Everyone knows it’s a man’s world out there (thanks James Brown), but there is none more so than the big bad world of music. From Miley’s twerking to Sinead’s slut shaming, these last months have seen an upward trajectory in the debate around gender issues within music. Rest assured that we here at Planet Notion will be keeping a keen eye on all things sexism and there may even be some bullshit called out along the way.
Have you ever touched a celebrity? With all their famous sparkling DNA traces, even the most conservative fans can get carried away by not washing for days and keeping that moment alive long after the meeting is over.
Apparently some people will do anything for a bit of skin on skin action. Sometimes though, it isn’t even a touch people are after. Britney Spears once chewed a piece of gum like it was cud and it sold for $14,000. Not enough body fluids for you? Well Scarlett Johansson’s used tissue went for a whopping £3,600, and she’s not even had to shave her head before.
It seems that being dead can also help improve your revenue, with one Elvis fan coughing up $15,000 for a jar of the King’s hair . That’s not even the weirdest one. Some genius actually made $530 on eBay selling a cup of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s breath, artfully swiped from their perfect opened mouths on the red carpet.
This grabby megafandom that craves a connection to celebrities through their touch, whilst definitely creepy, has remained fairly innocent. That is until now.
With her fairly aggressive rapping and Australian megababe looks, Iggy Azalea this week dropped the bombshell that she has had to put a self-imposed ban on crowdsurfing at her own shows as fans kept trying to finger her vagina mid surf.
Wow, eBaying celebrities snot rags doesn’t seem so extreme now, does it?
Fans are so keen to have a moment in time with their favourite celebrity that they are stooping to sexually assaulting female musicians riding the human wave. In the all telling interview with American radio station Hot 97 she said “I will get lurk tweets for like a week before my show, like ‘I’m about to go to the Iggy Azalea show and I’m going to finger her,’ and I’ll see it and be like, please don’t! That’s a violation. I don’t actually like that stuff.”
She also added, “Like, they think I’m real slutty, like ‘Oh, she got a song called ‘Pussy,’ I know what she wants. She wants these two fingers.’ Why would I want a stranger to ever finger me? Buying my album for $12 doesn’t mean you get to finger me when I come to your city.”
Maybe it says more about people’s boundaries than anything. After all, it’s not just Azalea who has had problems with crowdsurfing. Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine (duh) had the same violating treatment. In 2010, she was left crying after being sexually assaulted during a crowdsurf at a UK university ball.
With Azalea though, it is as if people see the invasion of her pants as an accolade from their tweets. By this logic, how long before her ripped pants appear on eBay, forced from her by a snatching fan like a trophy?
Do one crazy fans and just keep your hands to yourself so we can all keep surfing safely.
