FEATURE:
All They Ever Look For
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
The Sexualisation of Kate Bush By the Media
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THIS might not seem like as especially….
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in Liverpool in 1979
festive feature but, previously, I have looked at how Kate Bush’s approach to romance and sex through her music is unique. She has this ability to switch between something quite poetic and oblique to being very direct and confident. Certainly, in many of her songs, Bush has exuded such eroticism and passion but, detaching the artist from the woman, and she herself never wanted to be seen as a ‘sex symbol’. If songs like Feel It (The Kick Inside), and In the Warm Room (Lionheart) suggested someone who, early in her career, was more than confident enough to speak about sex and desire in very unadorned terms, maybe the media took that to mean that Bush wanted to be seen as a sex symbol. The woman who appeared in the Babooshka (from Never for Ever) video as a sword-wielding heroine is very different to the more shy and ordinary Kate Bush we hear in interviews. An article from Far Out Magazine earlier in the year raised a particular encounter where Bush had to refute the notion she was a sex symbol – and the interviewer promptly ignored her answer:
“Bush was quickly labelled a sex-symbol following her breakthrough and, with her own songs finding new and expressive ways to talk about the still taboo subject, she was soon categorised under her physical attributes and her flirtatious performances. It was a notion that she wholeheartedly refutes in this rarely seen interview footage from 1979.
The footage comes from Check It Out one of the North East’s attempt at conquering the holy land of ‘Youth TV’. Sometimes affectionately known as Yoof TV, it was created in an attempt to try and tap into the new teenage market through music television. More often than not it was created by middle-aged men who had little to no clue about the youth subcultures which were rife in the mid-to-late seventies.
One such programme was the Tyne Tees, Check it Out. It had all the classic tropes of Youth TV, poorly dressed set, poorly dressed presenters and poorly skilled studio staff. Yet despite this, with the promise of a keen viewership, the show managed to hook a fair few rock and roll ducks in its time, including Kate Bush.
Chris Cowey is the presenter at this time for the show—before he would go on to host Top of the Pops—and he does a fine job of highlighting the casual misogyny of the times with his introduction. With all the grace of a bulldog dragging its balls along the floor, Cowey licks his lips and decade-defining moustache at just the mention of Bush’s name.
Handing over to the interviewer, who is thrilled to grab some time with Britain’s latest superstar, Bush is charming and confident. One thing that’s up for discussion is both Bush’s use of sex and vivid imagery in her songs and the notion that she has become a sex symbol. It’s something Bush moves to quickly shut down.
Bush confirms that while most songs that dominate the charts are about sex in one form or another, “Most of the pop songs are about sex whether they say it obviously or not,” she says, before adding: “It’s been like that for years. The subject is to write about ‘boy meets girl’ that’s the basics of it”. It highlights the singer’s already strong introduction to the music business, having already worked with some of the industry’s finest during her short career.
The interviewer then asks if she comes in for criticism for being a sex symbol, Bush expertly replies: “I do. But as long as people appreciate me as a musician and an artist then that’s great. If anything comes on top of that then it’s just a bonus, as far as I’m concerned.
“But I really want people to understand I am a serious artist—I’m not just flirting around with the business you know?” At this point, our interviewer cracks an awkward laugh. It’s a laugh which is quickly stifled by Bush’s powerful gaze as she tries to make her point. “I take it very seriously”.
Unfortunately, this message falls somewhat on deaf ears as the interviewer hints back to the sexual imagery of the songs and asks if they’re derived from personal experiences. Considering that most of Bush’s songs at the time took place in narrative worlds novelists would be proud of, it’s a silly question and is treated as such”.
I think one of the greatest things about Bush’s music is how, through her career, she has been very honest and open about her approach to sex and longing - she adores the male figure and why shouldn’t she write about her passions?! Maybe her early albums like The Kick Inside (her 1978 debut) are more focused on romance and love than what was to come later, but there has never been a sense of Bush defining herself as someone obsessed by sex. I think early photoshoots might have caused some misconceptions.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
I have written about the photoshoot for the Wuthering Heights single by Gered Mankowitz, where Bush wears a leotard and, to some, that was her showcasing her body and sexuality. In actuality, it was Kate Bush being snapped as a dancer but, because the shoot was quite sexy, the media took a very tabloid approach. I guess every male interviewer fancied themselves as a potential suitor when it came to talking with Kate Bush – as Graeme Thomson notes in his biography, Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush. Right from her first single, Wuthering Heights arriving, there was a skewing away from the brilliance of her music – by some people – to what Bush looked like and how she was this kind of temptress. Look at the videos (the U.S. and U.K. versions) for Wuthering Heights and there is nothing provocative and sexual about them. Bush is a beautiful woman, sure…but she was never marketing herself as a femme fatale or this edgy and sexualised Pop artist. In an interview with the Daily Express in 1979, we see how she responded to being seen as a sex symbol off of the back of Wuthering Heights’ success:
“With singer Kate Bush sex takes very much of a second place.
Music is the love of her life.
Twenty-year-old Kate, flushed with the success of her spectacular debut at the London Palladium, made that plain yesterday.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a still from the Wuthering Heights video, 1978/IN THIS PHOTO: Gered Mankowitz
However if you do think of Kate as a singer with sex appeal -- in that order -- it's quite OK now.
But she wasn't so happy about it when she was released on the world a year ago with the smash hit number "Wuthering Heights," and was immediately hailed a as a sex symbol.
Worried
"That worried me very much," she said. "I did not want people to start looking at me just as a face and a body, rather than a person who was presenting music.
" "As long as the 'sex symbol' tag doesn't get in the way of that then I'm very happy to be called one."
As for her own love life, Kate said: "I have no time for constant boyfriends. I am obsessed with work.
" I find myself worrying about perfection in everything. My one danger is that I can run out of fuel because there is so little time to relax".
I think Kate Bush has inspired a number of artists regarding how they can tackle taboos and deal with sex through music. Bush has never been overly-raunchy. She is a brave and very honest songwriter who was very different to a lot of solo female songwriters of the 1970s. From her contemporaries in the 1970s such as Debbie Harry to Madonna in the 1980s, there has always been this sexism and judgement levied at women who cover romance and sex through their work.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980
Kate Bush is a fashion icon who has inspired legions of her fans through the years. Wuthering Heights is very much a video of innocence and the gothic; look at her future videos and there is so much variety in terms of themes. I don’t want to get into a whole discussion about sexism in the music media at the moment. When faced with a beautiful young woman who, among many other subjects, was discussing her passions and inner-thoughts so beautifully, many in the media focused heavily on that area and defined Kate Bush. As this article from 2014 explores…many women are labelled by men (not exclusively, but for the majority of the time) in the media - and the real depth and meaning of their work is ignored. Whilst Bush has never seen herself as a feminist, she is this very engaging and incredible writer and performer who, in some photos and videos, has this more sexual edge. Men in the same situation are celebrated and idolised when they are more provocative, whereas women are preached to and criticised. I am writing about this subject because, even in 2020, there are articles about Kate Bush where the words ‘sex symbol’ are used; like that is the crux of her being and she is this supermodel who was flaunting her body to get noticed! I guess, over forty years since her debut single, Bush is not as bothered by those old interviews and how many in the media represented her.
It is good that perceptions changed through the years because, prior to 1985 – when Hounds of Love was released -, there were a lot of people in the media either reducing Bush to the role of a sex symbol or, when she did not release an album so quickly, she was a recluse – which, to be fair, is something that is still applied to her! I refute the idea that Bush was not a complete and true artist prior to Hounds of Love and that much of her early work was her trying to search for her voice. Right from the beginning, here we had this extraordinary and original artist who was mishandled by the media for many years. In fact, when a record label representative from EMI learned that a lyric from Breathing (from Never for Ever) would contain “Breathing/(Out, in, out, in, out, in)”, they naturally assumed it was a sexual reference! Maybe we can laugh about the naivety and ignorance that existed back then but, as we still see it in the industry, I wonder whether attitudes will ever change. There was a natural maturation and change regarding Bush’s work so that, by Hounds of Love, she was seen as a more serious artist; her songs were less involved with the nature of attraction and sex and more concerned with the complexity of love – that said, The Sensual World’s title track, and Misty from 2011’s 50 Words for Snow did get some eyebrows raised. It is sad that some did not treat Bush with the deference and respect that she deserved at various points in her career, and that she was asked whether she considered herself to be a sex symbol. The ensuing years have shown her to be this hugely inspiring and innovative artist who changed music and is one of the greatest songwriters the world has seen. I know that this, fortunately, will be Kate Bush’s…
ULTIMATE legacy.