Everybody goes screaming on the dance floor.

A Tumblog dedicated to exploring the feminism of Daft Punk. Expect critical analysis alongside abashed heaps of miserable fangirling. (... I'll try to keep the two separate.) Naturally, I'm not formally affiliated with Daft Punk in any way. I'm just a...

[daft-punky-feminism]

Thinking about how Interstella 5555 is a film about the exploitation of artists under capitalism, and how Stella is depicted as particularly exploited under said system

[daft-punky-feminism]

Years ago (i.e., around when I started this blog), I Googled something like “daft punk feminism” to see what content, if any, existed on the subject.

The results were scant, but I remember one result. It claimed women were only present in DP’s discography as “anonymous love interests” (or something to that effect).

Now, we could talk about how that’s inaccurate, about the telos of women in DP’s music, or about the most basic of queer theories, among other things.

For right now, though,

let’s take a moment to appreciate how laughably ridiculous a “critique” that is

[queerbauten]

oh yeah, so!! I cannot believe I haven’t posted anything about the Electro Exhibition at the Paris Philharmonic yet

it was amazing. I wanted to climb into DP’s exhibit. I imagine that would have gotten me in heaps of trouble, but gosh, can you just imagine? play in the set. hug those robots. live that life.

in a word, the entire exhibit was… validating. I’ve been saying for literal years now that electro and house music (or, at least, certain representative acts) have very pro-queer, pro-feminist inclinations. I’ve been mocked for that assertion.

however, the exhibit has tonnes of talk about the LGBTQIA+ and feminist sensibilities of the genre(s). there’s even a blurb right by DP’s installation about how EDM is political, even if it doesn’t seem it.

it was great. if you get the chance to see it, do it.

[daft-punky-feminism]

gawly, this is content I could reblog here—so I will.

(I’ve got pictures, if anybody wants to see them!)

[daft-punky-feminism]

Un Daft Punk et Paul McCartney sur le nouveau Charlotte Gainsbourg

L'actrice chanteuse a enregistré une chanson écrite par l'ex-Beatles et une autre avec l'un des rois français de l'électro.

The long-standing rumours of Guy-Man collaborating with Charlotte Gainsbourg are true!

[daft-punky-feminism]

It's very strange here because we have the cultural minister encouraging rap and dance music, but then you have government policies directly opposed to those styles. But music like rap comes from the suburbs where people are unhappy about their lives, unhappy about the police. So they rap about them. Then they are arrested.

Thomas Bangalter, Melody Maker, Jan. 25, 1997. Interview with Martin James.

[queerbauten]

Music is political.

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Melody Maker, Jan. 25, 1997. Interview with Martin James. (via thebiophone)

[queerbauten]

I think it’s very telling that Daft Punk can (apparently) write songs about strippers and portray said strippers as, you know, human.

[daft-punky-feminism]

Does it say more about Daft Punk, or does it say more about society at large?

Or does it say equal things?

In either case, remembering the stripper story makes me appreciate DP in another special way.

[daft-punky-feminism]

YouTube knows what I like.

[daft-punky-feminism]

Also, even with that, DP remain the more-or-less unproblematic faves, so there’s that.

[daft-punky-feminism]

On the one hand, there are some issues I take with the lyrics to “Starboy”, but on the other hand, I’m out of my freaking mind that DAFT PUNK HAVE PUT OUT NEW MUSIC IT’S BEEN 84 YEARS AND THE SONG IS SO GOOD aside from the aforementioned qualms AND I’M GOING TO BLAST THIS ON REPEAT ALL DAY PROBABLY AND OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS A BIT MORE COMPLEXITY THAN I HAD EXPECTED AT 1 A.M. BUT THAT’S OKAY BECAUSE I REALLY FREAKIN’ LOVE DAFT PUNK THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS ROBOTS AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

[daft-punky-feminism]

I’ve got no concrete social commentary on this track right now. All I know that I’ve been freaking out over it (in a good way) for quite a while now.

[daft-punky-feminism]

It’s not cool to speculate about people’s sexual orientations.

[daft-punky-feminism]

One of the myriad things I like about the “Prime Time of Your Life” video (and believe me, there are myriad things I like about it) is that although it is a heavily media-critical piece, Daft Punk never try to separate themselves from the “media” in it.

Indeed, they (sort of) make an appearance in the video around the 0:51 mark:

[image description: a screenshot from Daft Punk’s “Prime Time of Your Life” video. A television set is broadcasting a news report, and a skeletal version of Daft Punk as they appeared in their Gap commercial is being displayed next to the reporter. End description.]

Too often, when people “in the media” try to criticize or critique “the media”, they either try to divorce themselves from the media or to paint themselves as “the good guys”. (Take, for instance, a certain music video released the same year as PToYL that has garnered much more discussion in some gender-analytical/feminist/media-critical circles, which implicitly involves the musician painting themselves as a “good person” in a media landscape that involves terrible gender stereotypes... by belittling any girl or woman who has in any way succumb to societal pressures of femininity. I digress.) 

Daft Punk, however, make a point of acknowledging that they are present in the media, whether they like it or not -- and that their presence isn’t always going to be inherently “good”. They know that they can communicate all sorts of things through their multimedia presence, and they acknowledge that they can have an impact. They can even acknowledge that they, either through their own doings or through other people’s torsion of Daft Punk’s messages, can be a force for harm.

What’s more is that the girl in the video, who eventually succumbs to the messages in the media she has consumed, isn’t painted as wrong or bad for what happened to her. It’s tragic, yes, but it’s not put on her -- it’s put on all the things that were going on in her life to bring her to the point that she reached. Again, this acknowledges that the media can be harmful to some people, and it acknowledges that no one in the media can consider themselves fully exempt from negative media influences. These acknowledgements don’t mean to say that all people in the media are trying to cause harm (I don’t think that Daft Punk would ever deliberately try to lead anyone to harm), but they do mean to say that media people need to be careful, and that the whole Western media culture needs to undergo a significant change, so that harm can be reduced or outright eliminated.

As a feminist and as someone involved with “the media”, this message is just one of many in the PToYL video that I adore.

[daft-punky-feminism]

It’s entirely possible that I’ve said this here before, but I really love the play of power dynamics in the “Revolution 909″ video.

In it, a young woman outwits a male police officer simply by staring at a stain on the officer’s shirt -- a stain he got from benefitting from the labour of another woman (his mother).

Right there, the traditionally feminine and the non-traditionally feminine are used in tandem to undermine patriarchal power structures.

That’s really cool and subversive, really.

[dafter4life]

Lookin’ to get Daft “Drunk”?

A mixologist’s love for Daft Punk inspired the signature cocktail for this new farm-to-table eatery on Second Avenue.

Copper Kettle Kitchen’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” is a pink jasmine cocktail made with Spring44’s Mountain Gin, according to mixologist Josh Mazza.

“I named it that way completely because I love Daft Punk,” Mazza said, adding that the title also adds a masculinity to an otherwise feminine drink.

[justturnonthemusic]

It’s even made with gin, my poison of choice👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[daft-punky-feminism]

“...[T]he title also adds a masculinity to an otherwise feminine drink.”

This makes me so giddy, because while I’m wary of viewing cocktails as “feminine” or feeling to “masculinize” a “feminine” drink, this general, broader conception of amalgamating the “masculine” and the “feminine” is something which Daft Punk achieve splendidly.

Really, all things being equal, this is more-or-less all that for which I would hope in a Daft-Punk-themed drink.

[queerbauten]

Joyeux anniversaire à Thomas Bangalter!!!

Happy birthday, M. Bangalter! Thanks for everything; merci pour tout. :D <3

[daft-punky-feminism]

Happy New Year! :D