Vuelan & Deslizan

Girls Gotta Learn 'How To Be A Heartbreaker.' 

by Veronica Martinez

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

 

           To begin with, a little bit of background on Electra Heart, the latest album by Welsh singer Marina and the Diamonds, which came out on April 27th, 2012. Electra Heart started as a side-project under an entity separated from Marina and the Diamonds, but ended up as a conceptual album, as described by Marina Diamandis,“a combination of the American Dream and Greek Tragedy.’’ Electra Heart approaches themes like alter egos, women’s stereotypes, and role exchange through the voice of a character named Electra Heart, a character with multiple personas known as ‘the Archetypes’. These archetypes are some of the representations of the modern woman, such as the housewife, the beauty queen, the homewrecker, the teen idol, amongst others. A feminist conceptual album you say? The album received mixed reviews and, in many cases, the thematic of the album was ignored. Still, we can’t IGNORE the fact that we live in a world with a perseverant and notorious need for something called feminism. Lucky we, Electra Heart was born.

 

         The video of the fifth single “How to be a Heartbreaker,’’ caused a little bit of controversy for two reasons. First, the video wasn’t played in the U.S. because it was considered ‘homoerotic.’ Ladies and gay gentlemen would be thrilled with a video that features a fully dressed female protagonist and a bunch of Calvin Klein models showering in the background. Though it was foreseen, the reaction on how double standard is perceived today couldn’t have been better. Diamandis said it herself:

 

˝It's so f***ing ridiculous. At the moment in the U.S. they're having trouble getting it on music channels because they say it's homoerotic. And I'm like how rude and how ridiculous is that when girls, we put up with scantily-clad women grinding [in videos] and no one says, ‘This is totally lesbian and we can't have it on TV!’ So I just don't see the problem. I think it's a complete double standard and it’s ridiculous.˝

 

         Secondly, when roles are inverted, people tend to find this troubling. In this case, Marina is in complete control by being fully dressed and representing herself as the ‘player’ who is teaching us the rules on how to be a heartbreaker. These include:

 

Rule #1: You gotta have fun, but baby when you’re done you gotta be the first to run.

 

Rule #2: Don’t get attached to somebody you could lose.

 

Rule #3: Wear your heart on your cheek, but never on your sleeve unless you want to taste defeat.

 

Rule #4: Gotta be looking pure, kiss him goodbye at the door and leave him wanting more.

 

              Electra Heart is a woman who’s not afraid of getting what she wants, as shown in the song ‘‘Primadona’’: ‘Get what I want ‘cause I ask for it, not because I’m really that deserving of it’. She wants to crush hearts with her own hands and finds her strength by being a femme fatale.  Still, the character is deeper than that. At a certain point, Electra feels exposed when she can’t hide her feelings behind the Archetypes.

 

          Needless to say the company delayed the release of the video because Marina needed a little bit of ‘beauty work’ (meaning, obviously, Photoshop).

 

˝…[T]hey didn't say I was "ugly" but they said, "You need some 'beauty work' done." And I asked, "What does that mean?" And they responded, "It looks like some of your skin tone needs to be evened out." And that's fine and totally normal in pop videos…˝

 

              Again, thanks to corporate imposed beauty standards, women are continuously pushed to reach certain expectations that are part of the sublime and envisioned ‘female identity’ dilemma. Which identities? The ‘homewrecker’ or the ‘housewife’? The teen idol + the beauty queen? Perhaps the Primadona.

 

Article by:

 

                         Veronica Martinez

                           

 

 

 

 

Sources:

 

Michelson, Noah. ‘’ Marina And The Diamonds Talks 'Electra Heart,'http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/marina-and-the-diamonds-beyonce_n_2838354.html