According to Hedi Slimane, the best way to celebrate International Women's Day 2008 was to photograph Kate Moss: a flat-chested, vacant, wealthy, drug-using failure as a mother. One of the prostitution, oh I mean fashion, industry's biggest names...
Liberation for women, eh? That photoshoot (along with all other fashion industry thiiinnngsss) is a complete regression when it comes to female emancipation. So, you're using your body and your face to make money by selling a product... You play on other women's insecurities to get them to buy this product... You play on men's fantasies of the perfect fuckpig to get them to buy this product... And you're a strong female, HOW?!?!?! You are a product built by men to sell - you are a slave - you are a prostitute. Using sex to sell things is disgusting. I officially hate the fashion industry. I will no longer enjoy fashion magazines or appreciate the false beauty of these dumb bitches.
This is one of the biggest insults to the International Women's Day campaign and
to Amnesty International's campaign to end violence against women.
Instead of taking pictures of this stupid old whore, maybe Hedi could
have donated time and/or money to raising awareness or even getting
involved with any of the following:
- Safe schools for girls across the world
- Parvin Ardalan being banned from leaving Iran to collect her feminist prize
- Women in Zimbabwe trying to stay alive whilst providing for their families as economic and social conditions worsen
- Women in the Middle East and Asia beaten, arrested and killed for trying to defend their rights as humans
The fucking list goes on & on!
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2008.
REAL WOMEN? PLEASE, NOW.
The original version of this song was written by Junior Murvin and produced by the legendary Lee 'Scratch' Perry. An instant hit, it became a reggae classic, unusual in Murvin's falsetto voice but retaining all I love about reggae. The rhythm relaxed and soaked in Jamaican summer heat is infectious in its easy-going attitude.
The Clash, covering the song in tribute to their reggae influences, put the track on their eponymous debut album.The cover acts as a symbol of everything the Clash stood for. Their belief in social commentary and, following that, social justice is one of the reasons for choosing to cover this song. They believed in, and loved, reggae, knowing that the real original genre of punk (ignore your Sex Pistols & your Jam, the latter of which were never punk anyway) came from the same soul as their Jamaican brethren.
When Sting referred to the Police's music as 'White Reggae' or, as he pretentiously called it, 'Regatta de Blanc', Joe Strummer was outraged. Slapping the genre with a blatant caste system, Sting alienated reggae from the people who made and enjoyed it: he stole reggae from the Jamaicans (who rightfully owned it and generously shared it with the world) and made pop music (and then millions) with an off-beat.
Reggae should never be white nor black. Reggae is music for the people and the Clash understood this. That is why Police & Thieves is one of the most culturally significant songs to me. Forget whether it is performed by blacks or whites and remember it is performed for people.
Though admittedly a predominantly white movement, punk rock in the seventies, when led by the Clash, merged society into an equal one. The people for their rights, regardless of colour, focused on justice. Police & Thieves, not Blacks & Whites.
