Boys for Pele Quotes

“Survival and persistence, sung defiantly in the high notes of the diva, are no small feats in a world that wishes fervently for one's nonexistence and/or silent complicity in one's own exploitation. The narcissistic self-regard implied in the negative definition of the diva is a radical insistence on self-love when no one else loves you, when you are not, according to social norms, worthy of being loved at all, but only of being desired in a way that uses you up or consumes you. To say that diva citizenship cannot change the world is to accept a meaning of "the world" that aligns it only with the privileged. An investigation of the real function of diva citizenship has to start by asking who these acts are for, and whether the very fact of having something for herself can change a person, who might then go on to change the world just by surviving in it for one more day.”
― Amy Gentry, Boys for Pele

“When, on "Blood Roses," she temporarily slides into animalistic clucking or braying, it feels like an anti-Kantian rebuke: we're all animals here. We sing, yes. But we also bite, we clench, we grind. We feed, we fuck, we shit.”
― Amy Gentry, Boys for Pele

“(Incidentally, I’d be delighted if I could claim to have found lesbian overtones in Boys for Pele, but since I cannot, I am tempted to conclude that anything not expressly aimed at pleasing men is susceptible to this interpretation.)”
― Amy Gentry, Boys for Pele