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

[koganbot]

Well, look, "emo" as a genre term has been around for over 20 years and (it seems to ignorant me) started as an attempt by harDCore punk boys to find a way to be punk without having to come on as tough - and you could see this in harDCore from the start in Minor Threat stuff like "In My Eyes" and "Out of Step": "You say that you like her/You just wish you did." Deciding to go all Cure 'n' Morrissey atop old Stooges drones was an obvious step from there. Of course, emo now can be a whole other animal, and once something starts getting really marketable, any and everything will find tangential reasons to get called emo. The emo phenomenon we're talking about now seems about 10 minutes old. The emo girls I know are 13 and their hearts are breaking. One of 'em quoted these lyrics from Red Jumpsuit Apparatus on her blog:

Do you feel like a man
When you push her around?
Do you feel better now
As she falls to the ground?
Well I'll tell you my friend,
One day this world's going to end
As your lies crumble down,
A new life she has found.