By Kristen Lowrey
A&E Editor
We all snickered when Britney Spears allegedly got breast implants. We even gasped when she appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in her underwear, shattering the “good girl” image she so diligently defended early in her career.
Then there is Christina Aguilera. After hitting the scene with “Genie in a Bottle” and swearing away its implications of sexual innuendo, she stormed in with her appearance in the “Moulin Rouge”-induced hit “Lady Marmalade.” The recent release of her all too appropriately titled album, “Stripped” follows her glorification of the brothel and courtesan costume.
Stripped of her dignity? Stripped of her innocence? Stripped of her ability to think clearly? One thing is for sure, she is stripped of her clothing.
Apparently, it wasn’t enough exposure to prance around the MTV movie awards in lingerie with her hideous mane framing the mask of make-up. Now she has taken Shakira’s hairstyle and someone’s guitar (obviously not hers considering she is a vocalist and not a musician) and “got her thrill” as Dr. Hook would say, “on the cover of the Rolling Stone.”
With the recent change of editorship at the “respectable” publication, with British editor in chief Ed Neeham at the helm, it is apparent that his plans for more exposure in his magazine are coming to fruition. The newer Rolling Stone has fewer words and more flesh-flashing photos.
“I would hope there’s more skin, it should be a little sexier,” Neeham said in a Los Angeles Times article Aug. 30 regarding the changes to take place under his new reign.
As a journalist, I understand the need to develop a publication as society evolves and keep in touch with the circumstances of readers. However, there is a certain point at which societal patterns begin to pervade a publication’s content to the point of squeezing out the creatively different juices that make the publication unique and stand above the rest.
I was hoping that Rolling Stone would not cower at the threat of Blender’s adolescent success. Rather, I would like to see Rolling Stone find new and interesting ways to express its information on the entertainment industry that does not involve bowing to the masses of hormone-driven consumers. If readers want that sort of stimulation, they may take their business to men’s magazines such as Maxim. Rolling Stone readers deserve a preserved tradition and music journalism.
As for the newer publications, such as Maxim’s Blender, they have yet to establish what they stand for, and already they are corrupting the music scene by continuing a competition between the female pop and country performers for most “sold-out” artist of the year.
“Is it competition?” Senior Gabby Moreno said on the recent sexification of female country music artists in particular. “Competition from the female pop artists, that they have to strip away their cowboy boots and hats and put on cleavage. Look at Faith Hill and now LeAnn Rimes.”
This month’s Blender cover features Rimes, topless, looking over her left shoulder and holding her left breast.
Hardly an original idea after the Aguilera atrocity graced Rolling Stone on the newsstands this past week.
Atoosa Rubenstein, editor of Cosmo Girl, recently defended the nakedness in an article written by Amy C. Sims in a Oct. 25 segment done by FOXNews.com regarding the trend of pop stars shedding their clothes for success.
“If you want to be successful right now in the adult (music) market you have to be sexy,” Rubenstein said.
Well, thanks for the news flash Rubenstein, but sex has been selling since the biblical fall, and it is no question that its temptations will draw-in even the purest Adam and Eve.
This problem seems to stem from an equation described by Stuart Fischoff, professor of media psychology at California State University in Los Angeles, who also commented in the FOX article.
“If we equate adult with sexuality — as our society does — one of the quickest ways to shatter an image of being a child … is by getting nude, or scanty,” Fischoff said.
So if Fischoff is right, if child plus sexuality equals adult, then welcome to adulthood you flesh-flashing singers.
The verdict is in: your childhood is gone, so I hope you took the time to say goodbye to your innocence.
November 14, 2002