Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
What Do You Mean You "Don't Like Female Fronted Bands"?
On our way home to Lexington from Louisville yesterday, Ondine and I were listening to 100.5 Gen X Radio. We were shouting predictions of who we thought the DJ would spin next.
"Stone Temple Pilots!"
"No, definitely Collective Soul."
Then we would "ah" to one another when C + C Music Factory would start in.
Inevitably this spurred a dialogue over nostalgia and what we deemed "classics" and what were simply "one-hit-wonders". It wasn't long however before the feminists within us began breaking down the Top 40 lists of the nineties and examined just how many of these bands were female fronted. We wanted to hear some Tracy Bonham, Hell we would have taken Edie Brickell but the station continued with its male dominant playlist and we continued breaking down this paradigm.
It is pretty clear to both of us that bands fronted by female vocalists are simply not approached or delivered in the same way that male dominant bands are. For instance, can you think of any Top 40 female artist that hasn't had to make her sexual prowess a part of her persona? Or at the very least (such as in the cases of Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus) had it attacked? This while bands like Cake and The Toadies get to just focus on being cool and not have to worry about their weight or thier wardrobes. Although I must note that part of this conversation was spurred while discussing Silverchair's frontman Daniel Johns who developed anorexia nervosa at the height of the band's career.
And so I was reminded of a conversation I had with my brother, Nick a long time ago when I was 19 and he was 17. Nick is a very gifted singer and a thoughtful mind - someone whose opinion I have always held in high regard. A late bloomer to the talents of Ani DiFranco, I became absolutely immersed in her discography upon my first year at college. Being blown away, I wanted to share her sound with Nick. We were in my car when I slipped in "Evolve" and to my surprise, Nick did not dig it. When I asked why, he said something that took me by surprise and mildly offended me: "You know, I just don't like girl music. I mean, I just don't like female fronted bands." I said, "What do you mean you 'don't like female fronted bands'?" He shrugged and said, "I dunno their music is always, I dunno, corny to me or something." I can't recall how the rest of that conversation went and I didn't hate my brother for what he said, because in the end I still do value his opinion and in remembering this dialogue and relaying it back to Ondine, I found that men in her life had expressed the same sentiment.
I think this phenomenon is worth analyzing - don't you? What is it exactly that makes men in our culture not take female dominant music seriously? I know this is a loaded question and I know most of us will have the same answers, but lets really dig on this guys. Share with us conversations you have had with men on this topic and tell us why you think this is so.
Also, to wrap this up, De Las Ondas had a great suggestion for me to list Lexington bands that are female fronted. Please feel free to add ones that I miss (past bands count also):
The Rough Customers
Spooky Qs
Emily Hagihara
Blind Corn Liquor Pickers
Coralee and the Townies
Laloux
Saraya Brewer (DJ)
Ara
Eyes and Arms of Smoke
Beyond Dark Hills
City Mouse
Little Noodles
The Dialectics
Chrissy Foster
Hotbox
Miss Kitty and her Hotdogs
Little Miss Tammy Smith
Total Abuse
Tense Kids
Ford Theatre Reunion
Smuttynose
I didn't provide links because my computer is acting real slow and it was taking me a while. Y'all know how to Google!
-Jackson
"Stone Temple Pilots!"
"No, definitely Collective Soul."
Then we would "ah" to one another when C + C Music Factory would start in.
Inevitably this spurred a dialogue over nostalgia and what we deemed "classics" and what were simply "one-hit-wonders". It wasn't long however before the feminists within us began breaking down the Top 40 lists of the nineties and examined just how many of these bands were female fronted. We wanted to hear some Tracy Bonham, Hell we would have taken Edie Brickell but the station continued with its male dominant playlist and we continued breaking down this paradigm.
It is pretty clear to both of us that bands fronted by female vocalists are simply not approached or delivered in the same way that male dominant bands are. For instance, can you think of any Top 40 female artist that hasn't had to make her sexual prowess a part of her persona? Or at the very least (such as in the cases of Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus) had it attacked? This while bands like Cake and The Toadies get to just focus on being cool and not have to worry about their weight or thier wardrobes. Although I must note that part of this conversation was spurred while discussing Silverchair's frontman Daniel Johns who developed anorexia nervosa at the height of the band's career.
And so I was reminded of a conversation I had with my brother, Nick a long time ago when I was 19 and he was 17. Nick is a very gifted singer and a thoughtful mind - someone whose opinion I have always held in high regard. A late bloomer to the talents of Ani DiFranco, I became absolutely immersed in her discography upon my first year at college. Being blown away, I wanted to share her sound with Nick. We were in my car when I slipped in "Evolve" and to my surprise, Nick did not dig it. When I asked why, he said something that took me by surprise and mildly offended me: "You know, I just don't like girl music. I mean, I just don't like female fronted bands." I said, "What do you mean you 'don't like female fronted bands'?" He shrugged and said, "I dunno their music is always, I dunno, corny to me or something." I can't recall how the rest of that conversation went and I didn't hate my brother for what he said, because in the end I still do value his opinion and in remembering this dialogue and relaying it back to Ondine, I found that men in her life had expressed the same sentiment.
I think this phenomenon is worth analyzing - don't you? What is it exactly that makes men in our culture not take female dominant music seriously? I know this is a loaded question and I know most of us will have the same answers, but lets really dig on this guys. Share with us conversations you have had with men on this topic and tell us why you think this is so.
Also, to wrap this up, De Las Ondas had a great suggestion for me to list Lexington bands that are female fronted. Please feel free to add ones that I miss (past bands count also):
The Rough Customers
Spooky Qs
Emily Hagihara
Blind Corn Liquor Pickers
Coralee and the Townies
Laloux
Saraya Brewer (DJ)
Ara
Eyes and Arms of Smoke
Beyond Dark Hills
City Mouse
Little Noodles
The Dialectics
Chrissy Foster
Hotbox
Miss Kitty and her Hotdogs
Little Miss Tammy Smith
Total Abuse
Tense Kids
Ford Theatre Reunion
Smuttynose
I didn't provide links because my computer is acting real slow and it was taking me a while. Y'all know how to Google!
-Jackson
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
holiday greetings, layout updates and mistaken genders..
First of all, happy holidays everyone. The Gendered Lex crew is spread out across the country at the moment. I myself am recovering from some intense family time and enjoying a full week off from work. With all my free time I figured I better get some blogging in. You may have noticed that the blog layout has changed a bit. I've been playing around with some of our options. Don't be alarmed if it changes again. :)
On to the actual post..
I am very rarely read as any other gender besides female. I am a cisgendered, female identified person so I guess that works out for me. However, for many people that is not the case. Particularly for people who fall somewhere on the gendered spectrum in a place other than "male" or "female." Being mistaken for a gender other than your own can be a source of shame, embarrassment, and frustration for people, and even worse, can result in violence.
In a perfect world it I suppose it wouldn't matter if someone made a mistake and called you out of your gender. You would correct them, they would apologize, and everything would be fine. In an even MORE perfect world, maybe gender wouldn't matter at all and we wouldn't be so obsessed with trying to put people into certain categories.
Unfortunately in this world, we're only given two options and we have to conform to them. I really got to thinking about this recently after someone left me a crappy comment on my you tube channel where they referred to me as male.
To give it a little context, I made a video about what comes inside the Tofurky vegan feast package. The video is maybe about three minutes long and is intended to be light and silly. Here is the comment that I received:
"More proof that being a veegan is just a fad. Look at this guy's pseudointellectual glasses... multiple piercings... rebellious short hair... and flanel. Str8 Tool. So egotistic they record themselves because they think people want to watch. Well, i enjoyed calling you out, dear sir."
So yeah. I mean, I know that there are a lot of ignorant creepy people trolling around in internet land, and trust me, my feelings aren't hurt. I had a good laugh about all of the misspellings in his comment and his obvious lack of knowledge about veganism. But I think what really struck me the most was that he thought I was a guy. I guess I'm just not used to it. It just seemed so ludicrous to me that he couldn't see that I'm female. Then it struck me, that this may be similar to what transpeople and genderqueer people experience on a daily basis; people who can't seem to see their gender identity for what it is.
I want to hear about your experiences with being mistaken for a different gender. What happened? How did it make you feel? How was it resolved?
De Las.
On to the actual post..
I am very rarely read as any other gender besides female. I am a cisgendered, female identified person so I guess that works out for me. However, for many people that is not the case. Particularly for people who fall somewhere on the gendered spectrum in a place other than "male" or "female." Being mistaken for a gender other than your own can be a source of shame, embarrassment, and frustration for people, and even worse, can result in violence.
In a perfect world it I suppose it wouldn't matter if someone made a mistake and called you out of your gender. You would correct them, they would apologize, and everything would be fine. In an even MORE perfect world, maybe gender wouldn't matter at all and we wouldn't be so obsessed with trying to put people into certain categories.
Unfortunately in this world, we're only given two options and we have to conform to them. I really got to thinking about this recently after someone left me a crappy comment on my you tube channel where they referred to me as male.
To give it a little context, I made a video about what comes inside the Tofurky vegan feast package. The video is maybe about three minutes long and is intended to be light and silly. Here is the comment that I received:
"More proof that being a veegan is just a fad. Look at this guy's pseudointellectual glasses... multiple piercings... rebellious short hair... and flanel. Str8 Tool. So egotistic they record themselves because they think people want to watch. Well, i enjoyed calling you out, dear sir."
So yeah. I mean, I know that there are a lot of ignorant creepy people trolling around in internet land, and trust me, my feelings aren't hurt. I had a good laugh about all of the misspellings in his comment and his obvious lack of knowledge about veganism. But I think what really struck me the most was that he thought I was a guy. I guess I'm just not used to it. It just seemed so ludicrous to me that he couldn't see that I'm female. Then it struck me, that this may be similar to what transpeople and genderqueer people experience on a daily basis; people who can't seem to see their gender identity for what it is.
I want to hear about your experiences with being mistaken for a different gender. What happened? How did it make you feel? How was it resolved?
De Las.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
I agree with Feministing on this one... Genderfail: Livejournal to change code to binary choices only
Check this out.
WHY do people HAVE to choose one or the other, especially on a journal site? Really?
WHY do people HAVE to choose one or the other, especially on a journal site? Really?
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Feminist/Womanist/Mujerista book club?
So I've been thinking lately that it would be nice to be a part of a feminist book club. As far as I know there doesn't seem to be one in central KY (by all means let me know if I'm wrong). I haven't been in school for several years now and I really miss having discussions where we dissect themes about race, class, ability, sex and gender in various books and articles.
So who is interested? The more the merrier, but we need at least 3-4 people I think for it to work. I know that everyone is huber busy too, so maybe we read a new book and meet every three months or so? I figure that would also be enough time for folks to order said book from the library if they don't want to buy it.
If you're interested, then post in the comment section that you are and include a book that you would want us to read! Once I have enough people I will try and coordinate us.
De Las.
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