ABSTRACT
In this chapter we discuss Regina Spektor’s music video Small Bill$ with reference to the concepts of feminine cuteness, zaniness, and body politics, considering how these aspects interweave with the performer’s corporeality to suggest a metamorphosis that becomes a feminist statement in the deceptive guise of a girlish fantasy. Ngai’s concept of cuteness is adapted in our argument to address a specific feminist strategy of empowerment, which when combined with zaniness and elements of neosurrealism can be seen as a perversion of cinema’s ‘manic pixie’ trope. Artists who draw on the characteristics of this trope challenge dominant masculine narratives of logic and rationality, and indeed rock authenticity, through the adoption of a quirkily playful attitude towards musical performance. The concepts of ‘vocal masking’ (Hawkins) and ‘personal narrative’ (Hawkins and Richardson) help us to specify strategies of empowerment that are enacted through the singing voice, which channel the video’s message into a richly evocative feminist intervention.
