People these days are very fond of pointing out how many women are now allowed to make records (oh, I guess they�re called CDs these days, huh?) and shouldn�t we all be so proud of how far women have come in the music biz, yadda-yadda�yeah, whatever. Blow me. When Record Execs start handing out contracts to women who have more talent than just an ability to dance, look good in very little clothing and imitate Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston (who, let�s face it, are not people who should be imitated in the first place), I�ll be very happy and will do several neutron dances of joy. I guess men are not exempt from the skank, but let�s face it � you can still get a record deal if you�re a man and not a skank; it�s very difficult to get one for the female non-skank population. Yes, I know that there are some talented ladies out there making music. But for every Mary J. Blige, there are seven Mandy Moores.

I understand the lure of the dollar. I understand that record companies exist to make money; they employ lots of people who enjoy having their medical insurance and that�s great. I just don�t understand when and why the actual art of music had to get lost in the mix. Whether or not you think it should, art can make money without pandering to societies lowest common denominator. In fact, it should and can set the bar. Why do we instead let it bring us down?

Music is quite possibly the most powerful force in the world. It communicates when nobody and nothing else can. There is a reason why art forms are always among the first to be edited, banned and otherwise kept from the masses in fascist societies around the world; because they have more power to speak to people and make them think and act than all of the planet�s politicians put together. And in my opinion, music is the most powerful of art forms.

Popular music practically dictates fashion. It influences our language and our attitudes. It even influences our political ideas (how many people have joined Greenpeace and Amnesty International just because Bono said to do so?). Here is all of this power and what have people done with it?

They�ve made it really cool to be �dirty.�

Rarely does anyone on Mtv wear actual clothes anymore and everybody dances as if they�re fucking. Evidently, it�s now cool to be called and to refer to yourself as a �bitch� or the �n� word. I am happy to see that among the recent crop of young gals getting recording contracts, there are at least a few who wear clothing and do not dance the skank-dance, but�well, sorry Avril et al, but I happen to believe that your schtick is just that. And I have noticed that you all are still filmed so as to appear rather physically attractive in your ties and sleeveless tee-shirts and blue jeans or whatever. And I have the feeling that none of us will remember your names in about five years.

I blame Madonna for all of this.

Now, don�t get me wrong. This statement has nothing to do with Madonna�s merits as an artist, although I do happen think they are limited and grossly over-stated, as a rule. Has she written some good songs? Well yeah, sure she has. And that�s a lot more than most people can say, so kudos to her. I also agree that she has had a huge influence on fashion and music (in fact this is the basis of my complaint). That influence, however, is not in ways that I consider artistic and I doubt very much that after she�s dead and gone people will be talking about her �artistic contributions� to society. They will talk about her, yes, but she will be discussed as a cultural icon more than as an artist.

But I�ve once again gotten off track here�

About the skank factor�Yes, I understand that Madonna is a smart gal and is in total control of her life and her career (and probably those of many other people close to her), but the thing is that everybody watching her rolling around in the street talking about how she was �burning up for your love� twenty years ago were not thinking at all about how smart and in control she is. And thus began our downward spiral into skankville.

Then Janet Jackson happened.

Here was this seemingly-nice, talented young lady. She decided to take �control� and made a kick-ass album that sold millions and influenced numerous youngsters.

Then she caught the skank.

It�s not enough to start working out and lose a few inches. I�ve now got to have cameras down in my cleavage and dance like�well, let�s face it � like a ho bag.

Janet�s a great dancer, yes. I also believe that Janet is smart and, like Madonna, in complete control of what she�s doing. I also believe that at this point it�s kind of like �Well, I�ve been sexual up to this point so now what can I do to push the envelope even further? Oh, I got it! I�ll dance with this guy�s face in my crotch (hello, HBO special!) so everyone will gasp at my bravery!�

The thing is�Janet and Madonna might actually get away with this sexual stuff. It is an area that I believe should be explored, artistically and otherwise, and both of them do it well. The problem is the effect on the rest of the human populace who don�t give a shit about any of that because they just like to pull the pud while watching their videos. And sadly, it would appear that Record Execs are the ones sitting there doing so. All they see is the sex, they don�t see the art. They therefore assume it is the sex that is selling and so immediately run out and get a crop of 17 year-olds that they can manipulate in to adhering to the skank long enough to make all involved a few dozen million dollars. And said skank just gets deeper and deeper, with each trying to out-skank the other. Hell, it�s not even sexy anymore. It�s just everywhere.

And yes, Christina and Britney and those of your ilk, much as you may go on and on about how this is just �you� and you�re �expressing yourself� you are being manipulated. You�re just like the thousands of women every year who claim to be having breast implants �for myself; to make me feel better about myself. I�m not doing this for anyone else but myself.� Oh yeah? Then why is it having big knockers is going to make you feel better about yourself?

Because you have fallen victim to the same brain-washing that we all have. That same brain-washing that makes us all think we can not be beautiful, hell we can not be even be talented, unless we have rock-hard abs and wear a D cup. It�s all the same thing. Hell, you may even profess yourself to be �beautiful, in every single way� but let�s be real. The only way you see fit to explore is the way in which your naked body looks beautiful while only slightly hidden behind that guitar as you gaze at the camera with lust-filled eyes.

Just take a good long look at Kelly Clarkson as a case in point. Did ya�ll see her on American Idol earlier this week? I will not comment on her song, because I didn�t listen to very much of it. But here was a nice and attractive girl last year, of an average, normal figure, who could sing well and wouldn�t have won the competition if millions of people didn�t love her just the way she was, right? And now what�s happened? She�s lost probably 30 lbs. and in real life must look way too skinny; she�s dressing like a ho and dancing around gyrating and frankly looking like an idiot doing so because you can tell that�s just not her. And you know it�s because some white guy with a tie and his �finger on the pulse of the 18-32 year-old target-audience� told her she needed to do all of these things to be successful.

And the thing is, this skank has infected us all.

I have hesitated to write about this and will not use names. I know a lot of people read the diary of the gal I am about to write about though, and will probably be pissed when they read this next bit. Let me assure you that I find the gal in question to be hilariously funny and not at all stupid, but this gal has the lowest sense of self and the lowest self-esteem that I have come across in a long time and seemingly only because she has fought a weight problem. Frankly, this gal obviously has such a rotten opinion of herself that I don�t know that I am going to read her diary anymore. It just makes me sad and angry on her behalf and even though I want to reach out to her, there really is nothing I can say or do about it, without sounding like a pompous ass. Even though I am free to sound that way in MY journal, I would not want to force that shit upon her, know what I mean? I mean, it�s her diary and she can obviously write what she wants and I would never question her directly because none of this is any of my business. But here�s the thing�this gal has fallen into the skank.

This gal likes to slep with guys, which is completely understandable. However�she�ll go out, get drunk and take some nameless, faceless guy home for a fuck. Then, he inevitably treats her like shit and she writes about it. Of course, if he happens to want to fuck her again a week later she�ll still do it, all the while writing as if it�s she that is using him and how great is it that I gave this guy a blow job and this other guy a hand job, all in one week? That sort of thing. The thing is, I have never believed the lie that this is how she chooses to live her life and I have always found her diary rather sad because of that. I understand where she is completely and I feel for her, believe me I do. I even doubt that she realizes how desperate and sad it all seems. However, I think she does seem desperate for love and attention and the random fucking of men who are completely disrespectful of her is just that � desperation and a sad attempt at achieving validation only through the fact that someone allowed her to give him a blow job. I hate to tell her this, but a drunk man will let anyone give them a blow job and it doesn't make her any more or less attractive that she is the willing one to do so right now. Nobody likes sex more then me, folks, and there is a lot to be said for the occasional nameless, faceless sexual escapade. But not when you lose a little piece of yourself with every sexual act. Not when you repeatedly set yourself up to basically be beaten down by men (or women; I assume it can happen the other way around) who are in essence very mean to you and then you voluntarily step back up to the plate to go for it again�well, that just makes me sad. The thing is, she writes about these guys showing her such disrespect as if it�s a big joke to her, but then she has to justify herself and convince us all of what a sex goddess she is in reality.

This week, some other d-lander said some really stupid and bizarre things to her about how she is not attractive and she just went off. In this particular case, she of course made fun of the stupid comments, but then had to post picture after picture of herself in an effort to prove that she is in fact NOT ugly and is very fuckable.

Whatever. If you believe that, why do you have to convince the myriad of people in d-land � most of whom are people you�ve never even met and never will? You�ve certainly not met this dick who made the comment in your Guestbook; he doesn�t know you so why the fuck would you care what he thinks about you? And I don�t care what she says. If she didn�t care, she would not even have blinked at his comment, let alone made a whole week out of talking about it and practically begging people to compliment her, which of course they did in her g-book.

I know I am coming off as holier-than-thou right now and I apologize because that is not where I am coming from at all; I am just not a good enough writer to make my intentions clear sometimes. I have always related to this woman�s diary because she sounds a hell of a lot like me about 13 years ago and we all know I have my own self-esteem issues. That�s why I know what I�m talking about.

Perhaps I am too sensitive to this skank-issue because I grew up looking very different from everybody else in Southern California and suffered a great deal because of it. Perhaps I am sensitive too because I know, deep down in my heart, that if I had just played the skank game ten-fifteen years ago I could have easily been in a very different place than I am now. I hate to beep my own horn here, and believe me when I say that I fully recognize my limitations as an artist; but the truth of the matter is that I sing better than almost anyone I�ve ever heard and have written some kick-ass songs. I can�t tell you the number of times people have heard me sing and said, �Why the hell are you a freakin� Credit Manager? What are you, nuts?� I never even tried to play the music-business game, though, because I would never, ever have played by the rules and it was not worth it to me. I seriously do not have the emotional energy to fight when it comes to music; that�s the one area of my life I need to be exempt from bullshit battles. I�m not saying that I ever had the opportunity to turn down a contract, don�t get me wrong. Nobody from the music biz has been beating down my door or saying to me, �Lose 20 pounds and we�ll talk.� Not at all. I�m also not so arrogant as to say that, if someone had beaten down my door ten years ago and told me all I had to do was lose 20 lbs. and dance like a ho I would not have jumped at the chance at a recording contract. I do think it's a good thing nobody ever did. Nowadays, I�d just rather do my own little thing, make my own little independent CDs that my family can listen to when I�m dead and gone and play little bars when I want to. So long as I can be creative and hang with people I love, that�s really all I want in life.

Well, that and new living room furniture.

But the skank just makes me angry and sad and I wonder how much real progess we as women have made in the last thirty years.

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