Shakira is perceived with more benevolence today than in the 25 years of her career, whether it is because of the empathy (or not) that she has garnered following her separation with the footballer Gerard Piqué. This is not an isolated case.
Since Britney’s freedom, which served as a metaphor for patriarchal control over women’s autonomy, has become one of our concerns, we’ve wanted to make peace with many of the pop divas of our teenage years: Avril Lavigne, Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton, among others.
It’s not unusual for the referents that the female public values to have lower social regard, until enough years pass for the male public and critics to appropriate them. One can think of the reversal of the reception of Harry Styles’s music, or directly to a certain Liverpool band that drove girls crazy.
Although this is an area where oceans of ink have yet to be spilled, going back to the Colombian singer’s albums such as Pies descalzos and some of her older videos, it is evident that the diva has remained true to a specific aesthetic and sartorial style since her debut in 1995.
While the international pop scene is full of chameleons who play as much, if not more, with their style and appearance as with their music, Shakira has always been consistent in the way she presents herself to the world. The artist whose sound is split between Latin rhythms, pop and rock, has held onto her exposed midriff body-hugging silhouette for so long it has gone out of style and come back on trend again.
