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Fierce, Fabulous, and Powerful… and Did I Mention        Fierce???

It’s 2010 and for the first time that I can remember in my life, I am hearing a female rap song coming through the stereo in my big sister’s car. I remember being blown away by hearing a woman rap about sex and drugs and feeling the power emulate from her words and her voice right at me. I was only eleven and my exposure to rap music was scarce at best but even to this day, I won’t forget the feeling of hearing a girl ‘talk down’ to a boy for once, making him feel like the object and like they were a body only good for their looks. Hearing a woman confidently speaking the way that up until that point in my life, I had only heard men speak.

The song was Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass and this generation will not soon forget the impact it had on our childhood and rap culture. Shortly after, the 2012 Teen Vogue issue featured Nicki Minaj, which is significant because she was one of the first females to follow the great female artists of the ‘previous generation’ such as: Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, and Mary J. Blige, to have a position of power equivalent to that of the biggest male hip hop artists, especially in my lifetime, yet unlike those male artists she has had  to continually prove and remind people that she is powerful and strong. That first time I heard her song there was no question of whether or not she was a powerful strong woman because the answer was just right there in front of me. I required no further proof of her confidence and power in that one moment, but little did I know that she would have to spend her whole career reminding people of the “bad bitch” she was. When looking at magazine covers of the same year, I found one of the rapper Drake, an artist similar in stature and success as Nicki. I noticed that he is never portrayed as trying to justify or claim power. It is quietly and unquestionably just assumed. The GQ cover contains the caption, “Hip hop’s Heavy Weight” whereas Nicki’s teen vogue cover provides a quote from herself “my style is euphoric, girly and powerful.” this self declaration of powerful is not as effective as the power the Billboard magazine cover gives him by captioning “the new face of “hip-hop.” 

To further understand the context of this magazine cover I looked up articles about Nicki relating to her career, and one in particular drew my attention because of their portrayal of Nicki as a “party crasher” to the “boys club.” GQ wasn’t the only publication consisting sexist language around Nicki’s rap success.  

The NYT’s ran an article in the same year as her Teen Vogue cover describing her rise to success and fame. However this article states:  “It is particularly upsetting to the hip-hop boys club that the most successful transgressor, a freshly minted megastar named Nicki Minaj, is a woman.” The way this line was written, portraying the “Hip-hop boys” as upset and unwelcoming to Nicki only lead to fans and followers to also have a negative opinion about her.  

Looking into more of Nicki’s magazine covers, I found this one from VOGUE Arabia. About six years later and her success and power has only risen, as has her male counterparts of this generation. Again, this article uses words such as “bad girl” and “power to women.” The fact that they deemed it necessary to state it outright takes away from the effectiveness. Looking at this picture of her with no words, I can’t dream up a more powerful image of a woman, yet the article still feels the need to reinforce the powerful image with the word, “power,” itself because they have doubts that she, herself will be able to portray the message.

A 2018 cover of Kanye West in a similar topic related magazine cover relating to fashion contains the caption “what you can learn from him.” Similar messages are trying to be delivered in both covers and yet Nicki’s still feels the need to use terminology like “power to women” as if that was somehow in question.

My overall reflection of this analysis is that women are more often required to justify their power and success or continue to reclaim and acknowledge that power time after time so as to not let people forget. When men are ‘powerful’ it is not blatantly called out but when women like Nicki are, it becomes part of their “persona” and their “image.” If they are powerful, they are a likely to be considered a “bad bitch.” Nicki continues to be one of the most powerful women of this generation and whether you splatter the word across the page or not, she is the fierce, fabulous, and powerful role model that at age eleven and even today, I needed.

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The Social Media “Star”

These days you don’t have to get a starring role on the big screen to become famous. The blue check by your twitter handle is the new status symbol and 16 year olds who make funny internet videos have their own brands and five different kinds of Gucci belts. While Jeffree Star is much older than 16, his start as a lower class angsty myspace internet teen making obscene punk music has lead him to a multi million dollar company and making videos on the web of him destroying Louis Vuitton bags and more for an audience of 13 million followers on his Youtube channel. Owner of multiple high end cars including a Tesla and two Lamborghinis, as well as several of the most expensive Birkin Bags ever created. He has proven to be a savvy businessman and entertainer that built an empire that skyrocketed in no more than two years. Jeffree Star’s growth and journey in his gender identity development, procurement of power, and performances, both on the internet and off, is one to compare with artists such as Lady Gaga, Courtney Love, and many more of the most iconic, influential people in the entertainment business. With his fair share of scandals, including falling outs with major celebrities, and racist comments, his controversial persona has made him one of the most talked about and influential people of this day and age.

Jeffree Star’s sex is male, meaning he was born a male, however a very big part of who he is is his androgyny. He is incredibly gender fluid and has repeatedly talked about how he values the ability to wake up and be whatever he wanted that day. He loves transforming into characters and thinks of it as an art form https://www.glamour.com/story/jeffree-star-androgyny-palette There has always been much speculation about his gender and it has continuously it seems to be important to everyone-except him.

His power boils down to his complete and utter shamelessness. He is not, for one second, afraid of bad press, a good old scandal, or the backlash from one of his many blunt comments. Some of the most renowned things about him are all of his enemies and public falling outs such as the one with long time close friend, Kat Von D and although their friendship ended over a series of mishaps, most notably, when Kat spoke up for an artist who allegedly worked for Star and never got paid, they will go down in history as one of social media’s craziest cat fights, no pun intended. In 2018, Star received, what you could call, the biggest lift in ‘power’ and that is the platform of another youtuber by the name of Shane Dawson’s channel. Dawson is one of the most beloved internet celebrities and is known for his kindness, honesty, and creativity which he extended to Star by doing a four part documentary series about him on Dawson’s youtube channel of over 20 million followers. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDs0tNoNYTz05R0xo7PCVc-RgL2fsJnGg This eye-opening docu-series about how Star, a punk kid with family issues,

 transformed into a Gucci wearing, successful company owning, person in a happy relationship. From the bright pink hair to the smooth white blonde, this series gave everyone a view into his progression and life and the reaction was overwhelming. 

The amount of respect and awe that Jeffree drew from letting Shane Dawson document and share every detail of his life was astronomical and gave Jeffree an incredible uplift in the power he has overall due to the fact that the docu-series surprisingly showed him as the caring, kind, and truly intelligent human being he doesn’t necessary come off as in the content that he, himself, puts out.

Every youtube video is a performance that displays his world of luxury and pushing the limits on beauty and life such as the “Do my makeup in my Tesla” video and many more. While his performance on his videos may be crazy and on the edge, the world now knows about all the hard work, dedication, and love he puts towards his work, family, and friends. He reminds everyone of how important his opinion is by waving the famous Jeffree Star mirror at the end of his reviews with a deafening “this product is/is not Jeffree Star approved.” An iconic, gutsy addition to his performance on youtube that is nevertheless, effective.

From a failed music career to a multimillion dollar company that he didn't even bother to brag about as much as would be expected, and an incredibly happy and successful long term relationship, along with much more that was revealed by Shane Dawson,  the growth of Jeffree Star is one that shocked everyone. From his whole journey of time after time, speaking his brutal and harsh truth, he has gained a reputation that has such respect and authority over millions of people. The importance of Jeffree Star’s opinion on a product or a person is everything to the beauty industry of today and that kind of climb to the top of the food chain is one that will keep him relevant for many years to come.

The reason I chose to post about Jeffrey is because even in the beginning of his “rise to fame” he was always unapologetically himself. At the beginning however, he felt the need to be more defensive and overdo the points he was trying to make by his appearance. Fast forward to now, he is just as much him as before but has this self assurance and it's so clear he knows who he is now and I resonate with, and continue to look up to, that kind of growth so much.

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Totally Fucked, written by Jen (my literal twin i think)

The zines I chose to examine are called “Totally Fucked.” The main reason I chose to write about these zines are because from the moment I saw the little cover in the sea of zines on the table in front of me, it drew my eye. It seemed small and concise, perfect for someone with a short attention span, like myself. Not being a very analytical person, the title really appealed to be because I immediately related to it and I didn’t have to see if I could figure out what the zine was about and what message the author was trying to deliver because it was just right there in front of me. I have now lived through eight very long years of being a teen and am now well on my way to further disintegrating in my 20’s, so I think I can safely say that any single human being around my age and maybe even older, can look at this title and think of a million and one times when they have, as the kids say nowadays, “felt that”. The phrase, “totally fucked,” is the biggest mood of the teenage years and even beyond. It represents all the things, on a big scale or small, that could go wrong, and do go wrong in our lives. Just like the cover, everything in Jen’s zines are so shockingly relatable and it really goes to show that no matter how much time has passed, some things will literally never ever change.

Moving past the cover, I learned the author of these zines was a girl named Jen. Although she chose not to share much information about herself, one look through her zines and I could’ve sworn we were the exact same person. She didn’t have to tell me where she was from, the things she cared about, or even what she looked like for me to know exactly who she was and the things that were on her mind and going on in her life. Because it was exactly was was going on in mine. This zine, although it came out many years ago, could have been written by anyone in today’s day and age and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The same issues Jen wrote about are prevalent in our lives today. For example, in one of the little comics she portrayed a scene of cat calling and guys harassing a nervous and annoyed looking girl. She actually drew several variations of this same topic in more than one of her zines and you could tell it was on her mind and bothered her. This issue is still alive and well today in 2019. Girls being made to feel uncomfortable time and time again by men. While Jen’s tone may be blasé and annoyed, there is still just as much anger as if she had printed a 1000 word essay in her zine and it gets the point across just the same if not more and the truth of the matter remains the same that women are being put through the same situations as they have in the past.

While Jen does talk about more serious topics, even if it is in what could seem like a more relaxed tone, she throws a lot of funny things into her work as well. Going back to the cover of the first “Totally Fucked” I ever looked at (cover pictured below) with a picture of a man and a woman on the cover and the woman is crying saying “I’m in love with a moron”. This made me laugh so hard, and honestly who wouldn’t? We have all had boys in our lives who fall under the very large umbrella of  a “moron.” In love or not we have all wasted our time and energy on them and can feel the energy of this cartoon big time. Another comic (also pictured below) of a girl and a guy, being shy and then hooking up in the backseat of a car is, i’m sorry, but SO relatable. Jen also adds a twist on the following page with the girl looking super pregnant and the guy just standing there looking, dare I say, totally fucked? Again, a serious topic but by writing about it in this, what can be perceived as in a comical way, is Jen’s way of reminding us that hey, shit happens and it’s just life. And with this underlying theme, I wish I could sit around and read this zine all day.