The cover of NME put a big old smile on my face when I saw it on the shelves in Kings Cross station yesterday. Even with Perez Hilton's scrawl all over it here and, y'know, it being the sodding NME, it gave me a little thrill to see Beth Ditto getting it on and kicking some ass.It seems odd, really, that Missy Elliot was doing it ten years ago. I was watching some music videos on youtube and it struck me how much more female r&b and hiphop videos seem aimed at the female gaze. The idea that you can get it on AND kick some ass at the same time doesn't seem that radical to me, but it seems the world of white indie music with its videos of anorexic white girls wearing too much eyeliner, pouting and preening and being delicately kissed (who resemble their fans, to be honest. There are few things that rile me more than insipid and repetitive 'The' bands and their followers/groupies who think they're radical because they're wearing some dodgy 80s rave leggings), has taken a rather long time to catch up.
The fact that a queer, overtly feminist, politically driven, overweight singer from the deep south was voted 'coolest person of the year' (always won previously by men) in the NME is just awesome. Radical, even.
And here's an interview with Ms Ditto in DIVA magazine, on fat, fame and feminism.
