Amanda Palmer - Dear Daily Mail

"dear daily mail,
it has come to my recent attention
that me recent appearance at glastonbury festivals kindly received a mention
i was doing a number of things on that stage up to and including singing songs (like you do…)
but you chose to ignore that and instead you published a feature review of my boob

dear daily mail,
there’s a thing called a search engine: use it!
if you’d googled my tits in advance you’d have found that your photos are hardly exclusive
in addition you state that my breast had escaped from my bra like a thief on the run
you do you know that it wasn’t attempting to just take in the RARE british sun?

dear daily mail,
it’s so sad what you tabloids are doing
your focus on debasing women’s appearances ruins our species of humans
but a rag is a rag and far be it from me to go censoring anyone OH NO
it appears that my entire body is currently trying to escape this kimono….

dear daily mail,
you misogynist pile of twats
i’m tired of these baby bumps, vadge flashes, muffintops
where are the newsworthy COCKS?
if iggy or jagger or bowie go topless the news barely causes a ripple
blah blah blah feminist blah blah blah gender shit blah blah blah
OH MY GOD NIPPLE

dear daily mail,
you will never write about this night
i know that because i’ve addressed you directly i’ve made myself no fun to fight
but thanks to the internet people all over the world can enjoy this discourse
and commune with a roomful of people in london who aren’t drinking kool-aid like yours

and though there be millions of people who’ll accept the cultural bar where you have it at
there are plenty of others who’re perfectly willing to see breasts in their natural habitat

i keenly anticipate your highly literate coverage of upcoming tours

dear daily mail,
UP YOURS."

Amanda Palmer is a performer that I admire immensely, her onstage costumes usually consist of lingerie and she's completely open about nudity. So when the daily mail pointed out her 'nip slip' she turned the whole thing on it's head. A 'nip slip' is only made a problem by the sexualisation of breasts - generally a male gaze thing so by addressing it directly and using nudity in her address of the article she subverts the whole thing. (I'm not sure if I'm wording this right). There's almost an over the top shock value to it, like "you've written an article about my boob slipping out, well here's my entire body" she has the agency over her own body. It reminds me of Annie Sprinkle's "Public Cervix Announcement" where Sprinkle allows audience members to look at her cervix through a speculum with a flashlight. It's as if the mystery of the body makes it appealing to the 'male gaze' but making the body or the statement obvious, the unseen becoming seen on purpose that's something that disrupts the status quo of the gaze.