Comments on: Rawk

By: rhondda

rhondda — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

I agree with you for the most part. I think alot of women just block out the words and go with the music.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Ooh, I like the song. Did you sing? What was the band name?

By: homossouri

homossouri — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Can’t ignore culture, can’t erase its patriarchal provenance, can’t immolate it and start from scratch. It’s quite a pickle.

But also we’re speaking in generalities. Each act of creation occurs in the immediate moment. Any exchange between creator and audience offers the possibility of being experienced on its own terms, free of history, in that moment, IF both parties are willing to attempt it. It’s super-difficult to achieve, but this potential for transcendance is what makes music so powerful a tool for change. Or, in the wrong hands, its opposite.

mmm. pickles.

By: Tony Patti

Tony Patti — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

“a feministâ€™s enjoyment of rockâ€™nâ€™roll pretty much depends on her tolerance for pain.”

The pain of being marginalized. The pain of living with contradictions that arise from monolithic certainties.

Girls can rock and create a space where paternalistic gestures are subverted and deflected.

It’s possible to acknowledge the vast and overwhelming influence of the patriarchy in our lives only if we can also recognize any little cracks in the foundation we choose to see. Otherwise life is just too bleak.

By: Twisty

Twisty — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

A doff of the Twisty tiara to Homossouri, whose glass is more half full than mine.

Lauren wants to know if that was me singin, and the answer–if one is liberal with the definition of “singing”–is yes.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Psst, band name was Johnny Magnet. The singing, it should be noted, was in no need of a liberal definition.

By: Skip

Skip — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Since no human endeavors or cultural artifacts exist in a vacuum, is it then fair to say that any and all endeavors/artifacts of our culture are imbued with patriarchy, blogs included? Or does this only apply to pop music, history, painting, and literature? Your line of reasoning would seem to be able to be extrapolated to absurdity. Since you grew up in a patriarchal society and not in a vacuum, did you too not absorb the patriarchal cultural hegemony?

How is cultural hegemony subsumed by, say, music and musicians? Since the blues did not exist in a vacuum, did it absorb the racism of the early 20th century?

How does this whole process work?