Tove Lo, the Swedish pop star, is best known for hits such as “Habits,” “Talking Body” and “Not On Drugs.” She’s also, to put it mildly, absolutely beautiful.
What Makes Lo unique is that she sings of explicit sexual escapades, binge drinking and marijuana use, among other things. Which, to me at least, sounds like an honest accounting of the things young people do when they come together.
Love is 31, and she is in the prime of her career. Rolling Stone called her “Sweden’s darkest pop export,” and she certainly lives up to the label. In her videos she celebrates carnal and hedonistic pleasures.
The song that best captures the Tove Lo ethos is “Talking Body,” from 2014. In it Lo sings:
Now if we’re talking body
You got a perfect one, so put it on me
Swear it won’t take you long
If you love me right
We fuck for life, on and on and on
Lo is openly declaring that she cares most about her partner’s body, and that if he’s good in bed, she’ll sleep with him forever.
Wow! That’s some powerful stuff.
Is it post-feminist? The women’s liberation movement and the feminist movement of the 1970’s was about liberating women from traditional patriarchal roles. It was also about women’s sexual liberation and their freedom to enjoy sex for the first time in history.
So what then are we to make of Tove Lo? Is she a post-feminist, wielding her body and her raw sexuality as a weapon to conquer men? Or does that in fact square perfectly with the ethos of the pioneering women of feminism from the 1970’s?
The truth is, as a 44 year old male, I’m immensely attracted to and aroused by her beautiful Swedish visage and her lithe toned body. But I don’t know what the ultimate message of her music and her videos are. Sleep with hot people and party ‘till you pass out? Sounds OK, I guess, but maybe I’ll skip the pass out part.
In the meantime, though, I’ll keep listening and watching, because I haven’t come across a female pop star this beautiful and provocative in a long time.
So keep on rocking, Tove Lo. You make the world a prettier place.
