Shirley Mansen had it right 20 years ago
Aug. 8th, 2014 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflydreamingAbout twenty years ago, I went to a KROQ ("Rock of the 80s... and 90s!") Christmas show that had so many bands, they split it out to two nights. On one night, they lined up all female vocalist music artists. It was an amazing night with Fiona Apple, new to stardom, singing with her voice shaking. Basically everybody KROQ played except Tori Amos.
When Gargage came on and rocked the house, lead singer Shirley Mansen said something to the effect of, "maybe next year they'll let us rock with the boys!" in a way that highlighted the two faces of the night. On one hand, all my favorite artists were on the same night. On the other, they were all segregated onto one night solely on the aspect of being "chick bands."
Today, the playlist at work started with Freddy Mercury and Queen. We moved on to The Smiths. I was planning to move along the timeline to Morissey, but someone else put on The Cure. It occurred to me, then, that we consistently go to the male voices as the highlights of each decade. I thought about Heart, Blondie, The Eurythmics... get me started, and I can make a long list, yet we never play them. I put on Garbage.
Maybe because I am surrounded by guys without reprieve all week, I'm getting mighty sick of male voices. I need a big loan from the girl zone.
It seems that unless it's an audience of all girls, we continually let it be a man's voice telling his story. I think male perspective is something that should get it's fair share, contributing as a human being's perspective, about half the time. We all know: it's so much more than half the time. We act like a female voice, a female lead character, makes the song or story a thing for girls, as if women weren't female human beings.
It has gotten better, but ugh, twenty years later, how little!
EDIT: To prove me a little wrong, now it's Massive Attack. :D
When Gargage came on and rocked the house, lead singer Shirley Mansen said something to the effect of, "maybe next year they'll let us rock with the boys!" in a way that highlighted the two faces of the night. On one hand, all my favorite artists were on the same night. On the other, they were all segregated onto one night solely on the aspect of being "chick bands."
Today, the playlist at work started with Freddy Mercury and Queen. We moved on to The Smiths. I was planning to move along the timeline to Morissey, but someone else put on The Cure. It occurred to me, then, that we consistently go to the male voices as the highlights of each decade. I thought about Heart, Blondie, The Eurythmics... get me started, and I can make a long list, yet we never play them. I put on Garbage.
Maybe because I am surrounded by guys without reprieve all week, I'm getting mighty sick of male voices. I need a big loan from the girl zone.
It seems that unless it's an audience of all girls, we continually let it be a man's voice telling his story. I think male perspective is something that should get it's fair share, contributing as a human being's perspective, about half the time. We all know: it's so much more than half the time. We act like a female voice, a female lead character, makes the song or story a thing for girls, as if women weren't female human beings.
It has gotten better, but ugh, twenty years later, how little!
EDIT: To prove me a little wrong, now it's Massive Attack. :D
no subject
Date: 2014-08-10 01:08 pm (UTC)The older I get, the more feminist I become, it seems.
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Date: 2014-08-11 01:09 am (UTC)