Although Annie Lennox's new album, Nostalgia, is rooted in hits of the past, the singer continues to take aim at women in the present day.
During an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep, Lennox strayed away from promoting her new album, out today (Oct. 21), and decided to address more issues with contemporary artists and feminism. Inskeep asked the former Eurythmics member why she's been calling modern music by female artists "over-sexualized."
"Well you've said it in the question," she said. "The reason why I've commented is because I think that this overt sexuality thrust -- literally -- at particular audiences, when very often performers have a very, very young audience, like 7 years older, I find it disturbing and I think its exploitative. It's troubling. I'm coming from a perspective of a woman that's had children."
Lennox recently called Beyonce's form of feminism "feminist lite" and "tokenistic." Inskeep asked about the remarks. "Well, I didn't specifically criticize Beyoncé," Lennox said. "I was being asked about Beyoncé in the context of feminism, and I was thinking at the time about very impactful feminists that have dedicated their lives to the movement of liberating women and supporting women at the grass roots, and I was saying, 'well that's one end of the spectrum, and then you have the other end of the spectrum.'"
Before the pair got back to Nostalgia, Lennox summarized everything perfectly with one final sentiment. "Listen," she said. "Twerking is not feminism. That's what I'm referring to. It's not -- it's not liberating, it's not empowering. It's a sexual thing that you're doing on a stage; it doesn't empower you. That's my feeling about it."
Nostalgia is the singer's sixth solo effort.
