Russell Brand , The London Riots and The Death of Amy Winehouse

Update January 27th 2012. I was very crude and unfair in my assessment of Russell Brand in the previous version of this post. The Sun featured it on their blog home page and I had a few dozen comments. Truly, I am very sorry to have judged Brand just a tad too harshly because in retrospect I'm not qualified to make many of the assertions I did. He knows about addiction and I do not. My essay has been re-edited to reflect that lack of balance on my part. -Super Amanda


Brand definitely understands what addiction is and why it is like an incurable disease for so many.

Amy's Winehouse root problem was bi-polar depression and abandonment by men-drugs were an after effect. Take away the drugs she'd still have been on a death wish until love sorted her out. Male artists have women who will do anything for them, walk around like preprogrammed puppets in their football kit, and be there till the end and NEVER walk away or leave etc etc. Female artists don't get that luxury as most men are too selfish or too sensible to live in the shadow of a tortured genius and care for them when they malfunction-which in her case was sometimes daily. That's why George Jones, the legendary country and western star is still going strong today despite nearly dying from alcoholism at one point and yet his ex-wife, the near mythic Tammy Wynette, died young under very suspicious circumstances, used for her money and exploited. Russell Brand misses that but then most people do. His mentally vacuous wife's border line intelligible opinion on Amy Winehouse rang of self aggrandizement. Amy wasn't even buried yet and there's Katy Perry smothered in slap on Good Morning America, grinning away about how ''grateful'' she is Brand is sober with her vacant eyes.

Alex James wrote a lovely piece which veered away from the "look at me" failings of Brand but sadly men simply do not stand by talented female artists. I'm sure as Blur's bassist, James could have had many a few great women who truly loved him caring for him, helping him get clean and sober and then still stick around and love him for life. Amy and nearly all woman artists do not get that same kind of devotion from men and they die alone. Gay men might be there to love them perhaps but rarely straight men. Amy wanted a loving partnership, a best friend and a protector to stand by her through all of it. All women do and few get it. That's why women AND men loved her music. Amy Winehouse was brave enough to sing about all things that embarrass all of us, trouble us and stick in our minds when we are in love and alone. London and the world will never forget her. Don't think for a second that the London riots were not just a little bit about her death.

"We eat up artists like there's going to be a famine at the end."
-Nikki Giovanni

Peta Todd's piece on magazines and feminists

Peta Todd whom I'm a big fan of wrote an interesting article for The Sun. I don't mind the Sun, all papers are the same. They will not publish anything remotely negative about Katy Perry and a few comment moderators delete ANYTHING I write but other than that they are ok for a laugh. Here is Peta's article text:



Women’s mags put more pressure on girls than
raunchy photoshoots by Peta Todd



FOR the second time in six months I was asked to appear on Newsnight.

Yes, that's right, the super-serious BBC discussion panel hosted by the even more serious Jeremy Paxman.

Last time I was representing the institution of Page 3, but last night's subject was slightly different. Feminism is in the news, mainly thanks to a brilliant book by Times columnist Caitlin Moran.

In How To Be A Woman she discusses what it is to be a woman in the modern day, the pressures put on us and expectations people have. Naturally, a number of subjects close to my heart have been stirred - and I gave my opinions in a pre-recorded interview for the show.

The word "objectification" is bandied about a lot at times like this, particularly in relation to lads' mag culture.

According to some, women are objectified by raunchy, topless photoshoots. But objectification, in my opinion, is an ugly way of saying "appreciation" - appreciation of women and the naked form.

Obsession with naked women has existed through the ages. Historically it is the focus of all forms of art. Naked girls are found in paintings, as sculptures and on vases.

The greatest writers - Shakespeare, Dickens, Lawrence - all wrote about sex and sexual women.

Today the female form is found in lads' mags and on Page 3. If the demand was not there from the public, it would not be produced.



My commentary:

Dickens did not write about sex Peta, he was pretty clean.

I'd like to respond to this but in doing so firstly state that I am looking at Peta from the position of what she does for a living and offers to the public which is her great looks. This is very good writing but Peta is missing the hypocrisy on BOTH sides. Not all Lads mags have curvy women and Peta herself while one of the most justifiably beautiful women in the world and spectacularly endowed with beautifully shaped breasts is not very curvy or hourglassy from the boobs down, she is enviably slim and column shaped. Lads mags prefer Peta's look over an hourglass or guitar shape (sounds nicer than pear shape) and rarely feature small breasted women with large hips-even trim small breasted girls with proportionately fuller behinds and hips. Lads mags will feature women with large breasts and very slim hips though. Kelly Brook is perhaps the only hourglass figure seen in the mags and she is very fine boned and slightly built unlike say a young Sophia Loren or Jane Russell who were both very Amazonian with proportionately wide posteriors and taller frames, the likes of which you'll only find today on the lovely Christina Hendricks and lads mags rarely feature her.

We only see a truly curvy hourglass figure these days if the model is VERY thin. Measurements in nearly all the lads mags issue are false as well. They all CLAIM hourglassy stats yet the eyes can see there is scant difference between the hips and the waist. Once again nothing wrong with that but THOSE numbers are just as misleading as thin models who are retouched!
Bottom line is that ALL magazines have a long way to go before we see real curves. If you want all shapes and sizes then you want the amateur market mags which feature all real women without re-touching. Peta writes well and she is a wonderful and inspiring woman but to say "I guarantee the average size and curvyness of the girls in the lads' mag will be far bigger than those inside the women's..." is emphatically and empirically false


(I take back what I wrote : Kelly Brook IS a young version of Sophia Loren or Jane Russell and like Peta an inspiration. She is not as tall or as big boned but still very close and has the best body in the entire world. My biggest complaint with lads magazines is that , while I understand they show fit girls, they should allow for more variations OF fit body types. There are many fit , not skinny small chested and/or fit girls with big bums. It would be nice if they had some tall (over 5'10) girls in as well.

Finally I love the expression "They are groaning under pseudo advice on how to find the perfect man...")

what is third wave?

Honestly? It is an opportunity for today's feminists to not be scared about where they are in this world. In love with our loved ones and interested and bewildered by our world at large we can express why.

Yes. Both the first wave and second waves of feminism made far too little a voice for poor women and women of colour when it came time to sit at the table. Feminists in the 60's and 70's slammed sex bombs like Raquel Welch, Sophia Loren, and Erica Gavin (all women who made it on their own and worked non-stop) yet how much money did these same Second wave women pay their fellow sisters who were their nannies and maids watching the farm while they went to work? Did they ever fight tooth and nail to give them healthcare, unions or a living wage? Noooooooo...they fought to live like men, get the best deal on childcare and make money(see Leslie Bennetts...barfy "feminist chauvinist mistake" ) not liberate women. Go onto MS and google "nanny" in their search engine and nearly nothing comes up.

Thankfully some third wavers like myself are now appreciating that a women like Ms. Welch cand Pam Grier can be beautiful, sexy, classy and a trailblazer without fitting into a prescribed box AND without being exploitative and trashy. many third wavers are also succinctly pointing out what SO many dating and relationship columnists gravely overlook-that men/boys these days are looking for a meal ticket and a free ride off a woman's hard earned money-even men as young as their early 20's! Third wavers don't let this happen to you!

Katy Perry TKO