Following some of the recent reviews of Gwen Stefani’s fifth studio album Bouquet, you might be forgiven for thinking that the singer had been enlisted to produce musical propaganda for the Westboro Baptist Church. Pitchfork’s Rich Juzwiak described the album as an "ideological regression" and an example of "pop parochialism." Similarly, Sal Cinquemani from SLANT magazine declared it "shocking to see how regressive Stefani’s views have become—or, perhaps, always were."
But what are the unforgivably reactionary views espoused by Stefani on her first pop-county record? The album’s critical reception might suggest that the singer has employed her distinct sultry voice to lobby Congress to repeal the 19th amendment or recriminalise homosexuality.
Not quite.
The thing that has really rubbed up Stefani’s critics is that she is… wait for it… happily married.
Gwen and Blake - InStyle Mag
Apparently, Stefani’s love for Blake Shelton, her husband of three years, is deemed insufficiently countercultural or subversive to make for good music. In fact, this has been the primary focus of both of the aforementioned reviews, with little attention paid to the album’s musical merit (vocally or production-wise). Instead, both critics dedicate several paragraphs to criticising the album's central theme: marriage.
Make no mistake, I am not suggesting that Bouquet is a work of lyrical genius. I agree with some of the criticism levied at the album, namely that Stefani relies too much on cliché and that her botanical analogies are contrived and begin to drag (literally half of the song titles reference flowers either directly or indirectly).
Despite this, much of the criticism is of Bouquet’s themes themselves - rather than their cliché presentation. Could it be that some critics simply don’t like the fact that Stefani is openly embracing marriage, monogamy and motherhood?
This would certainly seem to be the case. Both the Pitchfork and SLANT articles use words like ‘tradition’ and ‘fealty’ as though they are derogatory slurs being spat onto the page. Cinquemani admits that he finds it ‘difficult to reconcile’ this current iteration of Stefani’s music with her 90s feminist icon aesthetic. Similarly, in distinctly millennial terms, Juzwiak reminisces about Stefani’s previous image as a ‘bad-ass disruptor’. Apparently, it is wholly incompatible with these critics’ modern liberal worldview, that a woman might want to settle down with her husband and tell the world how much she loves him. I suspect it literally makes their skin crawl.
These instincts manifest themselves in the form of some frankly fatuous criticism. After all, it is hardly sophisticated musical analysis, for Juzwiak to denounce Bouquet as ‘a record that is in love with heteronormativity’. The album is, after all, written by a heterosexual woman, so this seems par for the course. Perhaps he would have preferred Stefani, married mother of three, to sing about sniffing poppers and frequenting gay orgies? Though no doubt (excuse the pun), had she done this she would have been lambasted for queerbating.
He then goes on to quip that Stefani’s sound ‘assimilates into all-mayo no-salt whiteness’ proving that Americans are incapable of viewing anything without the lens of race. Ironically, were Stefani still embracing her (admittedly cringeworthy) Harajuku aesthetic from her Love Angel Music Baby era she would today be cancelled for cultural appropriation.
However, the thing that makes much of the criticism levelled at Bouquet especially tedious, is that by making a ‘boring’ record about her happy marriage Stefani is subverting the cultural zeitgeist.
Liberal views on sex and marriage might once have been countercultural when Germaine Greer was championing them in the 1970s. However, they are now so commonplace, particularly in the arts, that Stefani is being a ‘disruptor’ by embracing tradition.
It is also worth noting the fuss that is made about Stefani proudly taking her husband’s last name (which she actually tacked on to her own making her officially Gwen Renee Stefani Shelton) and dressing in a way that her husband approves of. This is notable because little to no critical attention is paid to the other aspects of Stefani’s marriage which Bouquet pays tribute to. Stefani makes it clear that her husband makes her feel safe, loved and beautiful - which given the current state of sexual politics, can hardly be a bad thing.
After all, relationships between the sexes are as explosive and messy as they have ever been. In fact, the sexes seem to becoming more divided along political and cultural lines than ever before. A recent poll by Change Research suggests that 41% of women identify as progressive as opposed to just 24% of men.
Who can confidently say that the downstream effect of the Girlboss feminism Stefani was associated with twenty years ago has been to categorically improve the lives of women? The past few months alone have seen young women such as Bonnie Blue and Lilly Phillips elevated to celebrity status for subjecting themselves to cruel and dehumanising sexual exploits such as having sex with a hundred men in 24 hours. This is only possible because both the media and a large male audience are more willing than ever to sexually exploit young women. I think it is unlikely that these women truly feel more emancipated than Stefani does in her ‘bland’ monogamous marriage.
One of the most striking lines on Bouquet is when Stefani declares ‘I know you’ll raise my sons right’. Surely this is exactly the kind of messaging that young girls ought to be exposed to and to bear in mind when selecting a partner?
None of this is to say that Stefani has somehow become a poster girl for traditionalism or the Christian Right. I suspect she has retained the vast majority of her liberal instincts from her younger years. Her decision to tack her husband’s surname onto her own rather than surrender her’s completely is proof of this. However, it is clear that Stefani’s critics feel betrayed by her new semi-traditional aesthetic.
Image - Rolling Stone
Towards the end of his review Juzwiak stresses that while it is of course ‘fine’ for Stefani to sing about marriage and that she has ‘the right to make her choices and to sing about them’, he would prefer to hear about the ‘challenges’ of her relationships. In saying this he inadvertently reveals a lot about his own worldview - one that I am confident is shared by many of his peers: liberal feminism or choice feminism is good provided women don’t ’choose’ to centre motherhood or marriage in their lives. And if they do choose to centre these things, then they should probably keep quiet about it.
All of this is a great shame. I think Bouquet is a rather lovely record with catchy feel-good songs. And although Stefani’s lyricism can be somewhat heavy-handed at some points, it remains sweet and genuinely authentic.
All in all, I think she should be given her flowers.
Edited by Charlotte Lewis
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