Fatherfucker

A re-post from 2006

I have discovered an artist which I really enjoy, for several reasons. I have always liked several kinds of music, everything from metal, rock, jazz to electropunk.
This time it is Peaches. A woman who a first glance just seem to be a singer getting famous through sexually provocative lyrics and shows. And this is a quite popular opionion. here has been many quotes about her, like "The title Impeach my Bush, may suggest otherwise but Merrill Nisker (known as Peaches) is concerned with sex and little else. Which is no bad thing, to Dan Martin's mind"
- Dan Martin, The Observer
But looking a little closer, this woman is truly great and has, in my opinion, a lot to offer more than catchy tunes and sex.

Peaches is provocative, but not mindlessly and manipulative to get fame and attention.
One of the reasons she is provocative is because the mainstream dictates that women be the objects of desire, not the agents of it. And Peaches reaches out and grabs us by the balls.

-"Well, I'll be happy when it's not provocative." she says
But still society seems to react strongly to her messages.
"If I'm saying two boys for every girl, it's like Jan and Dean saying 'two girls for every boy'. I don't really understand why it's normal and accepted when it's said in that context, just because it's something we're used to." she says

She takes the things we are used to for women and take for granted, and switch it around to count for men as well. One example is one her albums called Fatherfucker. The title alone seemed to indicate her move towards more actively subverting the standard gender norms and double-standards. A kind of Regender exercise for sex. As she says:

"Why do we stub our toe and say, ‘Aww motherfucker!’? What is a motherfucker? … We use it in our everyday language, and it’s such an insanely intense word. I’m not one to shy away from these obscene terms that we actually have in our mainstream. Motherfucker is a very mainstream word. But if we’re going to use motherfucker, why don’t we use fatherfucker? I’m just trying to be even.

This girl has an uncompromising attitude towards women’s sexuality, and is not afrad to show it
She also scores points for not fitting in with the glamour model standards of beauty which demands of women before they can have an opinion on sex. One of her tracks has referenced her cup size of AA, she’s donned a beard for the cover of one album, and photos of her regularly show pubic hair protuding unapologetically from her bright pink shiny pants. Wow.

Hit it Hard, includes the line “make a woman a man and a man can-can”. Boys Wanna Be Her describes some rockin’ female star who inspires the admiration of boys and girls alike, in fact “the boys wanna be her” (as we all know, for a boy to want to associate with anything female is A Very Bad Thing).

This track can remind of something sais by Abby Lee, who wrote recently:

"It’s 2007 and when it comes to sexual material for the heterosexual women, I’m bored of only being offered female imagery - as if everyone, men and women included, should find that stimulating…. I’m all for a more open and uncensored sexually liberated society, but if women are still going to be marginalied purely as objects for men’s pleasure and not as the subjects seeking and obtaining pleasure in their own right, then I’m destined to be a moody fucking bitch who will not shut up about it."

And in my opinion it’s not good enough to simply have things for women that are the same as they are for men now. There needs to be an emphasis on freedom, fairness, equality, consent and respect for both/all genders and importantly, not intruding on anyone’s preference to be free of sexual imagery imposed on them in their daily life.

But I don’t believe that Peaches messages are about switching things around to the extent that women are as objectifying or disrespectful towards men as some men are towards women. Equality, fairness and consent are indeed features. In Get It, there’s a simple message: “you wanna get it/give it/got it? well it may sound like a simple idea but/to get it gotta give it”

Two Guys (For Every Girl) is a track that’s had a lot of attention. At a time when in practically every music video you see sexy ‘babes’ groping each other, the cover of every lad mag magazine has two nude girls, breasts pressing together pouting, the UK’s most successful sex magazine aimed at heterosexual women (Scarlet) always has a woman on the cover and regularly includes pseudo-lesbian imagery, simply reversing the genders in this track actually IS subversive.

"Come over here hot boys don’t you worry I’m nice…
i got a lusty proposition that I know will suffice
let me lay out this condition that I know will entice
i wanna take you home and get you satisfied…
just one thing i can’t compromise
i wanna see you work it guy on guy
i wanna see you boys get down with each other
i wanna see you do you’re lil nasty brother"

This is taken from her interview in the February/March 2006 issue of Bust:

Interviewer: Do you think it was at all empowering for girls to see Madonna and Britney kiss?

Peaches: It was good for publicity. I’d like to see Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams make out on stage; that’s way more subversive to me than seeing Madonna and Britney Spears. I think girls are so ahead. That’s what Fatherfucker was all about. It’s like, ‘boys, shake your dicks.’ How many songs tell women to ‘shake your ass’? Or, I’m watching those VH1 specials on ass and every time they mention a guy’s ass they’re like, ‘I don’t wanna see that, ehhh!’ But every time they mention a girl’s ass they’re like, ‘She’s got a great ass!’ It’s about time Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake or Snoop Dogg and fuckin’ Ludacris suck each others dicks for everybody to see, and release a video… I want every girl to go home with two guys if they want to. And I want two guys to impress the girl by making out in front of her.

But if you have been all shocked by her lyrics, then take a look again. She often says and makes things that reminds us to not take it too seriously.
With lyrics like: “Slippery dick? It’s just a fish in the Atlantic (note:and it is true)… fist fuck cock suck/what’s the diff?” she says innocently, like, what’s all the fuss about anyway? I like to think this is a comment on double-standards and how different sexual practices are viewed and treated. Does it matter what you do and who you do it with, as long as it’s consensual? No. It shouldn’t matter.

And anyway....I think she is HOT! Attitude yeah!