Bjork on Madonna

Question by P.Martin, SHOWstudio, London: I once heard you described by the designer Peter Saville as “the alternative Madonna“. For me, you represent a genuine alternative to other ostensible “post-feminist icons” by demonstrating that women creatives can be successful by being genuinely innovative rather than packaging themselves in terms of conventional modes of sexualisation. Is your power as a gender role model important to you?

Björk: Maybe I’ve always felt defensive when I’ve been compared with Madonna. It’s probably because of my roots as a punk in Iceland and me and my mates being very certain that we were going to do it the opposite way as the calculatede marketing, ambitious, power-hungry Eighties way. So when I’m compared to her, I feel a little bit sad that maybe I didn’t stick to my ideals, but it’s healthy for me because it means that I have to check myself again and see if there is a grain left of that punk idealism or if it’s all gone down the drain. I think for someone like me, it’s hard to see what i do from the outside: why are you doing it? But when people tell me that I inspire women to do what they want, I feel very flattered and think I must be doing something right. That must be one of the best compliments that you can get.

Source: Bjork.com
Thanks to Cosmic System