If she’s changed her name to Gwen Stefani Shelton, I’m not actually mad about it? It’s better than going by Gwen Shelton. [Dlisted]
Everyone’s freaking out about Fred Durst’s new look, and while it is surprising, I think he looks nice, I guess. [Seriously OMG]
Lady Gaga’s served up some truly bizarre looks this week. [LaineyGossip]
Miley Cyrus is the official mullet of Gucci. [Just Jared]
Woe is manipulative emotional abuser Ryan Adams. [Pajiba]
I’m not digging David Beckham’s blonde hair with the dark beard. [Go Fug Yourself]
Everyone loves Olympic TikTok. [Buzzfeed]
Emily Mortimer wore a Rosetta Getty suit. [RCFA]
Trixie & Katya review Never Have I Ever’s Season 2. [OMG Blog]
No one expected the Delta Variant to be this bad. [Towleroad]
DaBaby is not shutting up. He needs to. [Jezebel]
I’m surprised she didn’t change her name to some fake Japanese lol 😂
(Reference to the harajuku phase)
Regarding Ryan Adams–I do believe that McDonald’s is hiring…
Wouldn’t he be better suited to Chik-fil-A?
They only hire blond high schoolers named Madison and Chad.
And he’s whining about having to go and live in his mom’s basement. Poor baby. He’s not going to be homeless.
I don’t understand why people make such a big deal when famous women change to or add their married name. Most of the time they still go by their maiden name publicly.
This started as a joke at his bar weeks ago .
Because women changing their name to a man’s name reinforces the patriarchy as it’s a tradition tied back to seeing women as property and not having ownership of their own identity (speaking primarily in American and Western culture). So when we see successful, well-known, often rich and powerful women changing their last name, it feels like just watching the patriarchy at work.
There are, of course, many reasons *not* tied to the patriarchy women change their names — abusive parents, non-hetero-marriages, stage names, but I feel like it’s often a big deal with it’s extremely well-known women in hetero marriages changing to a man’s name.
And before anyone says feminism is about choice…. sorry but the myth of “choice feminism” is outdated and not every single choice a woman makes is a feminist one, and erasing your name for a man’s is………… not an implicitly feminist choice.
Love this explanation. I for one have kept my name for a multitude of reasons, I’m so proud of my name and my family. It means a lot to me. I’m a feminist and see no reason why I should take another name. My husband, also a feminist, completely supports me and actually we never even had a conversation. It was a given I’d keep my name. His dad was an abusive a-hole, who wasn’t his bio dad either. Plus when we finally have a kid – he wants the child to have both names.
I always feel a little sad when I see my girlfriends change their name and your explanation details why I feel like that. Thanks!
Ps why put yourself through all the pain of the paperwork involved?!
I disliked my father and also my hard to pronounce/spell maiden name, so I felt no loyalty to it whatsoever. I was very happy to take a new one that went perfectly with my first name.
Why get married in the first place? The whole institution is based on patriarchy and gender inequality. If a woman wants to enter into that, why should we then question her choice to change her name?
Love this! I’d also add that for more women to keep their names we need a better way of passing down names to children–more than one person I know changed her name because she wanted to have the same family name as her children. I do know of one–just one–instance where the family fought the patriarchy and the wife and the kids have her last name instead of the husband’s.
I could agree with your statement, Calypso, if it only referred to Gwen but it’s a little unfair to everyone else because you don’t know why many women change their names nowadays. Assuming all do it because of patriarchy seems excessive. Many, many women have been victims of fathers who were domestic abusers or worse (mine would be one) and changing your surname to your husband’s is also a way to finally cut off (even if symbolically) the past.
In the end, even if you were choosing your mother’s surname, it would still be patriarchy as it would be the surname of her father, and on and on.
Considering the many many chances toxic and abusive men get in life, has Ryan Adams considered that maybe part of the problem is his music sucks ?
I like Lady Gaga, but when oh when will she stop with the UGH platform shoes??
I have accepted that Gwen Stefani is two people. The front woman of a truly great ska/punk band and a pop star who dreams of a traditional marriage. I get why she married a rock star the first time around. That’s the world she lived in. But the country music world seems to suit her desire to be a traditional Christian wife & mom. Please don’t take this as any kind of criticism. I don’t care for her pop music or her pop star persona and cultural appropriation. But if she’d gone straight from punk singer to country music wife, skipping over the mega star/cultural appropriation stage, I’d just shrug and say I still like her earlier music.
Have you read buzzfeed’s interesting thinkpiece about Gwen Stefani’s image? https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/gwen-stefani-no-doubt-blake-shelton-the-voice
It’s honestly a really good piece, she has definitely profited off of her image as a punk leading lady but ultimately she has always been a conservative, traditional, kinda racist white woman and in a lot of ways she never really hid it as much as the narrative/media around her obfuscated it. I don’t care for her as a person but I loved Tragic Kingdom (my voicemail was actually a clip of “Spiderwebs” for a while) and Love Angel Music Baby. Oh well.
Thank you for that. It is a good read. I’m not surprised that a privileged white girl from Orange County resisted being positioned as a feminist icon. Gilded cages can be pretty comfy. I guess in some ways the pre/early-internet days were nice. Listening to No Doubt and never questioning if Stefani wasn’t what her image suggested. But my heart absolutely broke for her when “Don’t Speak” was released. I felt like despite her fame she was treated as the dorky kid sister by her bandmates. And now I suspect her bandmate boyfriend was more like whoa, Gwen wants babies and a church wedding. Too soon.
Calypso – that was a good read.
I know men who really like her – for all those reasons. She’s cute, she’s edgy, she’s not angry. She a very unintimidating career woman. I think she’s fine – though I give a heavy sigh with the anti-feminist nonsense. I think that’s partially an age thing….although she and I are the same age, she seems in some ways a lot younger than me because she seems to have forgotten that it’s only because of feminism that women can indeed have it all and have those choices. I also embrace motherhood and my femininity, but it’s because of the bad ass women of my mother’s generation who paved the way for me to be able to balance career and family without having so much to prove. The fight isn’t over and we have to fight on for our daughters so we don’t backslide.
She is someone who changed and became more conservative and religious as she aged and especially after Gavin torpedoed their marriage. She found a new fan base with The Voice and because of her relationship with Blake – and now she only caters to those fans. I was a massive fan of hers from 1996 until about 5 years ago. Her split from Gavin changed everything and I hardly even recognize her anymore. Her entire world revolves around what Blake wants now. Now she’s all into country music, country life, cowboy themes, being vague about politics so she doesn’t offend his fanbase, etc.
She was always ultra conservative.
Raised in orange county, went to some of the same schools I did.
She was the classic white, racist, homophobic, sweet to your face -bitch to your back mean girl Orange county girl.
We even ended up at some of the same christian summer camps, so I know of what I speak
I’m going with KKat firsthand experience. Stefani’s formative years were in Republican OC during the Reagan years. Reagan, Californian cowboy, cast in the mould of John Wayne. Reagan, who said “It’s nice to be in Orange County, where the good Republicans go to die.”
Idk, the buzzfeed article showed that she’s always been more problematic than I, at least, realized. It definitely seems like she capitalized on an image and comparisons to other women artists that weren’t necessarily accurate in retrospect. Not that she isn’t talented, but the conservative aspect seems like it’s been there a lot longer than her image would have wanted us to believe.
She was never ANY of those things. Her voice is awful, her dancing worse & no – NEVER punk nor ska. She is a back who rips off the next persona that will make her some cash.
I mean, she was legally Gwen Stefani Rossdale before, so why is it a surprised she went with Shelton for her 2nd marriage?
Not a bad way to do it. If it doesn’t work out, she can shed it pretty seamlessly (like Cortney Cox did).
Correct me if I’m wrong, but a lot of Gaga’s more eccentric lewks are because of sun sensitivity and lupus, right? So I like what she’s wearing, just because she can keep her arms and hands covered up in a non-obvious way. I recently told my husband I’m preparing to have a mid-life “goth conversion” so I can start carrying a parasol around, maybe wear gloves and a weird hat. (As things currently stand, I wear hoodies even — especially! — when it’s 93 outside.)
I have several paper parasol that were really inexpensive so I can have an extra layer of protection if I’m going to a festival or something. I have them in pretty brights and a few pastels so you don’t need to be goth, just a little quirky!
Gwen played at being punk for about five years in the 90s and fooled people into thinking she was cool and progressive. She never was and the racist harajuku girls stuff was the first obvious sign that she plays at being the cool girl for money because the straightlaced Christian type doesn’t sell as many records. Staying married to an unrepentant cheater was the other.
I hate it when people attribute their shi**y behavior to being “real”.
Who is “everyone” that gives one single shit about the “Rapestock” “rapper” from Limp Bizkit? (worst band name ever).
Re Delta, I’d listen to an infectious disease expert before someone from a cancer centre. And seriously, they were all predicting the variants would be worse because the disease had learned how to mutate to survive. It’s simple evolutionary science.
Yes, the virus mutating to worse more infectious variants is a given in a pandemic. With so many transmissions the odds are it’s going to happen. This is basic science.
Delta isn’t great, but I’m really worried about Delta plus getting a foothold.
We are screwed if that happens
My guy friend in NC fully vaxxed in April just tested positive for covid on Monday and has had loads of symptoms. This variant is strong.
Two completely uncool white trash bags.
Well, I am disappointed in Gwens wedding dress in these photos.
Her wedding dress to Gavin was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
IMO, Gwen needs a new hairstyle/make over.
Now, as far as Blake goes, I find him meh.
If he is good to her and the kids, I wish them all good health and many happy years together.
Legal name change after divorce is not reasonably priced and a giant pita!
$800+ for me.
Be careful who you marry = biggest lesson I’ve learned.
If you are going to cheat on your spouse, Don’t.Get.Married.
I was they typical Southern California skater girl in the 90s. I don’t dress like that anymore. People grow up and fashion changes. Usually people become more conservative when they are older. Why do people expect Gwen to look exactly the same and be the same person the was in the 90s?
No. But the totally new face isn’t the result of aging.