Submitted for your discussion: Women and Emo

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Someone in The Other Place noted with disapproval the absence of women on the bill at the Reading Festival this year, (compared to women and mixed-gender bands from, say, a decade ago) and discussion quickly devolved into one aobut sexism in music.

I don't follow emo at all, but based simply on my scanning of music mags, the web, etc., it suddenly struck me that one reason for the lack of women is probably the fact that emo bands are so popular now, and every one of the bands that jump to mind are all-male. Is this just my ignorance of the scene? Or am I correct in somehow thinking that emo is a VERY male music?

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Emo, I always think, has a slightly chauvanistic tendency because of the way many of the songs tend to be about having your heart pissed on by a girl. Women tend to be synonymous with the word 'whore' in emo.

Which is why it's all the more bizarre that there are so many female fans of the genre. Unless, of course, all the bands were basically boybands for the angst generation...

There are a few emo girls; The Organ and probably Jenny Lewis' general material (Rilo Kiley and solo stuff) as well as particularly The Distillers but the first two are on the margins of the genre and The Distillers certainly wouldn't call themselves emo.