![]() Is this progressive, though? It definitely shows progression from the wilting flower of previous ‘mad girls’, but this conflation of ‘woman’ and ‘active’ has been done before, with cases of movies of female violence (like ‘Kill Bill’), with a decidedly postfeminist lens. There is a dualism in place within the Western world, where masculine is active, and feminine is passive, but Autumn conflates this with her typically feminine style and active (and angry) nature. Integrating what it is to be mentally ill and a girl has been done, but usually when one discusses mental illness and girlhood, one talks of how it victimizes the girl and how the girl is passively ‘dealing’ with it-Autumn takes on a much more traditionally masculine approach by conflating it largely with violence and slightly more ‘active’ representations. Yet, her anger and threats may seem empty, like they aren’t accomplishing anything, and Autumn herself hasn’t made any action against the issues she discusses-thus, her activism for girl power and for a better understanding of mental illnesses is only through her discussion of said issues. The answer to this isn’t that clear cut-in many ways, Autumn’s use of violence and real, powerful, anger are progressive by shattering the concept of girl as weak. I have one main question here about Autumn: is the alternative form of girlhood that she presents is challenging to sexist thinking and the patriarchal structure, or is it more presentation, one of ‘all talk and no walk’. Because of this she provides one of the only frameworks that exists for how girlhood can be defined and altered by external (and internal) forces. Autumn also focuses on her mental illness (specifically bipolar disorder), providing another way to characterize girlhood in media as something other than one dimensional, and gives insight on the confusing and sometimes contradictory intersection of girlhood and mental illness. It can be adopted from this point onward in characterizing a multi-faceted understanding of women and of girls. This girlhood combines the traditionally masculine and feminine into something that is not bound by the stereotypes of any gender binary. Through her two albums and her larger-than-life live shows, Emilie Autumn offers a different version of girlhood than has been seen in American and western society-she offers a girlhood that is strong through means of violence and domination, yet one that embraces some aspects of girlhood that might be considered traditionally feminine, mostly in fashion style and in the acceptance of the term ‘girl’. ![]() To go along with these albums, Autumn toured extensively throughout the world with music from each, and her live shows have the representation of being interactive and grandiose, which further characterizes her alternative form of girlhood. ![]() These albums are where her presentations of girlhood/womanhood are most prominent, and they offer an alternative perspective on what media has so closely and narrowly defined as girl power and as girlhood. Though she’s released eight albums in total (two are remix/cover albums, two are purely instrumental, and one is a spoken word album, and one is a spoken word ‘companion’ album), I want to spend more time talking about her two most well-known albums, Opheliac (released in 2006) and the concept album Fight Like a Girl (released in 2012, and abbreviated as FLAG). ![]() Her main contribution to media, however, is through her music. One example of this challenge to traditional girlhood as ‘weak’ and ‘lesser’ has been in the form of Emilie Autumn, who, at least according to her site, is a self-proclaimed “World-class violinist. ![]()
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