I Just Discovered Beth Ditto, and I am in Love

If I wore makeup, I could be this pretty. Source

Full disclosure: I am now an Amazon Affliliate, so if you want to purchase anything mentioned in the following post, there will be links at the end. This blog is the closest thing I have to a job, so if you want to shop, it'll help me. If not, that's cool too. Thanks for reading!

I want to thank Sarah Von Bargen of Yes and Yes! for turning me on to the band Gossip yesterday. I am in love with their sound and with their stunning lead singer Beth Ditto. Once again I find that I am "Johnny-Come-Lately" to something on the music scene, but that's alright. So I don't have my finger on the pulse of contemporary music anymore - that just means that when I find something new to me that I love I can have the new toy joy that all the longer.

I heard the song "Move in the Right Direction" first, on Yes and Yes!, and I was struck by this big, beautiful woman singer. Who was she? Where was she from? I assumed she was European, since the video was a compilation of Sarah's favorite songs from her current European vacation. Nay! Nay! The Gossip are home-grown Americans. Our lovely Beth Ditto is from Alabama as a matter of fact. Excited! Why these guys aren't a bigger thing stateside eludes me. Hopefully this little post will help a bit in solving that problem.

I also love grey kitties, FYI. Source

So, why am I enamored of Gossip and Beth Ditto? They are so flipping positive! It's feel good music on the level of Lady Gaga (who I think is the second coming, you will recall). Catchy tunes with a positive message sung by a lesbian singer who is clearly in love with her voluptuous figure? Yes please! Let's challenge the ideals of beauty! Let's sing about loving yourself and actually mean it! Let's say "down with body oppression"  "down with the gender binary"! (About that last bit, while Beth may be all glamorous woman, she was in a 9 year relationship with transgendered partner Freddie Fagula - so she's a girl who likes girls that look like boys who like girls who look like girls. I think.)

After looking up some information on Ms. Ditto, I discovered some pictures of her with the designer we all love to hate, Karl Lagerfeld. Now me, I love Karl Lagerfeld in a very standoffish kind of way. His cologne is amazing and his designs are nothing less than art. Sadly, despite losing a lot of weight to win the heart of some boy, Mr. Lagerfeld still carries a lot of fat angst which has caused him to say some pretty mean things, like that Adele is "a little too fat", for example. Adele, another big beautiful woman whom I love, had the grace not to care, but Beth Ditto did one better. She defended Adele in the media, called Lagerfeld out as a former fat person who still has issues, all while still appreciating his work and his talent. She even went on to say that he was a "wonderful man". That, ladies and gents, is what we call "class". Bravo, Beth Ditto. Bravo.

OK America, I'm available for covers too! Source

While I think it is fantabulous that Ms. Ditto is so comfortable in her own skin, I am not, and as such hope to some day fit into one of Karl Lagerfeld's stunning designs. I still think he can come off as a mean little man, but I've never met him and I prefer to judge not. There are people who can be over 200 pounds and remain active and healthy. I'm not one of them, and designer clothes are one of the things I am striving for on the horizon. In the meantime, I have the sexy tunes of Gossip to motivate me every forward as I  "Move in the Right Direction".

So, what do you think of my new musical find? Any thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld? What about the product links and my new affiliate-dom? Let me know in the comments, happy readers!