’80’s fans: Neneh Cherry is STILL a badass feminist
Look, it’s always full-on amaze when a celebrity is loud and proud about their feminism. Seriously, y’all, every time I read about a new celebrity realizing she (or he) is a feminist, I cheer out loud like my team just scored the winning goal. I bow down when celebrities of the moment — Beyoncé, Emma Watson, Taylor Swift — come out and declare their feminism. They’re advancing gender discussions more than we even realize. But there’s a special type of tingling in the soul that happens when a lady-fave you haven’t heard from in ages speaks up to add her name to the feminist cause.
Such is the case with Neneh Cherry, the Swedish-born singer-songwriter who has been making our music lives awesome since the ’80s (remember ‘Buffalo Stance’?).
Sweet, sweet memories.
Cherry took her rad-levels even one step higher (we didn’t know that was possible) when she recently gave an interview to the Village Voice in which she spoke about the current state of feminism. In her interview, Cherry told the Voice that “. . . she’s inspired by how artists today have ushered a new brand of feminism into pop culture.”
“It’s definitely on people’s tongues and it’s definitely been an active conversation and feeling and emotion,” she said.
Cherry herself is an active feminist and she’s determined to pass down that legacy. The Voice reports that she recently attended a demonstration for Sweden’s rising Feminist Initiative Party with her 18-year-old daughter, and that the experience brought on a whole lot of feels. As excited as she is about the future of gender equality, her perspective on modern music and music videos is that women still need to be doing more.
“How can we, us — women in the year 2014 — even be letting that happen?” she wonders, referring to sexist music videos. “We need to take charge of our s–t!”
Neneh Cherry, set the bar for cool in the ’80’s and is still leading the pack today, just in a different way. It’s seriously as much fun to hear this trailblazer and icon talk gender equality as it is to hear her sing ‘7 Seconds.’ So glad to have you on the scene, Cherry. Keep sharing that tremendous voice.
Image via
