Misogyny and Philogyny in Music: Shakira, Rihanna, and Madonna
Creators: name: Wajiha Raza Rizvi
name: Rizvi, Ali Kumael
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: 190299 Film, Television and Digital Media not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Arts (arts, history of arts, performing arts, music)
subject: FOS: Arts (arts, history of arts, performing arts, music)
subject: 190204 Film and Television
subject: 130201 Creative Arts, Media and Communication Curriculum and Pedagogy
subject: FOS: Educational sciences
subject: FOS: Educational sciences
subject: 200212 Screen and Media Culture
subject: FOS: Other humanities
subject: FOS: Other humanities
subject: 190407 Music Performance
subject: 200101 Communication Studies
subject: FOS: Media and communications
subject: FOS: Media and communications
subject: 200199 Communication and Media Studies not elsewhere classified
subject: 200102 Communication Technology and Digital Media Studies
subject: 200205 Culture, Gender, Sexuality
subject: 130308 Gender, Sexuality and Education
subject: 170105 Gender Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: Gender studies
subject: 169901 Gender Specific Studies
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology

description: The paper examines Shakira and Rihanna’s duet <i>Can’t remember to forget you</i> (2014) that denies the power of heterosexual love for roués in favor of philogyny between women who externalize misogyny. In this MTV video, two divas cavort in bed, inviting female fascination and gaze, and challenging the patriarchy through their lesbian affinity. The paper examines how Shakira and Rihanna consider male bodies, what Aristotle and Augustin consider, “an obstacle to exercise of [female] reason”, how they overcome misogyny, engage in philogyny, and construct narratives of pleasure, and how Rihanna controls her own African-American image with respect and dignity (Katie Toms, 2019), and denies exploitation and victimization of the African-American girl in her. The paper uses research by Ruby M. Gourdine and Brianna P. Lemmons (2011), Rozie-Battle (2002), Collins (2000), Rita. J. Andrews (n.d.), Kathleen Barry (1995), Judith M. Bennette (1991),<i> </i>Joanne B. Eicher (2001), John Carl Flugel (1950), Amalia Graziani (2014), Larry. E. Greeson and Rose William (1986), Sheila Jeffreys (2005), Ikamara Larasi (2013), Glenn O'Brien (1992), Kristina Olson (2011-12), Camille Paglia (1992), Judith L. Rozie-Battle (2002), Diana Russell (1993), and Annie-Rose Strasser (2013) as supporting argument to discuss philogyny as opposed to misogyny in the video. It uses content analysis method to examine juxtaposing texts and images of <i>Can’t remember to forget you</i> and compares them with Madonna’s sadomasochist brothel look while grabbing her crotch on stage during a performance of <i>Express yourself </i>(Jeffreys 2005: 75). The paper finds that Shakira and Rihanna’s philogyny questions forces of misogyny in a Freudian sense: sex as a prime motivator for even the most prudent puritanical-appearing individual. The duo’s “illustrious vernacular” is, what Dante rejects, as an artistic transformation of the “lingua maternal,” a trope (Kristina Olson 2011-12: 64). <i>Can’t remember to forget you</i> presents castration threat to the forces of woman-hating, disregarding phallocentrism, evoking the castration anxiety. Shakira and Rihanna evoke male fear through the artistic transformation of lingua maternal, and load it with philogyny. They empower women as subjects, and take charge of their nudity in <i>Can’t Remember to Forget You</i>. They intoxicate women’s toxic images with their subjectivity and their right to sexuality, and free themselves from patriarchy. Shakira and Rihanna deny misogyny, celebrate their sexual exposure and philogyny on their own will as opposed to women who do it upon men’s insistence. They empower women with control on trade/art, resist their image is demeaning/degrading, celebrate freedom.