CocoRosie, a/k/a sisters Bianca and Sierra Casaday, make some very unusual music, incorporating everything from beatboxes and children’s toys to a harp and the occasional orchestral backing.
I cannot say I am a huge fan of theirs, but Spinner notes that their new one-off single “God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me” is provocative — particularly the the video, which includes Bianca at times wearing a burqa and seemingly nothing else:
“The basic subject that has been really heavy on our minds recently has been patriarchy,” Bianca says. “As old of an issue as that might be, we’ve hit a new wave of it.” She goes on to explain that the impetus for the song happened while relaxing on a beach in France, where she witnessed something that struck a nerve within her. “Being at the beach and seeing women in the water completely covered head-to-toe [in burqas] with all their husbands in Speedos, it hit me in such an intense way.”
Unfortunately, Bianca later frames the controversy as a “women’s issue” as opposed to a “cultural issue,” thereby keeping the identity politics in the picture. But the airing of the controversy among the demographic CocoRosie attracts may lay the groundwork for educating younger people that positioning feminism as a form of identity politics (as opposed to in a form consistent with core American beliefs in freedom and equality of opportunity) ultimately renders it vulnerable to the multi-culti thinking that may someday elevate “tolerance” for shariah law above gender equality.
Feminism is a cultural issue.
Men in speedos with the women completely covered up? My reactions, in order of appearance:
1. Sounds like a faghag’s dream vacation.
2. That’s so fucked up.
3. Well, I have heard plenty of complaints about women’s suits not covering enough.
4. Get a bikini body in three seconds! And three yards of coarse fabric!
5. That’s still fucked up.
6. Still a faghag’s dream vacation.
Lisa,
Exactly.
As an oppressive patriarch, I demand that banana hammocks, nutslings, crochet bikinis, and other such travesties be banned, condemned, or at least shunned. Unless you have nip and sugartits like Lisa, or Shannon Elizabeth.
#4: LMAO!! I am with you. David Hasslehoff should have a fatwa issued upon him for violating the UN Charter on Illegal Nutslings.
That’s not unusual music. It’s incompetent Bjorkaoke.
Yeah, and that’s not a stereotypically girly attitude instilled by the patriarchy or anything.
TEH PATRIARCHY!: Too obvious, son. She’s singing songs about how she saw me at the beach and now she can’t stop thinking about me. ’50s maltshop-style. That’s how I do.
Marblesacks too. Especially if one is not well groomed. That goes for women too. Stray Euro briar patch sticking out the sides of a bikini is sooooooooooo not sexy.
Bianca didn’t need to go to France to see that. Metro beach outside of Detroit … I’ve seen the scene (sans the Euro-trend speedo) just about every time I’ve been there.
Really? Metro Beach at 16 mile?
Wow.
Yep.
The saddest thing are the little girls (I don’t know what age they go full-burka, but they aren’t that old) — brothers are having fun in the water, and they’re stuck on the sidelines. I never actually seen a burka-clad women/girl go in the water. Usually they just sit on a bench and look sad.
Yikes. Haven’t been there a while. Didn’t know that was going on.
When will those trackbackers/linkfolk realize Jeff G. (who has a complete last name, by the way, though it is possible I missed a rap single somewhere or he guest-starred on someone else’s song…) doesn’t write everything on this blog?
There are stories about things other than lesbian prison experiences, armadillos, and semiotics. At least sometimes.
Jon, the bot has been using different names for different posts. Ed Brill seems to write most of PW’s posts, though. Ed Brill does yeoman’s work.
Didn’t show the old “horrorshow groodies” though. They need to demostrate their female power and independence by gratuitously displaying the “ladies”, and maybe a cooter shot. Didn’t those female icons like Madonna, Fergie, Pussycat Dolls, Spice Girls raise their gender consciousness. And burqas could be provocative with some strategically place openings.
psycho,
The track is not entirely representative of their work, but as i said, I’m not a big fan, either.
There’s a Muslim singer from Norway (of central/south Asian descent) named Deeyah who has a video where she whips off a burkha to show a bikini (near the end).
Yep, she’s gotten threats.
“Comment by JD on 6/6 @ 9:27 am #
Marblesacks too. Especially if one is not well groomed. That goes for women too. Stray Euro briar patch sticking out the sides of a bikini is sooooooooooo not sexy.”
Yeah? That’s mild compared to picking up two gorgeous French babes in Nashville, and almost having to jump out of your speeding van on the way to their motel because their BO was gagging you so bad…
Very disappointing evening, that was.
I’ve been out looking for the Patriarchy for some time, mostly because such a kick-ass organization that gave the world, in no particular order, the roof, the wheel, the internal combustion engine, gunpowder, football, and the depilated female pudenda needs, nay, deserves to have me as a member.
Now, interesting as the Patriarchy-created-the-burqua thing is, I’d remind you all that the Patriarchy also created the bikini, which is equally evil. Feminists, in the meantime, have created nothing. Perhaps they don’t believe in recreational bathing.
Also, look for a CocoRosie song about how bikinis suck because of the Patriarchy before they get real jobs.