Oh, PEACHES!!!

Gabrielle Shirdan

Professor Mary Beth Ray

Adv. 1101 Media and Society

December 04, 2009

The Media, Peaches and Cream: An Anti-Image Of Women

In the media, women have always been casted to play a particular role. They are props--beautiful props in magazines, in movies, in music, on television and on a man's arm, always. A woman's silhouette is outlined by the media, drawn out by the expectations of society and very few women color outside the lines. The lines are drawn thick. Women are suppose to be thin. Women should have long hair, like uncut spaghetti. Women should wear high heels and cover their skirts in pink, their shirts should be--well, uncovered. Women should show skin, because sex sells--sell themselves out to what is in.

Women in the media, in the music we hear, in the movies we see, and in the magazines to which we subscribe to are decorations. They make the male in this male dominated world look good, sound good. The image of women in this media based society does not depict women in their true beauty, as the women on the other side of the television or as the reader of the demeaning print advertisements. Women are at war with the media. They are fighting for their definition. They are fighting for their colors and some women have been slowing crossing the lines, like an eight year old child with crayons and a coloring book. Women are beginning to color outside the lines--those thick lines that have been placed around them in the media, thicker than the four sides of a television set, and thicker than the collective magazine pages they grace.

Peaches is a woman. She is the anti-all of the above. Her entire being is outside of the lines and in full color. She is the anti-image of women in the media. She is a musician. Peaches is a "pubic hair-flaunting feminist idol ardent in her quest for sexual equality" (All Mouth, No Trousers 1). She is fearless. She plays with gender and bends the typical image of women in the media. She balls it up and throws it away. Peaches is "a self-made, self-produced phenomenon, pulling unashamedly at the corset strings of sexual repression and indeed challenging sexual identity all together" (Cleary 1). Her hyper-sexual lyrics, her line wandering wardrobe, and her role in the music industry puncture the glass ceiling. She trades places with the men on top and redefines women in music and in the media.

Peaches is known for her sexually explicit lyrics and live shows. She smears her makeup and she smears gender distinctions. She blurs the lines between men and women in the media with her eclectic sound. The dimensions of her artistry reach new levels, and cross more borders than an escaping immigrant. "I've been very, very dedicated to pushing boundaries," Peaches says (Farber 1). Her music penetrates speakers with elements of rock and roll, hip hop, electronic music and punk, even rap.

Peaches's real name is Merrill Beth Nisker and on one of her own songs, Nisker calls herself the only "Peaches with a hole in the middle" (McDonnell 1). Her songs are noted, critiqued and enjoyed for their use of sexually straightforward lyrics. She plays her own instruments, she programs her own electronic beats, and produces her own albums--media gender breach numbers one, two and three. She was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Today, she lives and works in Berlin. Peaches grew up to be a children's music teacher who went by her real name. By day she was a music and drama teacher and then by night, Merrill was Peaches--"living out of her car and playing rock shows all over Toronto" (Tzou 1).

Before being signed to a major label, Peaches put out a short CD called Lovertits in the year, 2000. Yes, Lovertits--she is recognized for her sexual explicitly, remember. Peaches was later signed by Berlin based Kitty Yo Records. In 2001, her first full-length album hit stores with the title, The Teaches of Peaches. It turned heads and shook headsets everywhere. People were intrigued and caught on her catchy homemade beats. "Solely written and produced by Peaches, the disc, filled with loud, explosive rants about feminism and sex, shocked anyone who dared to listen" (Peaches 1). To this date, her most notorious song is Fuck The Pain Away from that album where she chants "fuck the pain away" sixteen times between each verse. Her offbeat act spread to the above ground music scene. She later signed with an even larger label, XL Recordings. (Peaches 1).

In 2003, her sophomore album hit stores, titled Fatherfucker. iTunes uses all stars to censor her title, but her music is hardly censored past that. Peaches plays with gender. She blurs the divide. She appears on the cover of her second album, Fatherfucker, with a full beard. "When asked if she had chosen the title for shock value, she commented, “Why do we call our mothers motherfuckers? Why do we stub our toe and say “Aww motherfucker!”? What is 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” (Merrill Nisker 1). Peaches tries to balance gender in the media. She does. She is not trying to balance her check book--this is her cause. She says, "If I was trying to sell albums, I wouldn't have called the album Fatherfucker" (Peaches 1). Peaches is real. She means the things she sings and she is making political corrections by being lyrically correct--lyrically connecting to her fans around the world, lyrically changing the image of women in the media through her music.

"At the beginning of my career I wanted to present music in the strongest way possible," Peaches says. "This time, I wanted to push my own boundaries by pushing the vulnerability" (Farber 1). She has since published two more albums, Impeach My Bush in 2006 and recently, I Feel Cream in May 2009--could one expect any other title? She earned the support of her musical peers Bjork, Marilyn Manson, Joan Jett, Iggy Pop and Madonna. Peaches, her sexual excitement and her vulgarity became very popular very fast, even though her music would rarely be played on the radio for its content. Her songs have been featured in movies such as Mean Girls, Lost in Translation, and Jackass. Her lyrics have been put to such televisions shows like The L Word, South Park and Ugly Betty on ABC. Peaches has a success that is a testament to the evolution of a woman's role in music--in media.

On and off stage, Peaches wears short shorts if any at all and flashes her audience impulsively. She posts pictures of her crotch on her website and the cover of her debut album in 2001, The Teaches of Peaches, was a close up of in between her thighs in tight hot pink shorts that left little to the mind. Peaches is distinguished for her stage costumes and her animated sense of style. Her looks are often evocative and futuristic, outlandish and they almost always push the limits of gender identity. Peaches has short black hair that is styled in her sleep. Her face is slightly masculine and her body is not a size two. In her song, AA XXX, she sings, "I'm only double-A but I'm thinking triple-X." She talks about sex, but she is only sexy by her own definition. She dresses provocative purposely and not to fit in with the sleazy midriffs of pop stars and pop culture or the tight thigh high heels of hip-hop singers but to show that all women are not tall and thin with long hair and big boobs and amazing bodies. She shows her skin to prove a point--to create a different definition of women in the media.

A lot of the time in music, women are confined to the backgrounds of music videos or to the forefront of sexually explicit lyrics sung by men. Women are the objects of a man's sexuality in the media, but in that same media, women may only express their own sexuality to satisfy men through sleazy apparel and sultry moves. This is the image of women in the media. In music, women sing about being in love with men and men sing about being in women with ease. Hip Hop rapper, The Notorious B.I.G for example says in his song, Fuck You Tonight, "I like that waist line, let me hit that from behind." Women are artifacts--items of this culture in most media. Women are props in music with small waist lines. They are the naked model in an elective art class. Men look at the them without feeling them and draw them how they see them. They outline women.

Industrial rock band, Nine Inch Nails in their song, Closer, say, "You let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you...I wanna fuck you like an animal." Women are sex toys in many of the lyrics sung by men--animals even. They are plastic and opaque, penetrated and observed. Women become inanimate in a man's song--in the media, but Peaches refuses "to become the vulnerable subject of the male gaze, she turned the tables, instead using her platform to objectify the guys" (All Mouth, No Trousers 1). She jumps over the outline men draw. She erases it and walks out of the art class. Peaches makes the men the objects of media for once. Her in-your-crotch lyrics expose and explore sexuality--not exploit it.

Perhaps, Peaches evens out gender. Her lyrics are raw and she sings vividly vulgar song titles like Two Guys (For Every Girl), Tent In Your Pants, Cum Undun, Shake Yer Dix, Slippery Dick, Stick It To The Pimp and Back It Up Boys. Her songs backfire against the demeaning lyrics of rappers like B.I.G and rock stars like Nine Inch Nails.

Peaches has titillating lyrics that stroke the audience. "The listener is either seduced or annoyed by the constant whining and purring of a woman who is not going quietly into the night" (I Feel Cream: iTunes Review). In her song Stick It To The Pimp, Peaches says, "Pissed in your pimp cup, drink up. Pissed in your pimp cup so lets get it up" (Peaches). Women are called bitches, hoes and tricks in the media--in hip hop lyrics so much. Peaches gives women the perfect comeback. Her lyrics follow an "amusingly graphic path" (All Mouth, No Trousers 3). They personify sexually explicit. In her music, she says things like, "I'd rather fuck who I want than kill who I'm told to" (Peaches). She makes a chorus out of lines like, "Huh. What? Show me what you got. Rub it against my thigh" (Peaches). Peaches has an entire song repeating the phrase "Suck and let go" (Peaches).

In her song, Two Men (For Every Girl) she rants, "Just one thing I can't compromise, I wana see you work it guy on guy" (Peaches). Her lyrics also free up men's sexuality and every straight man's fear of other straight men. Her lyrics normalize and embrace homosexuality, every type of sexuality. Peaches's lyrics are discussed as part of the Queer Studies course curriculum at the University Of Toronto, and she has been invited to lecture at the Contemporary Music Academy in Berlin (Merrill Nisker 1).

Peaches has a musical texture that rubs her audience--gets them damp. Her fans enjoy the vulgarity that her critics critique. The lyrics sung by Peaches on top of her self-produced tunes are an anthem for women. To raunchy to play live on cable television on radio or in front of anyone under the age of eighteen, but the anthem gives women a song to sing, to express their sexuality, to color outside the lines, to objectify the men for once, to redefine themselves in their own words and to be the anti-image of women in the media. As an artist, Peaches has made it possible for singers like current sensation Lady Gaga to express her sexuality like she does and many other artists have joined the fight to redefine the image of women in the media. As a person, Peaches "rejects the sanitized portrayal of women in popular music" (Merrill Nisker 1).

The lyrics that bounce of the beats of Peaches are uncensored. Her lyrics are dirty and uncut, but they sing something other than curse words, body parts and sex positions. They self satisfy women and empower their sexuality in the media. They turn the tables and escort men on a fifteen track journey in women's shoes. Peaches takes her music, her lyrics, her leather shorts and goes against everything expected of her as a woman in music and in modern media. Her songs are a soundtrack to the future of women in mass media--with parental advisory of course. Her lyrics make background music for every women coloring outside the lines of society and the lines thickened by men in the media. Peaches makes men the naked art model--she, for all women, outlines men for once, makes objects of them. The British publication, Boyz, called Peaches the best live act of the year (Peaches 1). Peaches is very live. She is live even when you listen to her through the radio. In the media, women have always been casted to play a particular role, but Peaches acts out and is hosting a new casting call for a new definition of women in the media. Peaches is a woman. She is a musician. She is the anti-image of women in the media.

... I said I would share. It was a research paper so I'm going to assume no body feels like ready this. lol. Enjoy if you do.