Stupid girl, stupid girls, stupid girls/Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back/Porno Paparazzi girl, I don’t wanna be a stupid girl/Go to Fred Segal, you’ll find them there/Laughing loud so all the little people stare/Looking for a daddy to pay for the champagne/(Drop a name)/What happened to the dreams of a girl president/She’s dancing in the video next to 50 Cent/They travel in packs of two or three/With their itsy bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees/Where, oh where, have the smart people gone?/Oh where, oh where could they be?
-”Stupid Girls” by Pink, written by Pink and Billy Mann

After the release of Pink’s first single, “Stupid Girls,” of her fourth album, “I’m Not Dead,” people started to debate the issues raised in Pink’s song. Were the media darlings we so idolize right now just stupid girls? Where did all the smart people go? Have we gone backwards in the music industry to before feminism, when women were just a piece of meat and glorified for their bodies and not their music?

Pink says she wasn’t taking aim at anyone in particular, but all you have to do is read between the lines of the song or watch the music video to pick out those “stupid girls.” Jessica. Paris. Lindsay. Mary-Kate and Ashley. They’re all there. And they’re what is all the rage with the tweens and teens of today.

In fact, the more I watch MuchMusic or pick up a magazine or flip on the TV, the more I wonder what happened to the image of the girls I idolized as a tween? Have we evolved so much in 20 years that my daughter will idolize a Britney over Tiffany? And is this having an effect on young girls? Are they being sexualized too young?

To get the answers, I went to Larry LeBlanc, Canadian bureau chief of Billboard Magazine. What he had to say surprised me.

“I actually don?t think its changed that much. I think if anything, it’s gone back to a 1950s, ‘60 type of thing,” LeBlanc says, pointing out that what is most similar between the female artists of the ’50s and ’60s and the female artists of today is that men are writing their music.

“Like Connie Francis, who had a slew of hits; ‘Who’s Sorry Now.’ I mean there were all of these love songs that were supposed to be from a female perspective, but they weren’t. Today it’s the same thing essentially. If you take a look at say, Britney Spears, the majority of her writing, except for more recently because she’s trying for some publishing, were written by other people,” he says.

LeBlanc says the generation of female teen idols my generation grew up with and dressed like ? Tiffany, Debbie Gibson ? are not the rule, but the exception to the rule.

“Tiffany was a bit of the same because she wrote a bit of her stuff, but I think the person who was the real renegade and the maverick, say 20 years ago, was Debbie Gibson. Debbie wrote her own material and wrote about her own themes in her own songs,” he says, adding that there are still successful female singer-songwriters that tweens and teens admire, but they tend not to fall into the pop genre of music.

Oh baby, baby/The reason I breathe is you/Boy you got me blinded/Oh baby, baby/There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do/That’s not the way I planned it/Show me, how you want it to be/Tell me baby/’Cause I need to know now what we’ve got/My loneliness is killing me/I must confess, I still believe/When I’m not with you I lose my mind/Give me a sign/Hit me baby one more time
-”Baby ? One More Time” by Britney Spears, written by Max Martin

According to LeBlanc, who has been with Billboard for 16 years, even if a female artist writes her own music, there is still a heavy male presence on everything she does with her work. Usually the producer is male, the engineer is male, the members of the band are male and so forth. However, he agrees that where things are different now than they were in the 1950s and ’60s is the focus on celebrity.

“What came into being in the ’50s? Television. The music industry met the TV industry. The MTV-ing of the world today is not that much different from saying back then the American Bandstands of the world, or females who were on various television shows,” he says.

“Same thing today, whether we look at Lindsay Lohan, Jessica or even Kelly Clarkson. Are they really part of the music world or are they really part of the entertainment world? I’d argue they’re part of the entertainment world.”

He says even the term celebrity has been broadened so that people with no conceivable talent can be famous for anything. The obvious example is Paris Hilton, who has written a book and is coming out with an album soon.

“I mean she, quite frankly, is known for having unsavory sex in a hotel room in Paris. I mean, that’s really her claim to fame. I mean above anything else, that is what she is really known for. Can she sing? No. Can she act? Hell no. Has she got the same brain power as Madonna? No,” he says. Madonna, he points out, isn?t regarded as being the best singer, dancer or actor, but is a woman who is in charge of her career and what happens to it.

You don’t own me/I’m not just one of your many toys/You don’t own me,
don’t say I can’t go with other boys/And don’t tell me what to do/And don’t tell me what to say/And please, when I go out with you/Don’t put me on display”
-”You Don?t Own Me” by Lesley Gore, written by John Madara and David White

LeBlanc has seen a shift in the way a woman’s looks or size has been perceived over the last 20 years or so. He says he knows female artists who have talent, but record executives won’t even listen to them if they don’t conform to the current standard ? being young, thin and beautiful. He cites Canadian singer Jann Arden, who is a huge success in Canada, as an example and wonders if she tried to get her career started today if the record industry or the general public would accept her.

“I can almost tell you for sure, a heavy, female singer will not get signed by a record company in most cases. I would say 99 out of 100 times.”

But then why the sudden onslaught of “stupid girls” for young girls to aspire to? Why are teenagers asking their parents to buy them the latest designer duds so they can look just like the idols they so admire?

“I think the high school period of time is such a mixed time, I guess on both sides ? male and female ? but particularly for females where. If they look on TV or they look in magazines ? (they) are told to look this way (or) that way,” he says.

Amanda Arnini, a 15-year-old Toronto high school student, is one of those kids. She likes “Stupid Girls” by Pink, but also feels the pressures to be more like Britney than Pink. And so does her mom, Teresa.

“I feel that these female images are so insulting and degrading. They place the image to their fans that sex is cool, rubbing and gyrating against one another is how to dance, bouncing around in a bikini and washing yourself with car wash soap are the way to do day-to-day activities and of course misleading them to state that this is true pleasure and happiness,” Teresa says, adding that although she has raised her daughter to be independent and strive for what she wants in life, she still worries the images she is seeing in the media are leading her another way.

Everyone’ll try to put you down/Everyone’ll try to tell you no/If you’ve got a dream inside/You’re the only one who can know/Don’t let nobody own ya/Just say “One day I’ll show ya”/Revenge’ll sure feel nice/If inside you’ve paid the price/You know it and you’ve gotta stand your ground/You’ve earned it – no one can cut you down/They’ll try to get what they can/When you’re strong, everyone’s your friend/Guard the jewel you’ve found/You’ve gotta stand your ground”
-”Gotta Stand Your Ground” By Debbie Gibson, written by Debbie Gibson

Teresa also has seen how the female role model has changed compared to when she was a kid. She says she loved listening to Blondie and seeing her lead a band was very cool. But she doesn’t see the same thing with the female artists who are gaining popularity with her daughter’s generation today.

“The role models in the ’70s and ’80s seemed to have a reason for their voice. They didn’t sell merchandise, their body, nor their sexuality. Nowadays everything we see or hear is all based on who they are with, what are they wearing and how bad they should hurt someone else. It seems some times that these new artists are fighting issues that they haven’t even experienced, or discussing issues ? like sex and love ? when they are only 16. These images are attracting a much younger audience, and I really don’t believe they realize what they are doing, nor do they care,” she says.

Her daughter seems more upbeat, saying that she likes Pink’s song, and also realizes a truth about Britney that even she may not have even realized yet.

“Britney Spears dropped out of school at Grade 10, has no education and has nowhere to go or anything to do once her career is over,” Amanda says.

Hmm. Maybe the kids are going to be fine after all.






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