Sky Ferreira has responded to a widely-criticised thinkpiece about her in the LA Weekly that was less an ode to her sexuality and more a step-by-step guide to one dude’s boner, blasting the piece on Twitter as “bullshit” that “took a toll on me in a personal level.”
ICYMI the piece was titled ‘Sky Ferreira’s Sex Appeal Is What Pop Music Needs Right Now‘, and includes such lines as “both Sky and Madonna have similar breasts in both cup size and ability to cause a shitstorm”, and “she’s too nasty to be anyone’s schoolgirl fantasy”.
The author, Art Tavana, spends most of the article comparing her to other pop stars (mostly female, but also Michael Jackson to ~even up the genders~) and finding her superior thanks to her #cool #effortless #sexuality.
For example, compared to Katy Perry and Taylor Swift:
“To see how Ferreira fits into this elite group, simply look over her Instagram. There isn’t a single photo of her that isn’t flawlessly, almost offensively cool. Even in the candid photo of her nude in the shower, soaking wet, she looks natural, like she’s shooting a home video, rather than being photographed by a creeper. She looks like a more cherubic Sharon Stone, icy but also sweet, like a freshly licked lollipop.”
Honestly, it’s amazing he was able to type that all out one-handed, tbqh.
The piece was widely criticised across the web, and LA Weekly’s music editor Andy Hermann issued a pretty decent apology. (You can read it over here.)
But none were more critical than Sky herself, who furiously tweeted that she is nobody’s “think piece” or “fucking example”, and let her feelings about some dude slapping down 800 words about her sex appeal fly.
This is not my “official statement” about the @LAWeekly article:
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
95 percent of articles & interviews about me have had something offensive,false or (sometimes extremely) sexist.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
Some have been more passive aggressive or subtle & socially acceptable.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
Some have been more passive aggressive or subtle & socially acceptable.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
It’s not calculated or whatever. I do what I want when I feel it’s true to me.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
If there was some sort of formula all of this would be a lot easier and faster & probably more “successful”
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
I spend/spent so much time being frustrated by this type of bullshit that it really took a toll on me in a personal level.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
I’m not a think piece. I’m not a fucking example. I’m glad that this is making people think & conversation is happening
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
& I appreciate people speaking against it and being vocal
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
I’m done with the “success has 1000 fathers,failure has none” bullshit. The reason good or bad & who I am or whatever I’ve done is ME
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
I didn’t respond in the heat of the moment because what I actually have to say is a lot more than a “response” or “rant” to some article
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
A part of me didn’t want or at first care to respond because I don’t think it deserves that sort of power or attention/validation
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
People will take or see whatever they want from this probably. For example: “defends Terry Richardson” I never defended him.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
I have never worked with him since. I even said my own experience doesn’t take away or against the victims.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
All I said was that I didn’t get sexually abused or had any sexual relations with him after journalist kept writing as if I did over & over
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
If you’re not a bitch or then you’re fake. If you’re not crazy or difficult then you’re boring & helpless
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
Stupid is probably somewhere in there too
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
You’re either too fat or too thin or too pretty or ugly. That’s the what I’ve l have been told my whole life since I was a little girl.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
I’ve always been “too much” or “never enough”. At the point I care about the work I make because that’s what actually lasts & matters
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
& my well being so I can make it. The people who understand me as an artist & my work is what I care about.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
The people who don’t…Oh well.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
& that it does have consequences & contributes to sexism in general
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
There’s no such thing as an “IDEAL WOMAN”, people.
— Sky Ferreira (@skyferreira) June 21, 2016
If you want to read the original piece, it’s still up on LA Weekly. Hermann wrote that he chose to keep it live “as a topic of discussion, or outrage, or as a cautionary tale about how not to write about a female recording artist in 2016.” Fair point well made.
Photo: Sky Ferreira.
