Happy Independence Day to Kesha
Brat summer cont'd, Britney, Paris, LDR, Katy, and the irony of American patriotism 🇺🇸
Keeping it relatively short today (??) so you can go eat Firecracker® frozen ice pops from Popsicle® or a mixed berry fruit salad or a hot dog and watch fireworks.¹ ICYMI, last week’s issue included my artwork for a Caroline Polachek cover album of Celine Dion songs (hey, it could happen!!!!), unhinged MTV News headlines such as “Staind Changed My Life” and “ Justin Timberlake Joins Stones At Toronto Benefit, Gets Pelted With Garbage”, Britney's Guide to Semiconductor Physics, and soooooo much more. RIP Baudrillard, you would’ve loved the AI-generated Toys R Us commercial.
Saw a tweet this week where a head is filled with thoughts and deep concerns about the extremely bleak state of American politics right now, and yet the speech bubble that comes out just says “365 PARTY GIRL HAHA”. Relatable. Speaking of Brat summer, which I will not be done talking about until at least Labor Day:
Nicole Richie and Hilary Duff worked it out on the remix!!!!!
The wonderful Molly Mary O'Brien of I Enjoy Music interviewed Nico Loreto, the artist who created Jesus Christ on a Plastic Sign
RIP Club Karma, the cast of Jersey Shore would’ve gone soooo hard on the dance floor to Brat
A pic of Charli on the toilet on your toilet is elite home decor IMHO
The 2010 interview where the “right now” in Club Classics was sampled from
RIP Brat wall, grateful to have known you
Girl, so confusing ft. Jasmine and Jafar – referred to here as Jafarina lmaooo – part one and part two with Gaston
This Brat makeup is amazing! There’s a voiceover defending her hand-lettering, because people commented on her previous video that it was so good, she must have used a stamp, stencil, or filter
I would like to specifically wish Kesha a Happy Independence Day!!!!! After a looooong industry battle, her first independent release, JOYRIDE, drops today. I’m happy for her!!!!!!!! I don’t know if it’s physically/mentally/emotionally possible for me to love a song more than “C’Mon”, but I will at least listen to the album. And to think she started out on The Simple Life.
It is July 4th! Many celebrities have been famously photographed with American flag clothing and motifs, and I’m fascinated by how layers of irony have folded into the depiction over time.
Sincere, pre- and post-2001, i.e. Britney Spears
Ironic. 2000s to present, i.e. Paris Hilton
Post-ironic, 2010s pre-2016, i.e. Lana Del Rey
Meta-ironic, 2010s post-2016, i.e. Katy Perry
Britney Spears is as American as apple pie. The real me is a Southern girl, with her Levi’s on and an open heart. Wait, that’s Jessica Simpson…but anyway, could still apply here! Britney’s Christian, Southern upbringing and virginal “good girl” image perfectly aligned with the wholesome “family values” of the neoconservative George W. Bush era. She was quite literally the poster child for the resurgence of American patriotism in the wake of 9/11, as she was on the cover of Vogue’s November 2001 issue.³ Her portrayal of American patriotism is sincere; we as a country united after this unbelievable tragedy.
Evan from CARI once said something I’ve been thinking about ever since. “That disconnect, conflict, & interplay between the horror, greed, terror & chaos of what was actually going on behind the scenes & afar, and the aspirational luxury nihilistic celebrity hedonism imagined ideal is like the central theme of the 2000s.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. Speaking of nihilistic…
Paris Hilton’s love for America is ironic. If Britney is the “good girl”, Paris is the “bad girl”. Her provocative, scantily-clad photos look like a joke – a reminder that despite her status as an heiress, meritocracy must be real, and she is living proof that blondes (who are hot and rich) do have more fun. This depiction of the American flag in this context may be considered disrespectful, depending on who you ask. (Fergie singing the National Anthem also falls under this category lol.)
This attitude is inherently neoliberal because it’s all about perceived – or in Paris’s case, actual – upward mobility, maximization of productivity and profit, and essentially girlbossery of and by the individual. Paris loves herself, and she loves America because she can work the systems that lie at the foundation of our country. She is a raging capitalist and admits that she will only be satisfied once she is a billionaire…maybe. She is a conventionally beautiful, tall, skinny, white woman: the ideal female object through the male gaze. Paris famously infantilized herself for decades as a trauma response and was a victim of brutal tabloid fixation and revenge porn; that’s the patriarchal American Dream. Although she’s still evolving her brand so that people take her seriously, she effectively uses her platform for political causes, advancing critical legislation to break the cycle of abuse that she endured at boarding school and speaking up for those who don’t have a voice.
Lana Del Rey represents a more-optimistic Obama era. There’s a self-awareness to this post-ironic brand of patriotism. “Money is the reason we exist. Everybody knows it, it’s a fact, kiss, kiss!” Especially in the Born to Die era, Lana was all about a retro, kitschy, nostalgic Americana aesthetic, harkening back to JFK and the 1960s with declinism bias, meaning romanticizing the past, or looking back as though everything was better back in the good old days, whenever that was. LDR famously abandoned the flag motif for her tour visuals post-2016, as she recognized a major shift in culture and the new meaning and politics behind the American flag motif.
I didn’t realize until after I wrote this that Vogue came out with a piece in March of this year, Can You Wear the American Flag Without Irony? It does a great job at explaining the current landscape, where identity politics are fully baked into fashion and how American flags signify partisanship in a way they didn’t ten years ago. The joke now is that the same pieces of clothing (camo, white tank tops, snapback hats, boots, etc.) can either be worn in a John Deere way or a Lana Del Rey Americana way or an Old Money way or a Trailer Park Princess way. Regardless…Tell me I’m your national anthem!!!!!
Katy Perry represents America in a super-kitsch, meta-ironic way.⁴ Why…is…she…so…obsessed…with…this…motif? Like she does it a lot. Even a pair of flip flops from her shoe line is adorned in stars and stripes. Why was “Thinking of You” army wife anemoia cosplay? (Yes, that’s her kissing a Marine in the photos above lol.) Is her Uncle Sam getup a troll? Was her “Part of Me” music video paid for by the US military to convince women to join the Marines when they break up with their boyfriends? Was it all just a ‘Vote for 2016 Presidential Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton’ psyop?⁵
Katy’s loyalty hasn’t always been rewarded, at least not by the public. Was it because her political activism seemed contrived or disingenuous? Was she “shoving it in our faces”, regardless of the audience’s party affiliation? When Katy got political, her career immediately flopped. To be fair, this was also in part because her music was awful. Is it still? I haven’t listened, although I will be keeping an eye out on her Instagram today to take a pulse check on her patriotism. Baby, you’re a firework!!!!!!
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¹ I literally just found out now that Popsicle is a name brand, and ‘ice pop’ would be generic. Writing this newsletter teaches me so much!
² The It girls were/are never the problem. The paparazzi, exploitative tabloid media, and the grown men who dated teenage girls were/are what’s problematic.
³ The whole magazine production process would take like 6-8 weeks, so the September and October issues of Vogue had already been printed. The November 2001 issue with Britney on the cover was the first to acknowledge the impact of 9/11.
⁴ I LOVE Katy Perry’s debut album, One of the Boys. This era is my favorite of hers. The commitment to kitsch was unparalleled and spoke to me on a deep level!!! 2008 Me was forever changed by “Hot N Cold”, and “If You Can Afford Me” is still in the rotation. “Don’t make a bet if you can’t write the check” is a catchphrase that I’m hoping to say to someone in real life, but the opportunity hasn’t arisen yet.
⁵ She was also sued for $150,000 by a photographer for posting an unlicensed photo of herself in her Hillary halloween costume.
is a lot of the Katy thing just riffing on Firework, photographers and stylists being like... fireworks, 4th of July, get it??