Edinburgh International Book Festival: Hadley Freeman
Troll baiter and Guardian cultural commentator Hadley Freeman arrives at the Book Festival to introduce Be Awesome: Modern life for Modern Ladies, a work she claims evolved from “whiny Skype conversations” with her sister while she was living a solitary existence in New York. The title is an attempt to reclaim both the words ‘awesome’ and ‘ladies,’ the former because well obvs that’s a good thing to do and the latter because grown women calling themselves ‘girls’ is infantilising and creepy. The aforementioned self-deprecating summary of the book’s genesis is telling, demonstrating one of her points regarding female self-flagellation and the seeming inability of a large part of the sisterhood to just take a fucking compliment and leave it alone.
Guided by fellow transplanted Yank Lee Randall, Freeman in person turns out to be a lot like Freeman in print, brimming with frank opinion, cut-through-the-bullshit revelation and incisive wit. She introduces us to the themes of Be Awesome, which offers an engaging appraisal of women’s place in contemporary society, from their depiction in the media, to the semiotics of fashion, to the etiquette of dealing with your friends having babies. Subjects to be railed against include the Daily Mail, anonymous trolls and The Rules.
The event drills down particularly into celebrity culture and what it says about us. Freeman draws comparisons between the magazine covers, films and music videos of her 80s adolescence, and those of today, revealing a massive cultural shift from self possessed female role models who were in control both mentally and physically (and, crucially, allowed to wear clothes in public) to an insanely sexualised world or “raunch culture” where a superstar artist and businesswoman who has leveraged her talent into a global brand celebrates her latest success by getting her tits out for GQ. We’re looking at you Rhianna, Beyoncé and Cameron Diaz.
A particularly stark example she cites is the fact of Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, the two biggest celebrities of this millenium, both being primarily famous for ‘leaked’ sex tapes. Mainstream representations of 'female empowerment' are clearly going to be a total headfuck for any girl struggling through adolescence at this point in history.
This is what Freeman does best – draws our attention to the accumulated absurdities in modern life, unpacking them with humour to reveal the gaping chasm between how we think we’re doing and the reality of the world behind the marketing spin. Her final statement sums it up: “You can’t sing about being an Independent Woman then jump on a trampoline in your underwear for Terry Richardson.” Too true.