Didn't there used to be some intermediate stage between acting like a dope and poking fun at yourself for it (by which time you'd ceased acting that way)?  I think it was something to do with feeling embarrassed, reflecting, maturing?  Something like that?

@persia2:disqus Doesn't Janelle Monae, for instance, show up in long sleeve shirts buttoned to her chin?  Laura Marling?  Does anyone complain?  I'm not for a moment claiming there is anything wrong in principle with twerking on stage, sitting nude on a wrecking ball or simulating fellatio.  Nothing whatsoever.  Twerk…

@NathanielTheGreat:disqus Or maybe there isn't.  Or maybe there isn't more to it at all.

Define "objectify".  I don't think my comment implied that she's anything less than a full human being with a distinct personality with an array of (possibly charming) attributes or that her music shouldn't be judged on its merits. She's certainly not an object; she's a human being.  A homely, homely human being.

It doesn't do her any favours because it shows more of her homely face.

She's homely, and I feel that that fact has somehow gotten lost in the discussion.

@test44444444444444:disqus C'mon now, that's not necessary.

The word "paradigm"!

@avclub-9b60cf1b2106f886f17cba2b1a0359b9:disqus Ha ha.  You couldn't be more wrong.  There are no metanarratives such as "everything is connected".  You are attempting to project your phallic metanarrative apparatus of legitimation and thereby establish a form of Oderus Urungusian psychic slavery . The text is a mere…

He probably read the headline, got really excited, scrolled down to where she says "it's just a talent crush" and then threw his computer against the wall in anguish.

I'd like to see a year-long "Look At This" feature on Jessica Biel's big ass.

He better watch out.  She likes to display her affection by shoving cocaine up your ass.

Julie London was a dirty, dirty girl.

I do realize that!  You see, my problem was that I heretofore wrongly believed that not all pop art is created equal.  I didn't realize that in questioning the value of Justin Timberlake's work I was rejecting the totality of work that's ever been or ever will be so categorized.  Referencing Yeats was something of a…

You do realize this dude isn't Yeats, right?

Lost in the mists of time.

it's a bourgeois construct.

When I need help with a problem the last person I want to talk to is someone who has been through the same thing.  That's just dumb.

It is dumb but it's not that dumb.  Read Frances Saunders's "The Cultural Cold War." 

He turned Labour itself into the Tories.