After Gwen Stefani’s great appearance at the Grammys on Sunday, her cover of Canada’s Fashion Magazine just seems… blah. She’s a pale woman but they really washed her out. Still, I am happy to see Gwen looking much better overall. She really had me worried last year, when it looked like she was tweaking her face too much. I guess she heard the criticism and let the ‘Tox work its way out. Good. As for this magazine interview, Gwen seems to be saying that she’s never really relied on her sexuality in her career. True or false?
On sexuality: “We have this sexual side to us that is alluring and powerful. It’s a gift. When you discover it when you are around 14, it feels amazing. But you learn it’s fleeting. Sexuality is something I’ve never felt comfortable with. I won’t be doing any topless photo shoots anytime soon. It’s not my thing. I don’t judge people for it, but I didn’t even wear high heels until I was 30. It’s important to evolve outside of your sexuality to entertain people. It was never a card that I played or will play – ever.”
On never regretting her fashion wardrobe choices: “Everything seems to have a reason for looking a certain way. If you [hand] me an old photo of myself, I can tell you why I’m wearing what I’m wearing. Somebody just showed me a picture of me at a MTV awards, where I was wearing this blue fur bathing suit top. Right away, I was like, ‘Yup, I know why I wore that.’ I had just gotten off a two-and-a-half year tour with No Doubt and I felt like I needed to break free a bit. How can anyone regret wearing something? I never do. It reflects who you are at that moment.”
[From Fashion Magazine, via E! News]
I remember when No Doubt really became major in the mid to late 1990s and all of the guys thought Gwen was the hottest thing. They liked her – I believe – because she was an interesting balance of tomboy/athlete and just good old fashioned Hot Girl. She was girly with her makeup and her platinum blonde hair but she was also all about showing off her toned abs and sweating her ass off during concerts. Now, do I think Gwen ever put herself out there like she was the sexiest chica in the world? Not really. But it seems too “cute” to say “It was never a card that I played or will play – ever.”
Photos courtesy of Fashion Magazine.
Yes, she just bares her midriff to give it some air, not because she is trying to be sexy.
I think she was definately dressing sexy in her early hits.
She’s a beautiful woman, love her.
It’s bs. When she went solo she definitely started playing up her sex appeal. It was pretty obvious not just in her clothing but also the camera angles/shots in her videos…I distinctly remember the slow mo of her buttcheeks wobbling in that red leotard in holla back girl lol.
Was that the video where she was singing about bananas? Yeah, I remember wondering what the heck was going on there, and why she was doing it.
She’s worn really tiny bikini tops. Maybe because she’s got a smaller chest, she doesn’t think she’s used her body to convey some sort of sexiness? But still….
She hasn’t relied solely on her sexuality to get where she is. However, I wouldn’t say she’s not used it at some point undeliberately either. And she isn’t square dancing either when she’s in a music video.
Loved her in No Doubt and love her now.
It is true, in a way. She’s definitely a sensual woman, but in a rather wholesome way, I think. She’s not like, say, Rihanna. There’s nothing right or wrong about it, it’s just different. Also, I love what she said about her fashion.
Me too- the fashion statement was spot on.
I don’t know if she is feigning lack of awareness about her perceived sex appeal, but the fact that she mentioned not wearing heels until 30 makes me think she has a different definition of what is sexy. I remember being in my late teens and early 20’s and had a tomboy appeal and lots of guys did like me, but I would have never seen myself as sexy. In hindsight, yeah I was; it is just that I would have scoffed at the notion when I was younger because I thought guys liked me for being cool and fun, and not being overly girly. But if you take away the rigid conventions of what constitutes as sex appeal–high heels, mini skirts, etc–than I think Gwen is playing hers down quite a bit for this interview. Still, when you consider how some pop stars crank up the volume on using sex appeal x1000 in their image, I can see how Gwen would not relate herself to it.
I think it’s a semantic problem. She’s not naked on a wrecking ball. But she is an attractive, athletic woman who works hard to stay that way. She IS sexy, but in her mind twerking isn’t important.
In the ’90s, I think her look was considered sexy (why else was Britney baring her midriff?) Nowadays this look would be considered tame, of course, but then again I suppose anyone looks tame compared to Miley Cyrus and Rihanna.
Maybe she means she wasn’t overtly sexual like Madonna, but I’m sure her look was considered appealing or alluring to a certain segment of the population in the ’90s.
She was “cool girl sexy”. She is basing the definition of sexy on high heels, mini skirts, posh spice vs. sporty spice girly-stuff sexy. When in reality, different people find different styles sexy. To me, bearded men in lumber jack outfits do nothing for me, but if you mention that type of guy and if you add a man bun, women go cray around here.
That last sentence made me laugh. Don’t forget fancy British otters as well.
I’d say she wasn’t necessarily sexual in her performances or demeanor, but she did dress sexily in a slightly off-beat way and her make-up is classic sexy. And there was a phase after she played Jean Harlow in Scorcese’s movie when she did the blonde bombshell thing for a while, and she can’t pretend that’s not an obviously sexy look.
I think I see what she’s saying. I think there’s a difference between wanting to feel attractive, paying attention to how you dress/style yourself, etc and trading on sexuality as a core part of your brand as an entertainer. I think she’s saying she never did the latter of those things and I think she’s correct.
People may have found her sexy (myself included!) but that wasn’t her primary selling point. To my knowledge, she wasn’t posing half nude on the cover of Maxim, her dancing was never overtly sexual but rather athletic and even when you look at photos of her in bikini tops and other items that are rather revealing, her posing is never sultry/coquettish/sexy.
She may be sexy, but that’s never come across as her primary goal (which in and of itself can add to how sexy she seems to many people).
+1
Sex appeal is a quality that is projected onto a person by others. Not the other way around. Some people can show very little skin and be considered sexy as hell, while others can show all the skin in the world and get no more than a disinterested shrug.
I agree; she wasn’t using her sexuality to sell her brand or music. But she happened to be sexy and it helped her career and brand. I know she used to perform in san diego in her early career, at the now world beat center. And she was more reggae/ska maybe a little punk influenced music. Her dress is more costumey than sexy, IMO.
Yeah, that’s what I took it as too. Her looks sure didn’t harm her but they weren’t her primary asset. She never exploited her sexuality in the way Britney, Rihanna or JLo did.
I think she’s interpreting the sex card as standard porn lite sexuality where she’s deliberately dressed or posing in ways that evoke that type of image.
In her mind, being a tomboy who flashed her abs isn’t the same thing as dressing in a feminine ascribed way that points to sexuality.
Therefore in her mind, flashing her abs was a different thing because it wasn’t done to point to her sexuality whereas someone like Kim K flashing her abs is always pointing to their sexuality.
In a convoluted way, i’m saying that she thinks her idea of dressing like a tomboy wasn’t about sex even if she flashed her abs. It’s another societal doctrine such that girls who dress/are/look like tomboys aren’t deemed sexy.
Therefore you have someone like Jen Aniston wearing a tuxedo, but styled in a way that reminds you that she’s a girl and it’s definitely about sex.
Gwen Stefani has never worn a tuxedo in that way, even in the pictures above.
Wasn’t her bananas video (I forgot the name of the song?) kind of sexual? I think she’s danced suggestively at times. I could of course be quite wrong about my perception of the video, but I think I may have looked at the tv a bit strangely when that video came on.
I wouldn’t put her in the same category as J-Lo or Rihanna, but I don’t think she was Debbie Gibson either.
ermmmm…yea, no.
http://blog.promotion-us.com/blog.promotion-us.com/html/wp-content/uploads/GwenStefaniNoDoubt4.jpg
And that’s by no means the best example.
There was also the Luxurious video where the camera lingers weirdly over her bra top and hot pants. Underneath It All seemed kind of suggestive as well. Do celebrities forget that we can view their music videos on Youtube?
When I read the title of the post, I came over here to say, hey, I’m a big fan of Gwen, I love her, but bullsh*t she doesn’t play the sexy card. Actually though, reading the interview, I don’t think she was saying she doesn’t play the sexy card. I think she was saying she doesn’t play it as far as/the same way as others (who might do topless photo shoots), which is true.
Also, I think her take on fashion is dead-on. It’s an expression of a moment in time. It’s just another reason I love Gwen: she’s a real fashion girl, not a bullsh*t fashion girl who just kind of follows whatever the current thing is for being an “It Girl” – – she genuinely has her own style and it’s part of how she expresses herself.
This is so true and one of the reasons I luv her! Shes super pretty and has amazing style but its never “slutty”. If its sexy its more on the cute side which I luv. When your this awesome you dont need to dress that way for attention *cough*Kim*cough 🙂
I don’t think she’s pornographic in the use of her sexuality (obviously not), but I think it’s a little weird when she says she’s not comfortable with (her?) sexuality. Assuming there isn’t something tragic that has happened in her past or that someone hasn’t forced her to do certain moves, I think she’d have to be comfortable with sexuality on some level to have done the Luxurious video. Maybe the time period during which she did those types of videos was just a phase or experimenting with her “artistry”, but I find it hard to believe she’s uncomfortable with moving a certain way or wearing certain clothes to convey a sexy image. Or at the very least I find it hard to believe that she’s never played that card AT ALL (although, again, maybe she considers that exploring her “art” whereas someone else is playing a card). I mean, she’s rolled around on beds while almost smelling her armpits in provocative clothing– what is that? unless it’s trying to convey something?