Karlyn King, “Witchcraft Feminism: Conjuring Rebellion in Music and Fashion”
This presentation explores how the symbolism and aesthetics of witchcraft have become powerful expressions of feminist resistance in contemporary music and fashion. I delve into the ways artists and creators use witchcraft-inspired imagery and narratives to challenge patriarchal norms, empower marginalized voices, and remix societal expectations. By focusing on the intersection of witchcraft, feminism, and pop culture, I illustrate how music and fashion create spaces of resistance and empowerment, transforming these cultural expressions into tools of social and political critique.Through case studies from the Riot Grrrl movement to contemporary artists like Florence Welch and FKA twigs, I analyze how the “witch” archetype resurfaces as a force of creative rebellion, with style and sound as its primary mediums. In both music and fashion, witchcraft aesthetics—dark florals, ritual-inspired accessories, and mystic symbolism—become expressions of defiance, resilience, and female empowerment. This convergence not only celebrates individual agency but also fosters a collective identity rooted in strength, mystique, and self-possession.
By examining album art, music videos, performance styles, and fashion trends, this presentation reveals how witchcraft feminism remixes traditional narratives, turning them into powerful commentaries on contemporary issues. Here, fashion and music are not just forms of self-expression but spells cast to challenge oppressive structures, conjuring alternate realities where women’s voices, autonomy, and creativity are central. In listening to these rebellious frequencies, we witness how witchcraft-inspired feminism pushes us toward the edge of what’s possible—where style and sound become acts of reclamation, transformation, and collective empowerment, offering a vision of a world where self-expression is both magical and revolutionary.
Larissa Irizarry, “Cowboy Carter: Cosplaying American Womanhood”
In 2024, Beyoncé was all but consumed with citing national belonging: she introduced Team USA for the Paris Olympics, she dressed in red, white, and blue, was crowned with various cowboy hats, and in her promotional photos for her most recent album she rode astride a horse while wielding an American flag. Although 2024 visually stands out as Beyoncé’s “cowboy era,” she has cited her southern American roots since (at least) 2016. It was that year that she performed with The Chicks (previously The Dixie Chicks) at the Country Music Association Awards. Despite her real-life credibility as a native Texan and her adherence to the sonic signifiers of the genre, her reception by country fans ranged from mixed to racist.
During the release of Cowboy Carter, the album’s promotional photos were accompanied by the caption, “[This album] was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcome.” Beyoncé has yet to explicitly connect Cowboy Carter to the reception of her CMA Awards performance; regardless, the album brings to the fore the historical race gatekeeping of not just country music, but American womanhood. Beyoncé's citing of Americanness took a campy turn in a surprise release of the music video “Bodyguard.” In the video released on election day, she urged people to vote while cosplaying white American womanhood via Pamela Anderson’s most famous television, movie, and awards looks. In this paper, I contribute to the growing discourse on national identity (Hoffman), nostalgia (Ahmed; Berlant), and genre (Goldin-Perschbacher), and I argue that Cowboy Carter is Beyoncé’s most important political work to date in her pointed satire of American womanhood via cowboy culture.
Blair Smith, “Black Femme Frequencies: DIY Style Cassettes as Archives of Rebellion”
This experimental session blends live performance, soundscapes, and participatory art-making to explore the creative potential of Black femme cassette tape culture. Centering the cassette as a tool of sonic and visual storytelling, I examine how Black femme artists use the medium to remix their realities and imagine radical pasts, presents, and futures. I draw from Black feminist thought, sound studies, and cultural histories of cassette tape aesthetics to investigate how sound, style, and materiality intersect at the edges of pop music, fashion, and artistic expression.
We begin with a live sound collage that immerses participants in the textures of DIY cassette culture. Featuring loops of Black femme recordings layered with archival sounds, spoken-word excerpts, and experimental beats, the performance highlights the imperfections and distortions—such as tape hiss and warping—that characterize cassette sound. Following the performance, the session transitions to a showcase of recreated DIY cassette covers inspired by Black femme artists. These hand-drawn, collaged, and text-based designs are presented as visual archives that extend the radical potential of the cassette beyond sound.
We then move into an interactive art-making activity where participants are provided with materials to design their own cassette covers. This hands-on exercise mirrors the DIY ethos of Black femme cassette culture, inviting attendees to experiment with visual storytelling while reflecting on their own narratives of resistance and creativity. The final segment features a collective playback of the audience’s contributions, integrated into a live soundscape created on-site. This collaborative act reinforces the communal nature of Black femme DIY practices, emphasizing co-creation as a method of rebellion and world-building. By situating Black femme DIY cassette culture at the intersection of pop music, fashion, and creative rebellion, this session aligns with the conference’s call to listen intensely to the frequencies of agitation and revolt.
Teresa Turnage, “‘I Choose Violence’: An Exploration of Feminist Rage in a Man v. Bear World”
Feminist rage serves as a powerful political tool, channeling women's collective anger for sociocultural change. Social media has become a pivotal space for expressing and disseminating such political content in mediated forms, including music, movement, and text. Here, I offer a reading of feminist rage musically expressed in contemporary social media discourse. Pop musician Jax released the 2024 song "I Choose Violence,” in part as response to the so-called #manvsbear trend. The trend posed a hypothetical question—would women prefer to be left alone in the woods with a man, or a bear?—and sparked widespread debate over women's perceived safety in society. Jax’s musical response combines powerful lyrics with a striking visual: Jax holding hands with a bear, evoking both vulnerability and strength. The visual plays a crucial role in connecting the song to the broader viral discourse, highlighting the intense emotional expressions of feminist rage, such as frustration, empowerment, and defiance, alongside the psychological impact of societal gender expectations.
I argue that the amalgam of audiovisual aesthetic choices in "I Choose Violence" constitutes a reckoning with feminist rage in 2024. The song is situated within an emergent genre of digitally-curated feminist music, which leverages social media’s viral nature to amplify its message. This genre’s ability to engage with online publics and viral phenomena connects individual anger to collective movements for social change. Jax's song responds to media trends, while contributing to ongoing dialogues about women's rights and safety.
Drawing on feminist aesthetic theories (Cusick, 1994; Ngai, 2009) and a philosophy of responsive listening (Kramer, 2019), I explore how digital musicking might contribute to projects of social change. I show that sonic and visual practices might offer new tools for analyzing emotionality, activism, and the intersection of media and justice in reshaping digital spaces and society.
