, have a family, be both a housewife and a career girl, cook, clean and hold our own, man, don’t you feel liberated? I feel exhausted.
Women are actually as equally oppressed today as they were prior to said revolution. The fact that we have proved ourselves capable of more than preparing a nutritious meal and an after 5 cocktail means we have effectively become virtual superwomen, taking on all of the responsibility. It’s 1955 Sexual Politics for the noughties disguised as liberation. More choice means more responsibility and unless you’re Paris Hilton, you are probably feeling a little ragged.
And yet, to add insult to injury we are still faced with a double standard. Women are expected to be all of these things; the housewife, the sex kitten, the mother, the career woman, and then we are forced to categorise ourselves as one or the other. Enter the age-old Madonna and the Whore dichotomy. Enter a new take on sexual politics. Enter Tori Amos.
At 43,Tori is not only one of America's highest-grossing touring solo artists, but she is a Sexual Politics Pioneer, currently touring the globe with her American Doll Posse, wowing audience’s the world over and smashing people’s antiquated views on women and femininity. If I was living in the fifties, I’d swoon. American Doll Posse is her 6th studio album to reach the US Top Ten despite her music being relatively non-commercial. In fact, the American born composer and musician, born to a Minister and his wife, has battled the norm for most of her active career, and failing to fit into the box that record companies and even the church garnered for her, Tori has inadvertently become the poster girl for misfits all over the world.
Tori talks about glass castles in her songs, but she is more than aware of the glass ceiling that encourages us to free ourselves of tradition and repression and then forces us into antiquated roles in service of men. If there was ever a time for an American Doll Posse, the time is now.
Featuring five different versions or pieces of Tori; all characters that she has created, American Doll Posse attacks the concept of being a woman in today’s day and age. “The main message of my new album is: the political is personal. This as opposed to the feminist statement from years ago that the personal is political. I know it has been said that it goes both ways, but we have to turn it around…if you are going to be an American woman in 2007 with a real view on what is going on, you need to be brave, and you need to know that some people won’t want to look at it.” Santa, Pip, Isabel, Tori and Clyde all represent strong, unique women, not perfect women, not super women, real women, women that all live somewhere in each of us. Profound? Yes. True? Definitely. And yet people are still trying to pigeonhole Amos.
Once labelled as the typical, hippie, fairy, moonchild, Tori has gone through several transformations, challenging several ideas, stereotypes and preconceptions and yet people still want to shove her into. Well, Ms Amos is putting her foot down. In a Jimmy Choo pump, no less. Tori is as passionate about women as she is about her family and as enamoured of music as she is of a great pair of shoes. Sounds frivolous that someone so switched on about current issues could be so pedantic about what goes on her feet, but Tori sees fashion as seriously as she sees identity. In fact, she sees it very much as a part of our identity.
“To me glamour isn't about being sparkly. We are the real canvases, what's inside us; clothes are just our watercolours…I think of music as sonic architecture, so if you are wearing something that's architectural, too, it kind of works. You can feel the passion or the paradox that's gone into making it through your skin, and that goes through into the composition.”
Serious stuff from a serious songstress who claims Jackie Onassis to be a personal style icon and who defines style as “Someone who is thrilled to be a woman. Being stylish is about enjoying your life and expressing yourself and your inner light.” Amen, sister, there’s more power in your shoes than you thought.
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