What is Love?

Today I unveiled my collaboration with Fin Crowther (Beezkat) on a vintage version of What is Love? by Haddaway. I love this 90s dance anthem and it still goes down very well on the dancefloor. The sentiment behind it though, I feel is more nuanced in our version, which is stripped back to vocals and sombre piano. Hope you like it, all you lovers out there.

Today was a good day, though I was quite saddened and dismayed by an article I saw on the internet which featured various examples of advertisements which appear to condone violence against women. I am not sharing the link because I feel it is very sick. It featured women, fairly scantily clad if at all, being tied up or injured or tortured or plain humiliated, in high fashion campaigns. These ads are meant to sell shoes, clothes, perfume. I do not understand why this kind of imagery has to be used. It shocks, it titillates, yes, but does it necessarily shift product? Growing up I was never exposed to images or advertising like these. I suppose Singapore and generally South East Asia is a comparably well-protected, conservative place. The messaging I inherited from my female role models was that women are treated like gold. With respect and value.

Here, particularly over the last few years in the west, the portrayal of women is getting worse and worse. The boundaries are being pushed. Women are expressing and embracing their sexuality more and more, which is a healthy thing; what is not healthy is the normalisation of violent sexual imagery where the woman is degraded. To impose it in the (mass) media is unfair and does not do women justice.The subconscious mind is very impressionable and does not necessarily distinguish fact from fiction. People want to be subversive in the bedroom, fine, there is a time and place for everything. But do not give it a glossy sheen, make it look pretty as if it is something to aspire to and put it in a high street magazine. Semiotics is a complex thing – as they say a picture paints a thousand words. You see a luxury brand – signal: wealth, aspiration;  glossy high quality photography – signal: something worth looking at; woman with rope/tie/leash round her neck, held by a man – signal: she is like a willing object and the man is her master to do as he likes; sophisticated lighting, cool styling – signal: they look so well put together and so cool, this is the way it should be.  Bullshit, people.  Be careful. This is not the way. Humans are not toys. Femininity is powerful – do not for a moment let go of that and let anyone believe otherwise, or worse, compromise it.

We all have a responsibility to use our gifts wisely. I believe the way to combat this is to produce a positive, uplifting counter-culture. Set a positive example for our future generation. This starts from love on the inside. We are not victims. There is no oppressor without the oppressed. We are all in this together.

“What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more” – Hehehehe.