You Can Throw Tampons at Charli XCX

Charli XCX is young, sure, — not as young as some other female giants in pop right now (Ariana Grande, Miley, Lorde) — but her attitude towards feminism is respectfully mature. As the cover girl for the newest issue of Nylon, Charli XCX talked about empowerment, confidence, and (as always, it seems, in discussions of feminism) Beyoncé. Though in part Charli's interview echoed a lot of other female stars' vocalization about feminism recently (which is by no measure a negative!), much of her interview strayed into a more radical view of feminism for a mainstream star, which is awesome. "I'm not knocking anyone, but in terms of male media, for them to want to listen to anything about feminism, it has to come from someone they think is stereotypically beautiful — which is, I guess, a tiny bit progressive," she said.

Charli XCX is, as far as hugely visible pop stars go right now, on the more edgy side, but she's still pretty well-known — she's even on The Hunger Games soundtrack. Pretty cool, then, that in Nylon, she encourages girls to explore and be as bold as possible, especially her fans: "I want them to feel like they are empowering themselves by doing whatever the f--k they want." She explained, "I get tampons thrown on stage as well [as bras and panties]. Not used. They're clean, but there's gonna be a used one at one point, and I'm ready for it." I'm no expert, but I think I can say with certainty that no one is tossing tampons at a Beyoncé show.

Speaking of Beyoncé, Charli got right behind her, admiring her willingness to put herself on the line for criticism of her strong feminism. She also talked confidence and loving her body, saying, "I feel very comfortable in my own skin. I've never stripped as a stripper, but when I was younger and playing at raves, I would take off some of my clothes — which was kind of weird because sometimes my parents would be there." Aside from the weirdness that her parents were at raves, I actually appreciate her boldness and openness.

In the general span of feminism, Charli's views are not objectively radical, but for the conversation among the famous, she veers into territory that's usually unexplored. To say, as a 22-year-old woman, that she used to strip in front of an audience and that tampons have been throw on stage, might (and should) make fans reconsider what's acceptable and rethink their ideas of "provocative." She's also glib about smoking (a lot) of weed on tour. I hope Charlie XCX doesn't get panned for her Nylon interview, because her brand of brassiness and unencumbered embrace of being potentially controversial is pretty kickass for someone in the limelight.

Images: Getty, Nylon