Medusa's Mad Musings: Feminism and the Future

I had a recent conversation with an almost-adult girl. We were discussing the Golden Age of American Cinema, and I was listing off some of my favorite actresses: Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn, Deborah Kerr, Maureen O'Hara... I was trying to help her identify Katharine Hepburn, and I commented that she was gifted with talent and a feminist. The girl said, "Oh, I hate feminists." I told her she must hate me, too. "Oh, well, everyone should be equal. I just don't like the man-haters."

At first I was taken aback by seemingly blatant disrespect for all the female pioneers who have fought and struggled so hard, sacrificed so much, and given of themselves so much by this girl. Then I realized: Maybe she doesn't need to identify with feminism because she hasn't personally experienced sexism. Huh...

I see sexism everywhere. Is it a result of experiencing sexism from childhood? My mom, who never really allied with "feminism" properly, raised me to be independent, rely on myself, and not feel the need to be dependent on a man. She was trapped in a marriage to my father, so I clearly understand why she raised me like that. I had an informal feminist ethic from my mother. Then, around the 8th grade, when my breasts had grown and my hips began their spread, I experienced significant sexual harassment. A kid repeatedly made inappropriate comments, culminating in grab-ass, at which point I decided enough was enough. I reported it to the principal of my junior high. It was bad enough that the kid was harassing me, but I did not expect to be told that there was nothing that could be done but to change my locker (the location of the harassment) since it is a he said/she said situation. Funny, the principal, spineless pig he was, never even talked to the boy. With a new locker, I learned a valuable lesson about how to deal with misogyny and stand up for myself... Be mean as hell but silent because no one will listen!
So, I'm talking to this girl who says she "hates man-haters" and we should all be equal. Equality; the first sentence of our Declaration of Independence says "All men are created equal", but we know the founding-fathers, despite their individual views (and I am not getting into a political discussion about the founding of our nation), pragmatically meant that all middle- to upper-class, White, preferably European, males were given these unalienable rights. We had to fix some things, but we're doing better now. Doesn't she realize the massive inequality out there? The fraction a female worker earns in comparison to her male counterpart, the hatred of women, the sexual violence and objectification that permeates our world? No, she seems not to understand.

Is it good or bad? It bothers me in the thought that kids her age and younger will be continually apathetic towards women's rights and the achievements of the suffragists, the proponents of the ERA, the warriors against violence, etc. I have read a lot of feminist texts, which are in my personal library, ranging from Mary Wollstonecraft to Eve Ensler. I still listen to Riot Grrrl music. I have a blog dedicated to fighting sexual violence caused by sexism. I have created a persona to fight sexual assault! I cannot deny I am feminist; I have embraced feminism, identify with the need to be feminist and the security the label "feminism" provides. On the other hand, it gives me hope that this girl's flippant dismissal of feminism is a reflection that all the feminists who have fought and sacrificed, that their work is paying off, and I'm alive to witness that girls are not being objectified, treated poorly, or being exposed to the nastier side of misogyny.

Then I read the crime statistics in the paper; I see that rape is still prevalent. I see that men treat women like objects. I see people like Hugh Hefner (a dirty pornographer, in my opinion), Chris Brown (known for physically assaulting ex-girlfriend Rihanna), and Kobe Bryant (do I need to explain?) are celebrated in the media. I see the problems in TV and movies, on the radio, online, on billboards, in magazines, and even in person on occasion.

"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people too" (a statement I think was made by Judy Tenutta, although I read it so long ago that I am probably wrong). I'm not a crazy, man-hating, leftist feminist stereotype. I'm a survivor of rape and other sexual assault (and a stalking and more sexual harassment than any individual should ever endure), married to a man, a daughter, sister, granddaughter, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, cousin, niece, and aunt to males who are good people and I care deeply for, with political beliefs that less government is better, who just happens to think that women still have a long way to go before we can declare true equality. I agree with her in that we should all be equal. My hope is that feminism is not dying. I hope we can achieve equality, including and especially gender equality, as feminism and gender studies are not strictly  female issues. Who will assert her or himself to achieve that goal?

Medusa's Musical Musings: Misogyny and Music

For those of you who do not know me well, I love music. Love may not describe it appropriately. I have eaten, slept, and breathed music for most of my life. My mom and dad were into the Oldies; my dad preferred 1950's rock'n'roll, while my mother preferred the British Invasion and Flower Power music of the 1960's. I was raised listening to Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Elvis, Little Richard, The Who, the Stones, The Temptations, The Kinks, The Beach Boys… The list could go on forever. When I was a teen, I locked myself up in my room with the radio for hours on end, learning the words and rhythms that permeated my stereo speakers. My musical spectrum isn't limited to just rock music, though; I enjoy classical, Celtic folk from Ireland and Scotland, and various others that catch my attention.

Somehow, it seems to have all gone wrong! When did the music industry turn into the debauched, sexist, hyper-sexual, image-driven concept it is now? I fully recognize that there has almost always been a sexual element to music, and that early rock'n'roll was full of misogyny. Groupies have existed as long as music, I assume, but that isn't where my problem lies.

I play the bass guitar in a little "band", if you can call it that, with my husband on drums and a guy on electric guitar who we met online and is interested in all the obscure punk and post-punk music we like. I played the clarinet in junior high and high school for seven years. I have a background in music and consider myself well familiar with good qualities of music. I have an interest in poetry, both reading and writing, and I consider song lyrics simply poetry put to music. Well, that applies if the song is written well.

I guess my dismay at music began in the late 1990's, after the alternative music movement was shoved out of center stage by the pop tarts and boy bands who had no musical abilities, but did have record executives pushing them, choreographers showing them what to do, and producers to fix all their mistakes (if you've never heard Ben Folds' song "Rockin' the Suburbs", he addresses this issue, too, and I highly recommend it). Suddenly, I was seeing hyper-sexualized teens dancing provocatively, singing overly sexual lyrics, and, to me, making a mockery of the entire music scene and of themselves. I thought, something will replace this, these kids won't be teeny-boppers forever, and we'll get some good stuff in its place. I anxiously listened to the radio and watched video channels hoping for the change. It hasn't happened. I'm still waiting. I caught glimpses of bands that held promise, only to see them have minor US success with a song, two if they were lucky, and go on to have careers in Europe and Japan.

With the help of my husband who had vast knowledge of underground music from the past and who likes to dig around for up-starts, I began to pave out a new path of music, expanding my interests in Ska, punk, post-punk, various waves of these movements, as well as dig more into my interests in music from the 50's and 60's. Then, my husband gave me a bass guitar and said he'd teach me. I looked at this stringed instrument as though it was an object from Mars, but felt eager to learn how to make it growl. A couple years later, I'm beginning to start figuring out the slap bass technique. We're jamming with a guitar player who isn't focused on playing intricate metal-driven solos (we refer to these individuals as "guitarded"), slamming major influences on my musical leanings, or dismissing parts of the rhythm section. Instead, this guy is shoving a drumstick behind the strings up the fret board and whacking it with another drumstick so we can cover a song by Sonic Youth. It's quite fun!

Last weekend, we went to a local bar to see a concert by two local bands. One is straight up, no gimmicks, rock music, but with the twist in that the lead guitarist is an African-American female and the lead singer/rhythm guitarist is also an African-American female. They put on a very impressive set, including a rocked out version of a classic Blondie cover. I thoroughly enjoyed this. The second act is a band of four men who dress in drag and play music featuring a female vocalist. I thought it would be fun and that they would play good covers from the 70's and 80's, maybe the 90's, when women's voices were gaining strength and power, and I also incorrectly assumed that they would not be overly crass and sexist with the gimmick… They came out on stage, on 4^th of July weekend, waving the American flag, playing the National Anthem on their guitars, and then broke out into "It's Raining Men" originally by the Weather Girls. I was delighted. Then came covers of Katy Perry (who desperately needs those producers fixing her tracks just to sound like she's on key and in tune vocally), Celine Dion, Britney, and even Shania Twain. I stood in a crowd of people, young women, actually, dancing and singing along to these songs that are awful, in the first place, hyper-sexualized, and desperately inappropriate to their target audience. They did play a song by Irish rockers the Cranberries, but the singer was too drunk to remember the lyrics, so they took turns standing at their microphones bashing the Irish and Irish poetry. I'm of Irish ancestry, and they weren't kidding around. We decided to leave after the band quit playing, demanding women's lingerie to be removed and tossed on stage before they'd play again, and the girl who had bumped in to me repeatedly and stomped my toe pulled off her shirt and threw it on stage.

I suppose my problem isn't just with the national market after seeing this display last weekend. I think there's a larger problem, fed by the sexism and hyper-sexuality of the status quo. Turn on any video channel (aside from the "classic" video channel), and if they're playing a music video, it's sure to include nearly naked women dancing provocatively with song content that is also explicitly sexualized. I recently watched Ian Astbury (lead singer for The Cult and moonlit with The Doors) interviewed about current music. His opinion was that the music industry has become so explicitly sexual because the "artists" (I use that term loosely) no longer understand the sexuality underwritten in the blues influence on rock. In other words, using computers and machines to make the musical track instead of using instruments that give music a natural rhythm, groove, and natural sensuality is causing these people who put out the so-called music that the radio stations and video channels are feeding the public, including and especially our youth, to compensate by putting the sensuality in the lyrics and to express this through their dancing. I realize that when "The Twist" by Chubby Checkers came out, parents were horrified at that much pelvic movement. "The Twist" did not mimic actual sexual movements though. Elvis was controversial and could only be shown from the waist up; however, he never dry humped, or actually humped, any individual or object. We can't say that about the images from the music industry today.

My main concern is: How do these images, lyrics, and manners of dressing affect younger generations whose identities are being shaped by these images? I was fortunate for the late 80's, early 90's styles I grew up with that shaped me. Shoulder pads, tight-rolled acid wash jeans, and later combat boots and flannels were the impressions I received. Yes, I had an orange plaid, flannel baby-doll dress that I wore with boots, and I wore shorts under them so no one could catch a glimpse of my underwear. Like Denis Leary said, "it's called under-f*cking-wear for a reason". Now, a woman is nearly fully clothed on a video or concert footage if she is wearing a full bra and panties. How do kids process this? What are they learning from seeing the Beyonce's, Lady Gaga's, Britney's, various dancers and other female images and voices? I think the time for change has come.

The next time you listen to any song, or watch any musical image, be it a video or a concert, really take the time to listen to the words, watch the dancing, the dress, the overall manner of the performance. Maybe if we can affect change in music, we can affect change in other areas of our society. Oh, and I do support our unalienable rights of freedom of expression and freedom of speech, just in case you think I'm calling for censorship. I am calling for a revolution. When we conquer the sexism that dominates society, politically, culturally, socially, artistically, we can make a dent in the horrific epidemic of sexual violence that also dominates our society.