 |
| COURTNEY's LOVEd |
| I don't think that there is another star who provokes the same reaction as Courtney Love does. All you have to do is mention her name in the company of a few people and sit back to watch the heated debate. The woman is like Marmite. You either love her or hate her. Her critics claim she used Kurt Cobain to further her own career, was involved in his murder (despite the fact that he killed himself) and that Hole's second album was actually written by Cobain. So, let's assess these decidedly un-feminist claims. Holes' first album, Pretty On the Inside, was an angry assault on being a woman when everyone is expecting you to be all meek and pretty. And Courtney has always refused to the passive, quiet girl in the corner. Pretty On the Inside was critically acclaimed when it was released in 1991, written before Love became involved with Cobain. The New York Times made it it's record of the year. Love was a rising star in her own right. Then she got together with Cobain. And the fact that she was a talented woman destined for fame in her own band was suddenly over-shadowed by the guy she was dating. The claims that he wrote Live Through This really anger me. It is a more grown-up album although it still takes on similar subjects as it predecessor.Love had become a more accomplished songwriter and musician. This doesn't mean that Cobain must have written the album though! Why can't a woman be seen as a competent musician no matter who she is married to? It's the sexist view by society that a woman cannot be a successful, talented rock star without having some man in the background pulling the strings. In this day and age people still believe a woman must sleep her way to the top!! By a cruel twist od fate Live Through This was released in the same week as Cobains suicide. And the backlash against Love began to grow. And even now she still hasn't been able to shake off her dead husbands name. In every article on Love or Hole it is mentioned that she is the widow of Kurt Cobain, lead singer with Nirvana. She still isn't seen as a star in her own right despite three acclaimed albums and an award winning movie career. There aren't many mainstream female role models for women in the rock industry (I say mainstream because bands like L7 and Bikini Kill aren't as publicised as man fronted acts). Courtney shows girls that you can pick up a guitar and be in a band yourself. You don't have to be a groupie or denounce your gender and "rock like the guys". She says "when I see 16 year-olds waiting for me, I just want to spank them and give them guitars and tell them to start bands. It's a bummer that girls have to respond to rock artists sexually instead of, like, 'wow, me too!'". Love her or hate her, the simple fact is she met and married a beautiful man she loved. He happened to be in the most important band of the decade. And using that against her is insulting to women |
| Back to index |
| "Imagine this: you're peaking. You're in your youth. At the prime of your life. The last thing you want to be is a symbol of heroin use. You've finally met up with somebody of the opposite gender who you can write with. That's never happened before in your life. The only other person you could ever write with wasn't as good a writer as you, and this person's a better writer than you. And you're in love, you have a best friend, you have a soul-fucking mate, and you can't believe it's happening in your lifetime. And as a bonus he's beautiful. And he's rich. And as a bonus he's a hot rock star to boot. And he's the best fuck that ever walked. And he wants to have babies, and what you want is babies. You've wanted to have babies forever. And he understands everything you say. And he completes your sentences. And he's lazy, but he's spiritual, and he's not embarrassed about praying, he's not embarrassed about chanting, he's not embarrassed about God, Jesus none of it. He fucking thinks it's all really cool. He wants to fucking learn the path. He wants to be enlightened. Everything. And there's even room for you to fix him, which you like, cos you're a fixer-upper. He's perfect in almost every single way. The only fucking happiness that I ever had. And then it all gets taken away....." Courtney Love on Kurt Cobain |
|
 |