| There’s something
about rock stars. Every decade—no matter which you pick—is
resplendent with its own version of fame, fortune, and fast times embodied
in the rebellious stars (or star) du jour. Think of him: tall, dark, handsome.
Sweat pours down his face as he half sings, half screams his top ten single.
He dances wildly, mirroring the frantic, undulating throng of people crowded
around the stage. Imagine that frenzy. Now what happens when the object
of all that attention is a woman?
That is the question I considered while examining images of Gwen Stefani
in magazines. Stefani is the lead singer of No Doubt, a punk rock–ska
mish-mash-of-genres-type band whose three other members are male. I looked
at how Stefani’s body is used to convey meaning in the posed pictures
of her alone—as well as with the other members of her band—in
mainstream media sources.(1) Trading the typical notion of the rock star
as male for one of a female rock star poses problems in reading images
of Stefani and in deciphering the image of the band. This switch can threaten
the identity of the band by associating it with femininity; it can overpower
the band’s identity with the female star’s overwhelming sexuality.
It may also argue for the unimportance of gender in this context.
Stefani’s body is used to signal meaning in three primary ways.
First, as “just a girl” (to quote from one of No Doubt’s
songs), her body symbolizes innocent, non-threatening virginity and girlhood;
secondly, Stefani is portrayed as the blond sex symbol and brings to mind
women who have come before her, such as Marilyn Monroe or Madonna. Finally,
Stefani is depicted as “one of the boys,” another homogenous
member of the band. Here, I explore the meaning and significance of these
representations in a case study and discuss the amalgamation of these
ideas through the images found in a single article in Rolling Stone.
Just a Girl
Chris Caffaro photographed No Doubt for an article in Time
that discussed the arrival of the album Return of Saturn. The
article claims that with the release of the album, three years after
the band first achieved nationwide acclaim, airtime on radio stations,
and video play on MTV, No Doubt is no longer simply a “one-hit
wonder.” The article questions how pop music can “grow older
gracefully,” and it mentions that Stefani is over thirty. Josh
Tyrangiel, the article’s author, gives the album and the band
high praise, calling “the result . . . a rare and surprising thing—a
follow-up record that may please everyone” (127).
Accompanying this article is Caffaro’s shot of the entire band
with the caption “pretty in pink.” Stefani is the only band
member dressed in pink: the three men in the band are all wearing red.
The colors red and pink are closely related, which could be read as
symbolizing unity. Still, they are distinct enough to highlight the
main difference the camera lens sees: Stefani is female. In fact, dressing
Stefani in shades of pink is an overt reference to femininity. From
birth, the female sex is identified with nursery blankets in shades
of pink. “Pink” is also a slang term for female genitalia.
Sometimes ladies’ rooms are denoted by the color pink (and men’s
rooms by the color blue). Even Stefani’s hair is a shade of pink!
Stefani embodies pinkness in this picture, and in doing so, she embodies
femininity.
But what kind of femininity is it? I argue that it is an impish, innocent
girlhood. Stefani is straddling drummer Adrian Young, who is on all
fours, and she holds a pink leash that seems to be attached to Young.
Is this a coy wink at sadomasochism and sexual deviance, or is it something
more innocent? I think, given the playful demeanor of bassist Tony Kanal
(standing at left and pointing toward the camera) and Young’s
huge grin, that this image is actually a reference to childhood games.
Guitarist Tom Dumont stands in the background, looking rather bemused
by the whole situation. There is nothing nasty going on here—just
a few boys and a girl, playing together.
If that is so, then how does this image show the woman as a rock star?
Taken as a whole, the picture portrays Stefani as non-threatening, which
de-problematizes the issue of her gender. If Stefani is not only female
but also, in actuality, a young female—just a girl—then
she is no threat to the archetypal masculine image of the rock star.
Yes, there is the glaringly obvious fact that she is female. Her gender,
however, is mediated and modified by the fact that is identified with
pinkness, clearly marked as different. Further, that difference is understood
not on an adult level but in terms of childhood roles, as expressed
by her position astride Young as if he were a pony. So, rather than
being the potentially dissident member of the band as the only woman,
Stefani’s threat is neutralized by her overwhelmingly girlish
nature. She embodies virginal girlhood.
Blond Sex Symbol
Vogue and VH1 have given “Fashion Awards” since
1999, and Stefani was a recipient of the award each of its first three
years. In the 2001 write-up of Stefani for the Fashion Award issue of
Vogue, Lauren Waterman completely removes Stefani from the
context of No Doubt. Stefani’s fame, which is entirely contingent
upon the music she makes with her band-mates, has so eclipsed No Doubt’s
that she is no longer even pictured with the other band members. This
article is entirely based on Stefani’s personal style and appearance—it
is the sole reason for her mention—and it has nothing to do with
No Doubt. One might think that this does not address the problem of
reading the female as rock star, but it actually magnifies the female
rock star problem for two reasons. First, the woman is no longer in
the band, so the viewer is no longer asked to consider how she does
or does not fit into the male rock star paradigm. Second, as she is
separated from her context, she can be understood as merely iconic.
David Bailey’s accompanying photograph enters the realm of the
iconic.(2) Stefani’s image immediately recalls two of her predecessors:
Marilyn Monroe and Madonna (whose own image often references Monroe’s
as well). The photo has been digitalized and distorted so that only
Stefani’s lips are in color. They are full, red, and pouty. Her
hair falls to the right in one massive wave, just as Monroe’s
did in so many famous images of her. When Madonna began her rise to
fame in the eighties, she often styled her hair in this same way as
a bold-faced reference to Marilyn Monroe’s status as blond bombshell.
The fact that the photo is primarily in black and white is a nod to
the Monroe photos, and the stippling or dotted style that the photo’s
texture has taken on (as a result of its digital manipulation) pays
homage to Andy Warhol’s famous Pop Art portraits of Monroe.
Although it cannot be seen in the Vogue cover photo, the other
shots highlight Stefani’s athletic, toned body. She is often referred
to as being “hot”—in the parlance of one of my own
colleagues. Her abdominal muscles are defined, her biceps evident as
she grabs a microphone, her legs anything but flabby. Again, this athleticism
recalls her predecessors, especially Madonna. Madonna is well known
for her body. Her workout regimen has been the subject of many news
articles and television newsmagazine segments. The message here is that
to be powerful, like Madonna—and to be in control of your career
as a musician, like Madonna—you need to look like an athlete,
like Madonna. Stefani’s trim body is an extension of her sexuality
and her control over her life and career, just as Madonna’s was
(and still is).
Looking at the Vogue image, it is important to note who or
what is not there as well as who is: the band is missing. Where are
Kanal and Young and Dumont? Perhaps they are somewhere out of the frame
of the camera, trying to make themselves look pretty. It sounds absurd,
but that’s my point: the thought of the men in the band trying
to look pretty, or even compete at all with Stefani for the spotlight,
seems ridiculous. It is preposterous for the other three band members
to be considered in light of this photo, is it not? The overpowering
sexuality signaled in this image renders Kanal, Dumont, and Young unnecessary.
One thinks No Doubt would almost continue on without them—or if
No Doubt didn’t, Stefani would.
So in the Vogue portrait, Stefani is no longer a female rock
star but a blond sex symbol. She represents sex, experience, seduction,
and is open about her sexual nature. By embodying the very things that
threaten the rest of the band (because her sex is what makes her different),
she effectively reduces them to nothing. The context of her band, which
was once problematic in understanding and placing her, has been removed,
and Stefani is now no longer a rock star in this image. She is now a
sex symbol. No Doubt has been erased.
One of the Boys
“Rock-steady crew” captions the image alongside Lorraine
Ali’s article about the release of No Doubt’s album Rock
Steady. The article quotes Stefani as saying, “That’s
what sets [No Doubt] apart—we are a real band that’s been
together 15 years, and nobody can take that away” (67). Stefani’s
words tell of her struggle, and the band’s struggle, to be seen
as a “real band.” I suggest that this struggle is directly
related to Stefani’s gender. The image that ran with this story,
entitled “Far Beyond a Shadow of No Doubt,” is an attempt
to counter the notion that girls don’t lead rock bands. Further,
I posit that the photograph contradictorily attempts to legitimize the
band.
In the Allison Dyer image, the band poses in the corner of a bedroom.(3)
Kanal is relaxing against the back of the bed, and Stefani sits in front
of him with both her legs and shirt splayed open. Young lies half under
the bed, hands clasped together, leaning on his elbows, and Dumont sits
cross-legged in front of Stefani’s left knee. Everyone is casually
dressed and the expressions are stoic—not forced smiles or feigned
boredom. The picture is that of a gang of friends hanging out. In fact,
it could almost be a bunch of guys watching a game. At first blush,
this image showcases Stefani as one of the guys; she seems to fit in
almost too perfectly. If this is the case, then one might wonder
whether there even is an argument concerning her challenging
the status quo concept of a male rock star.
But if one goes ahead and works with the idea that Stefani is one of
the guys, there are still details left to sort out. If Stefani can become
male, then what of the other representations of her? Are her sexuality,
femininity, and womanhood sacrificed for androgyny or maleness? Some
sort of a trade has to be occurring here. The “guys’ night
in” is missing some beer and chips, and oh yeah, what is Stefani
doing there? And why is her shirt open? She is almost male, but not
quite: she still has those pesky breasts. The shirt reveals a triangular
bikini-type top that showcases the very things that keep her, in effect,
from being just one of the guys. This is actually a profound comment
on the nature of the band and the nature of Stefani’s breasts’
relationship to the other band members.
Indeed, Stefani’s torso—the expanse of skin—draws
the eye immediately to it. The viewer cannot ignore Stefani, her tanned
midriff, or her pert breasts. And really, why would the viewer want
to? Stefani, the band members, or Dyer might hope to present Stefani’s
as just another one of the boys, but that argument is immediately countermanded
by her ever-present breasts. Therefore, while this image almost suggests
that Stefani’s gender is a non-issue, her dress counteracts that
argument, insisting that although she wants to be, Stefani isn’t
quite one of the boys. Striving for androgyny, she is betrayed by her
own body. One almost wonders what is left for her to do with it.
Mixed Messages
Rolling Stone’s January 31, 2002 issue features every
member of No Doubt on the cover, along with four pages of text and photographs
by David LaChapelle.(4) The article is both a retrospective of the band’s
work and a heralding of their newest album. Its dual focus is echoed
in the photographs’ mixed messages, and it leaves the reader confused
as to what he or she is supposed to think about Stefani and the band.
In the cover photo, for instance, the band is standing in a wave pool
holding a perfectly coiffed and posed Stefani, whose tucked chin and
glossed lips pose perfectly for the camera. Clearly, she is a pretty
woman; is she a blond sex symbol? Not quite. Her hair is up in a ponytail,
a very girlish style, and no one in the band seems to have a sexual
interest in her, despite the fact that they are holding her nearly naked
frame. On the other hand, why, exactly, is she wearing a halter top?
It’s not inconceivable that the halter simply fits the water scene.
And it is interesting to note that the halter is cut from a typically
masculine argyle fabric that a professional golfer might wear. I read
this as a nod to Stefani’s feigned masculinity, her attempt to
be one of the boys.
Furthering Stefani’s attempts to define herself is her belt. It
has an outsized buckle shaped as a large “ND,” except that
the “N” is backwards, probably as a nod to designer icons
like Coco Chanel. Stefani’s belt labels her as a member of No
Doubt, not as “Gwen Stefani, sex symbol” or “Gwen
Stefani, little girl.” It is difficult to discern what Stefani’s
hair, makeup, and wardrobe—combined with those of her band-mates—are
supposed to mean in this image. On the one hand, this is the picture
chosen for the cover of Rolling Stone, so perhaps its intent
is solely to sell issues of the magazine. But if there is more (and
there is always more in rhetorical studies), then it is perplexing.
Truly this is a mixed message.
The two images inside the article also feature Stefani in the foreground,
this time with the other band members in a semblance of a line behind
her, first at a burger joint and then in a club. The first image shows
Stefani wearing cut-off pants, a bandeau top, and a tie tied around
the top of her chest. She and two of the band members are staring at
the camera with jaded expressions while Dumont screams and leaps into
the air. A bandeau top is a variation of the tube top; it is revealing
and sexy. Bu the tie is tied loosely around Stefani’s chest; it
is interesting that a male garment is tied around a symbolically female
part of the body. It is an overt step toward androgyny, if not masculinity,
for Stefani. Indeed, this whole photograph seems like an attempt to
portray Stefani as one of the guys, just out for a burger, but under
Stefani’s pants are red stiletto boots and fishnet stockings,
tools of the vamp’s trade. How does one read the combination of
stilettos and fishnets with a bandeau top and a necktie?
On the next page, Stefani wears a bikini top and a tiny white jacket
that prominently feature her tanned stomach and ribcage, and she is
again in the foreground with the other band members behind her. Her
gaze can only be described as a sultry, come-hither stare. Kanal, Dumont,
and Young are crowded behind her, Kanal offering the viewer an alcoholic
drink. Stefani is again portraying the sex symbol here, but she is crashing
the boys’ night out at the bar. This image problematizes Stefani’s
role in the band by presenting her as a sex symbol attempting to be
one of the boys, blatantly saying what I think the previous image only
implied. It argues that her fluid concept of her own identity has failed.
She is, in fact, the sexy vamp trying to be “one of the boys”
while also “just a girl”—and it doesn’t work.
I find the Rolling Stone collection of images the most interesting
because, unlike the prior case studies, it mixes the three presentations
of Stefani. This blending of characteristics is further evidence to
support the theory that Stefani’s gender is a problem that photographers,
and therefore viewers, must address. Her packaging, if you will, as
one or more of the previously discussed personas, is what allows viewers
to categorize and understand her as well as her role in No Doubt.
Concluding Thoughts
Alternately “just a girl,” a blond sex symbol,
and “one of the boys,” representations of Gwen Stefani of
No Doubt are not easy to comprehend. Each of these versions of self
that Stefani embodies is utilized in an effort to address the problem
of how to understand a female rock star. Stefani’s image needs
additional interpretation because it differs from the paradigm of all-male
bands and of male rock stars. Each manifestation of Stefani’s
face and body attempts to simplify Stefani’s persona into just
one thing or just a few things. Each ultimately fails to take the viewer’s
mind off the fact that Stefani is the only girl in the band.
In the Time image, Stefani is portrayed as just a girl in order
to neutralize her effect on the male members of No Doubt. The virginal
Stefani is not “truly” a rock star because she is not an
adult. She is also not a threat to the viability of the other band members,
because she has been desexualized and de-problematized. But the Vogue
image of Stefani completely eliminates Kanal, Dumont, and Young from
No Doubt. Stefani is no longer a rock star because she is only
a sex symbol. Iconic, sexualized, and disembodied from the middle of
her chest down, Stefani is so overpowering as the blond sex symbol that
she erases the entire band.
In the Newsweek article, Stefani is not successfully one of
the boys, or just a girl, or a sex symbol. And as we saw in the Rolling
Stone spread, Stefani is not any single one of the types explored.
Her taking the role we generally assign to males—rock star—has
skewed our ability to read her body. She cannot be homogenized and accepted
as another band member, nor can she be isolated as “just a girl”
and made less threatening by her naïveté, nor can she capitalize
on her sexuality yet still maintain her status as just another band
member. If Stefani had to be said to embody just one thing, in all of
these images, it would have to be identity conflict. A female rock star
cannot exist as just those three things: to allow it to happen would
be like arguing for the existence of a purple orange. It is nonsense.
Stefani is too dangerous to the male paradigm for representations of
her body to resemble anything like a traditional rock star; she is always
a confused person, whether that person be a confused girl, a sex symbol,
a tomboy, or a combination of those things.
Footnotes
1. It is worthwhile here to remark on fanzines and teenybopper
rags. Fanzines (or “zines”) are fan-produced magazines about
stars in a variety of media and have been reborn on the Internet. They
attract a wide variety of readers. Teenybopper rags, such as Bop,
Sixteen, and others, usually combine glossy shots of stars
and bubbly commentary on newsprint pages. They often feature contests
and ways to meet the stars they highlight, and their audience tends
to be middle school–aged or younger girls. These two genres are
substantially different from the mainstream publications I chose (even
though Vogue, Newsweek, Time, and Rolling
Stone are indeed a disparate group to begin with), and so I decided
not to include them in my analysis of Stefani and No Doubt. I think
that fanzines and teenybopper rags would generate different kinds of
images than the sources I’ve looked at, however, and could make
for another interesting paper.
2. This image may be found at http://www.angelfire.com/anime3/oshidori/page3.html
(accessed April 21, 2003).
3. The sort of shabby setting of this image evokes memories of the infamous
“heroin chic” ads of the mid-nineties. Started by Calvin
Klein and mimicked by countless others, the ads featured waif-like models
such as Kate Moss splayed across downtrodden scenes and made up to look
like, well, addicts. I am not saying that that sort of image is necessarily
what Dyer intended this photograph to resemble; however, there is a
hint of that idea. The heroin chic/waif model phenomenon is another
interesting concept to examine with an eye toward rhetorical bodies.
4. The cover image may be found at http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=463&cf=77
(accessed April 21, 2003).
Works Cited
Ali, Lorraine. “Far Beyond a Shadow of No Doubt.” Newsweek,
December 17, 2001. 67.
Strauss, Neil. “No Doubt’s Anniversary Party.” Rolling
Stone, January 31, 2002. 38–40;
cover.
Tyrangiel, Josh. “Two-Hit Wonders.” Time, April
10, 2000. 127.
Waterman, Lauren. “Rock Style: Gwen Stefani.” Vogue,
November 2001. 187.
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