#wholesome sexuality

[weaversweek]

5 "Buffalo stance" - Neneh Cherry

writers Neneh Cherry, Cameron McVey, Jamie Morgan, Phillip Ramacon

It's 7.12 on 22 December. Happy new year! 1989 starts right here, right now.

Part of the UncoolTwo50 project, marking the best singles from 1977-99.

ELF POINTS (11 points)

Moving from Stockholm to London, young Neneh Cherry was inspired with the Buffalo Collective, the group of creatives associated with Ray Petri. Petri died in 1989 after developing his own vision of "hard" street fashion in The Face and creating the kind of self-sufficient street cool that emerged in the early boxer shorts-and-Levi's ads. Neneh was less into the actual art - that was Cameron's passion. No, she appreciated the punk ethic of getting on and doing stuff.

Neneh burst into everyone's attention in late 1988, with this "Buffalo stance" song. Tim Simenon's production adds layers to the song, there's a funky mix and a cracking guitar lick to enjoy. But let's not mansplain the song; although quick to acknowledge the team of men behind her, Neneh only made the impression through her own work.

It's about female strength, female power, female attitude. It's a bold song, Neneh knows what she wants to say, and she seizes the moment by the scruff of the neck. It's hip-hop beats, it's soul riffs, if's a carefree swagger full of confidence, all sung-rapped by a frizzy-haired young woman in a shiny copper top wearing a massive medallion around her neck.

There's a proper singalong chorus - "who's looking good today, who's looking good in every way?" And there's a catchy keyboard riff. "Indie guitar meets hardcore rap in perfect hip hop pop. Bold, exciting, and not like anything you've heard before", according to Record Mirror.

"Buffalo stance" is based on an obscure b-side by Morgan-McVey (a duo, the latter is the future Mr. Cherry), chopped up and messed around by hip and happening producer Tim Simenon. It's completely of its time, and it's got a certain something to stand out from the rest of the dance dross around at the moment.

The titular Buffalo Stance, we learn, is a group of young women like Neneh, huddling over to protect each other from gigolos and moneymen - by extension, from all the shit in the world. It's all delivered with sass and verve, and one of the worst cockney accents since Dick Van Duck.

Record Mirror got it, saying it's "the best pop dance record since our lady's "Into the groove". Hip hop merges with a kind of rap and dances round the outside and into the big wide world of 1989." What I didn't realise straightaway was just how important this message was to our peers. By the time school resumed on 9 January, all the young women in class were quoting this song - as a philosophy, not just the aesthetics.

And she appeared on Top of the Pops while pregnant. First person to do that since Alison Moyet, if we're not mistaken. Neneh's very visible lump added to the message: this is someone taking control of her life, doing things in her way and not in any other way. It's an audacious rebuke to the patriarchy. Neneh told Q magazine,

the kind of sexuality on my record is very different to most of the stuff you hear on black radio in the States. So much of it is all the same, all that 'Ooh, baby' and all that boring sex talk. You usually hear all those guys just singing like there's 20 chicks hanging off their arm. I've no time for all that Carry On Bonking stuff where people have to go out and pick somebody up so that they can be somebody with the lads or their girlfriends the next day.

Follow-up single "Manchild" proved she was no one-hit wonder, and the album Raw Like Sushi demonstrated maturity and conscience. But there were bumps in the road: a planned tour supporting the Fine Young Cannibals ended after one date, after which Neneh collapsed through exhaustion. She did return to pick up Best Newcomer at the Smash Hits awards, voted by the kids she was influencing.

How good was Neneh? A year later, there was a hit, "Got to get" by Rob 'n' Razz featuring Leila K. Attention was on Leila K, a young rapper from Stockholm, of mixed heritage. "Got to get" is an A-grade song: great hooks, builds well, Leila K is a seriously good rapper. But when we compare it to "Buffalo stance", we find "Got to get" is too polished, Leila's rap about rapping pales against Neneh's rap about life and society. Leila K gave us an awesome groove, Neneh Cherry gave us a whole flippin' philosophy.

In the years since, Neneh has consistently made great records, if not hit records. Homebrew had its moments, Man had a corking James Brown re-make, and there's the "7 seconds" phenomenon putting African beats into the top five during summer 1994. Very few people have dared cover "Buffalo stance", history does not reflect well on Alice in Videoland or Cher Lloyd.

"The Wild Bunch" in the lyric would later morph into Massive Attack, the trip-hop pioneers. Some argue that "Buffalo stance" inspired Madonna to write "Express yourself". The song includes some samples from "Looking good diving", which was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman and hence is technically their biggest hit on my list.

Also noted: Alison Moyet was on my 500-song longlist with "Invisible", and could have made the 100-tune shortlist. "Into the groove" was not my choice of early Madonna. Fine Young Cannibals did not tickle my fancy. I overlooked "Got to get", it deserved a place in the longlist.

[thefirstknife]

Besties, I need help. Especially people who have a lot of reach on twitter.

Two of my friends had their Destiny names forcibly changed at the roughly the same time. Their Destiny names were "bisexual mara sov" and "trans king oryx." They just logged in and got a pop-up saying that for some "crossplay" reasons their names were changed to a default Guardian####. None of them are using crossplay. Both are on Steam only, if that's important.

One of them posted to Bungie forums and got this reply:

Both of my friends suspect that they were mass reported. Obviously falsely. Their names are not breaking any rules and are in fact canonical statements about the characters. They always play together so if some homophobe sees them, they would report both, so it would make sense why this happened to them at the same time, possibly (the other option is that there was a wave of forced name changes happening recently that caught them both, but for all intents and purposes, their names should not be subject to change).

This upset both of my friends quite a lot. It means there's enough homophobes out there falsely reporting their names. It's also upsetting to think that these reports were reviewed and then accepted. I genuinely don't think there was a manual review. If there was, I think everyone would like to know which rules this is breaking and why.

Another friend tried raising this issue on the official Destiny 2 reddit, but his thread was not approved by moderators because of "politics":

Thanks reddit! /s My friend also messaged the moderators, but to no avail.

The only thing that remains is trying to raise this issue with the community managers somehow, but clearly this isn't possible on reddit, so we want to try twitter. Unfortunately with the way twitter works, unless you have the reach, nobody will see it. One other friend literally made a twitter account for this to tag the Destiny 2 Team, but as expected her attempt has zero visibility. These are her two tweets. I'm not sure what would be better; to just boost this existing tweet or to make new tweets tagging Destiny 2 Team, but if anyone knows and thinks they could help, feel free to do either!

I don't expect much to happen, but I would like to at least try bringing some awareness to this because it's quite upsetting if homophobes can just mass report a completely innocent name, while absolutely gross names are allowed and visible every day in the game. It's also not a good look if these mass reports are acted on without review, and they are worse if they were acted on WITH review.

A lot of people have usernames that are about in-game characters; I think a lot of us would like to get some information on why these aren't allowed anymore. Both of my friends have had them for years.

Anyway, if anyone knows something they could do or has the ability to get this visible somehow, it would be appreciated!

[spitblaze]

Sometimes I worry it's infantilizing to hc Odo as asexual given the autism coding. But then I remember the source of the headcanon, Odo's constant complaints of how he doesn't understand why people experience sexual attraction and never will

[sappho333]

if you're watching heartstopper and you're genuinely upset about nick and charlie not doing anything aside from hugging and kissing then you are definitely not the target audience.

[cruel-hiraeth]

single dad toji who goes viral online for giving (solicited) advice the way that only a tired, middle-aged, gruff man can

[bmpmp3]

and "wholesome" is another term that really gets my hackles raised when i hear it in video game marketing or anything really. sorry but all i can think about is like the hays code and other media regulatory standards of its ilk. it makes me feel like im gonna be taken off the air for showing an interracial kiss or something.

[iaus]

jace flirting with another staff member and porter fucking out his jealousy on him? 🥰🥰

throwing up. i got possessed. please don't perceive me at this time.

E / 3,194 words

“Oh, Mr. Vulfrik.” He puts his hand on Vulfrik’s arm. Skin-to-skin. Porter slams the legs of the chair down into the linoleum. Vulfrik casts a glance at him. “Is—” “Oh, he’s fine,” Jace glances over his shoulder. There’s something in his expression Porter doesn’t like.

porter really fucking hates the martial class substitute. jace is normal about this information.

[sleepy-bebby]

[moodymommy]

You don't have to prove to me that you're strong baby, just relax. You're doing so well and I'm proud of you.

[hiyyihrts]

the fact that people will willfully ignore all of the queer related topics and struggles the young teenage characters of heartstopper talk about/touch on while being explained in a manner that people of all ages can understand in favor of obsessing over the ‘lack of sex’ in the show genuinely baffles me. Idk how you view this show and come away stark raving mad over a coming of age queer show for young adults.

[paperglader]

I am aware that a get in loser, we are going… to fall in love? update won’t actually fix me, but i think we should try it anyways.

[justvibingwhilecrying]

I read like, basically every fic in the Swansea x daisuke tag God I'm so

[bil-daddy]

Big spoon or little spoon?

Yes.

Also. Forking.

[crimsonmonsoon]

My new years celebratory art with Qi Ring and Guzi going on a dumb little adventure together <3

[yeahthatsfairtbh]