this must be the place....goin strong , yeah baby!!!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Double Reverse Feminist Criticism

I saw an awesome video of an awesome band today, it was The Hysterics last show.  I saw this band in Austin a couple summers ago, maybe only last summer.  They are an all female hardcore band, and they were all very young.  They rocked, actually I went to see them 2 days in a row.  That said there was something about there last video that I wanted to get in on some feminist criticism on. Because while feminists, generally its stupid to criticise them, its a much better idea to just try and hang out with them because they are usually super cool people, an often times super cute, but sometimes they have a reputation for being able to dish it out but not being able to take it.  You see, there is probably a feminist somewhere who would take that last line as crossing the line, and thats exactly what Im talking about.  You gotta be able to swing both ways on that matter, imo.   I love you all

Here's the video of The Hysterics trying an experiment at their last show.  Its a song about sexual harassment called "Leave me Alone."



Ok so what do I think about that if I'm such a hotshot?  Well, I think its fine, cause not only can i dish it out, but i can take it too (*no homo), but seeing as tho this is a blog and not my job I just wanted to take the liberty to do a little talking back.  I feel on the positive side it created a special environment to get ppl pumped up and they got to say what they wanted to say.  The chicks at the front dancing to that song were definitely major pumped up, and a band should be pumping up their crowd.  I feel like its a sentiment that is heightened by what they are doing.  They are creating the illusion of a "safe space" But I feel like on the negative side they accomplished that by putting people down, and I think people putting people down, especially people that came to see their show, I think that is very un-dude-like.  I get the preface that it was an experiment, but having tried it for their own personal edification, I would say alright ladies you found out what happened, I hope you dont do that again.  Us vs them is not cool.  I dont think its that cool to put people on the spot about what their declared sexuality is.  What if theres a closeted gay dude in the crowd, you are creating a potentially awkward (and undeserved) moment for that dude.  As for the straight guys -- I dont think its cool to vilify the dominant hegemony in that way, because what about the individual?  If I had been at that show, as a straight white male, trying to be nice, trying to be polite, fading into the background I would have had my buzzed major harshed, like i was uninvited from the group.  If you are trying to do shows, I think one thing you are trying to do is get everyone more pumped up than they usually are.  To take someone to that heightened state knowingly and then harsh their mellow based on something out of their control (that they are a straight white male), I think thats a little bogus.  So outside of the fact that rock has these little allowances, and thats an essential part of the medium as a whole, strictly as a medium for the personal growth of the artist, I think it sends the wrong message by basically being divisive and judging people as a whole based on their sex, race, and sexuality, which i thought feminists were supposed to be against, and i think they can do better in terms of what they are expressing, as feminist artists.  But also good job, double reverse.

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