essay on treatment of women in rock, mentions Manics

[DangerousObsession]

My friend found this essay on JStor, it's about how women in rock are not taken seriously but even feminine men are. It mentions the Manics, especially Richey, a few times. I'll paste it because I think you can't access JStor unless you're using university computers. I can't paste the whole thing as you're not allowed to reproduce the whole thing, I'll just paste the bits that mention the Manics:.

In order to be viewed as credible, a performer's music must also be viewed as intelligent and serious. The association of masculinity with the cerebral and femininity with the physical perhaps explains women's exclusion from credibility on these grounds. Women attempting to present themselves as intelligent are regarded as pretentious, with the music press' treatment of Alanis Morissette a case in point. She is criticised for 'sixth-form self-indulgence' because 'her lyrics have the ring of a teenager who has just discovered Philip Larkin'. When the Manic Street Preachers, an all-male band, quote directly from Philip Larkin in both their lyrics and on their album sleeves, this is taken as a sign of their high levels of intelligence and education.
Women are not felt to be capable of any deep thought or feeling, so are viewed as particularly pretentious when expressing any kind of pain or angst. When Natalie Imbruglia expresses feelings of depression, she is corrected and told that she has not been depressed but simply 'a bit down', and Alanis Morissette is instructed to 'fuck off and have some kind of life.' Again, a comparison with the sympathetic and serious treatment Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers received when speaking of his depression is relevant here, as is the image of the male rock star as a Romantic hero, discussed below.

It then says Kylie Minogue got no respect as a performer until "she has gained credibility by working with men such as Nick Cave and James Dean Bradfield."

Later it goes on:
To summarise, when music journalism fails to exclude women from popular music history altogether it excludes them from the world of serious music by constructing a notion of credibility which is extremely difficult for a woman to obtain. The music press then attempts to play down the exclusion of femininity from rock music using the notion that 'the feminine' can be provided by men. The figure of the Byronic, bohemian, feminised man as a Romantic hero has been a staple of rock music since Jim Morrison in the 1960s, and its most recent manifestation has been Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers. Men such as Edwards, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Brett Anderson of Suede are praised for their exploration of the feminine and, particularly in the cases of Edwards and Cobain, are described as emotional and tortured figures. Edwards was praised for his open discussion of his anorexia and self-mutilation, whilst the same topics were unpalatable when spoken of by female Riot Grrrls. If men can provide 'the feminine' then women are redundant.

Then later:
First hand accounts of Riot Grrrl conventions make clear their similarity to the consciousness-raising meetings of 1970s feminists, yet writing on Riot Grrrl in the music press often ignores its specific politics, turning it into, as Kearney puts it, 'just another anarchic pose of youth' The NME's 'Definitive guide to Riot Grrrl' managed to imply that the only thing people involved in the movement were 'rioting' against was boredom. This cannot be justified by the argument that the role of the music press is to focus primarily on the music because male bands with outspoken political beliefs are praised. An edition of the NME carried the headline, 'Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated?' and featured a range of (almost all male) artists criticising the government, and the Manic Street Preachers have been widely praised for taking the title for their album This is My Truth Tell Me Yours from a speech by Aneurin Bevan.

If anyone wants to read the whole thing, it's from All Rock and Roll Is Homosocial: The Representation of Women in the British Rock Music Press, from the Cambridge University Press.

[franny]

Very interesting, cheers

[Hennus]

Thanks for that

[qwerty]

There's also an article that quotes "yes" called "Welcome to the New Ambivalence: Reflections on the Historical and Current Cultural Antagonism between the Working Class Male and Higher Education"

[qwerty]

http://journals.cambridge.org/action...d=03&aid=99113

Link to the article... Not sure if you can see it, you may have to be on a university network.

[Mary Chain]

Interesting... That essay is saying almost exactly what I was saying in the Other Music section about Lady Gaga's credibility as a musician being constantly questioned by the UK music Press.

[The Gutless Wonder]

Interesting. Thanks for posting!