Blog Entry 5/16/11

            This week’s material covered gender and sexuality in metal.  Personally I think that if one was to express themselves openly the metal scene would be the place to do it.  The whole metal genre is all about being an individual.  Most of the messages being promoted are the fact that a person should celebrate their individuality and be neo-individualistic.

            So if we take a look at Rob Halford from Judas Priests and Gaahl from Gorgoroth and the fact that they came out of the closet, it really isn’t a big deal.  In my opinion they are just practicing what they preach.  They sing mostly about pushing the boundaries or societal norms, not conforming, and living life free from oppression in a lifestyle that they see most fitting.  So then why would they choose to keep their true identities hidden?  It just doesn’t make sense for them to do so.  The reaction from the metal scene didn’t really surprise me either.  Most people seemed to be accepting and okay with it, but it they weren’t they would simply voice their opinion and leave it be.

            If we switch gears over to the Glam Metal scene in LA, we can see examples of hyper-masculinity in the form of men dressing up in lingerie, lace, and make up.  Again, metal seems to be a safe environment to do pretty much whatever you want without much ridicule.  Now, there was ridicule from different genres of metal.  For example the Thrash Metal scene was not too keen on the Glam Metal scene only because they disagreed on the methods on which they would use to achieve the same goal.  Both Glam and Thrash Metal scene members wanted to play music, live free, make lots of money, party, and get laid.  The Glam Metal members decided to dress up as girls to achieve that goal where Thrash Metal members did not.  I guess the point I am trying to make here is that Metal genre as a whole did not have a problem with Rob Halford or Gaahl because they were being true to themselves and genuine about their individuality and sexuality, where as members of the Glam Metal scene were perhaps not very true to themselves and they were just following a trend.  But I may be wrong; maybe the Glam Metal members were being true to themselves.

            Addressing the issue of women in metal tends to make me a little sad.  In the Glam Metal scene the only status women had were to be objects to have sex with.  They seemed to have very little value and they also seemed to be expendable.  But if we fast forward to the present day, we find that there are numerous metal bands that have women in them.  These women mostly tend to be front members of various groups and more commonly vocalist.  This is a big step forward from the Glam Metal scene but it still feels a little weird.  To me it doesn’t really feel genuine because the female’s role in the band seems to be streamlined and overly commercialized.  If you were to listen to a lot of the songs by female fronted metal bands you would find that they all sound kind of similar and over produced, it’s not really raw.  Then if you look at all the females who are in the bands they all kind of have the same image and they are often “sexed up” in ways most male metal members are not.  There is nothing that is extremely individualistic about it to me.  Now there are the exceptions like Arch Enemies Angela Gossow but other than that it is all generic to me. 

            I find it to be interesting because metal allows men to dress up like women, act in debauched ways, express their hyper masculinity and sexuality and pretty much do whatever they want.  But the women’s role seems to be largely contained within a certain boundary of acceptance.  Even the women who front metal bands, are they expressing anything individual or are they confined by the expectations of the music business and insecurities of male members of the metal scene?