Without kids of an age appropriate for pop culture, and myself out of time and resources to really know what is going on in this area, I am happy when I can find once in a while at the public library some scant reference that may help me have an approximate understanding of the main players and trends. I don´t listen to any German music therefore the distance between the everyday young reality and me is growing even wider.
One week ago I had no idea who Katja Krasavice is. Anything about her story and her music. Not a single idea. Bitch Bibel, an audio book read by the author the title of a successful album, is first and foremost a story of her life, from the traumatic childhood experience dealing with sexual abuse until her school years in Leipzig, facing mobbing both from teachers and colleagues until her current successful musical career.
What it really surprises me those days is the amount of traumatic experience young people like Krasavice - who is 25 - went through. One may ask if someone at 25 has enough to say for writing a memoir. Although the book - elaborated and written during last year Covid lockdown - is not equal and after the first part, featuring her life story and dramatic episodes of sexual abuse by her father, the rest is dedicated to various tips and advice for those who, like her, experienced mobbing and were judged exclusively based on their look. Some of the tips are aimed at raising self awareness, particularly for girls, some are just point of view.
Although her shocking and scandal-hungry public presence may not please everyone, Krasavice has though an interesting profile for the time we are living: she is entrepreneur, has million of followers on various social media channels, she built up a musical career. Herself, she is a brand, in the same way as Madonna, or Paris Hilton or Lady Gaga are. But she´s only 25 and if you consider her too much or over sexualized, maybe this kind of styles and persons are not her audience. However, plastic surgery and open discussions about sex from a very early age are something normal those days and so is the message about the perception of the body nowadays.
Still, I followed up the story until the end by curiosity for the generation she belongs to and for the markers of the times we are living. Indeed, we are living in a world of Reels and live and Instagram stories and selfies but this is our world and no matter the age, it is important to try at least to understand it. For me, Bitch Bibel encouraged me to continue further exploring the German popculture in the next weeks and months. I bet there are even more life stories waiting for me.
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