What Are You Doing Here? A Black Woman's Life And Liberation In Heavy Metal

An amazing book.
Not only is Laina Dawes a metalhead, but she is also black. She has been questioned, stared at and asked 'What are you doing here?' at metal gigs

"Laina Dawes is not always the only black woman at metal shows, and she's not always the only headbanger among her black female friends. In her first book, the Canadian critic and music fan questions herself, her headbanging heroes and dozens of black punk, metal, and hard rock fans to answer the knee-jerk question she's heard a hundred times in the small clubs where her favourite bands play: "What are you doing here?"."

"“I wanted to find other black women like me: metal, hardcore, and punk fans and musicians that were rabid about the music and culture and adamant about asserting their rightful place as black women within those scenes. I wanted to find other women who put aside the cultural baggage that dictates that we must listen to certain musical styles, and simply enjoy the music that influenced us, not just as black women, but as individuals who grew up in an era when, thanks to technology, a large variety of music is accessible and available to everyone. I found many black women and have shared their stories, but I also realize there is still a lot of work to be done.”—Laina Dawes"

Something that irritates me...

'How to Look like a Hot Metal Chick'

As a metal 'chick' myself, this infuriates me.
Being metal isn't about being 'hot'. Its about the love for a music genre.
This cannot be fabricated, or imitated, otherwise it just isn't real. Besides, metal, to me, has always been about being myself and being confident in myself.

One girl's view on being a metal fan...

Are you talking to me: Respecting women in metal

"Like any subculture, the world of heavy metal has rules. There’s an obvious dress code; violate it at your own peril. What you give up in fashion choices, you supposedly make back in community. Millions of misfit kids have made their home in heavy metal, and with that comes a sense of belonging: a tribe. At least, that’s how it works when you’ve got a Y chromosome.

I would have loved to join that headbanger tribe. But because of my dress code choices, the guys, by and large, ignored me. It didn’t help that I was shy. At my small high school, male metalheads seemed to accept me. But at shows? Forget it. While the guys bonded over the band’s riffage, I might as well have been a scuff on the floor."


"I suspect their reasons for loving metal were similar to mine. Some of them – possibly most of them – found something in metal that purged their pain and made them feel powerful. And it didn’t just help with big, life-changing trauma. Frustrated at school? Anthrax’ cover of “Got the Time” provided a three-minute thrash-filled vacation. Feeling like my parents didn’t get me – or my love of metal? Accept’s “Generation Clash” provided the perfect, brooding companion to my angst."

"As metal soldiered on, it branched out. Operatic and folk metal bands place women musicians front and center. Singers like Angela Gossow, Stevie Floyd, and Otep Shamaya have proven they can bellow with the best of them – and rock out without flashing their goods. Mainstream metal acts, from Tool to Lacuna Coil, offer emotional music that doesn't emasculate the audience."


Are you talking to me: Respecting women in metal

Women in Metal

'They have to scream a little louder to be heard.'
Does that mean that metal means so much more to women because of the fact that they are segregated?

'But the ladies' musical backgrounds and achievements often play second fiddle to their luminous cheekbones or dangerous curves.'
Similar things could be said for female FANS of metal - are they objectified due to their appearance because they are a lot rarer than male metalheads?

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/11/the-never-ending-debate-over-women-in-metal-and-hard-rock/247795/

All Girl Metal Bands

A great site for fans of all-girl metal bands.
And all-girl cover bands of the most well known bands from AC/DC to Van Halen.


http://www.metaladies.com/

NEMETON BOREALIS - The Blackwood Gathering, Black Metal in Cumbria

Nemeton Borealis is a unique Black Metal event situated in a birch woodland overlooking Lake Windermere, Cumbria. Limited spaces for camping and camper vans.

The event includes; Outdoor performance area and ceremonial fire, Indoor Bar with real ale and ciders, wild camping, Black Metal record Distro/ merch stalls, moon pond and Sacrificial Altar stone.

"The event is limited to 200 people and so therefore it is essential that gig attendees contact and purchase tickets beforehand. There are some limited spaces for camper vans, please inquire for their availability."

The gig isn't massively well known, and only really attended through social media networks, through friends and groups that are fans of the genre.

Some photographs taken by fans...

  

Gender in Metal?

I have moved towards the notion of gender in heavy metal music. As a fan of the genre, and a female, I feel like I am really drawn to WHY I like what I like and how that reflects in the eyes of the public!

I love these two paragraphs from The Society Pages, written by a woman. It provides me with a general summary of the arguments I would like to support in my dissertation.

"Performers and fans have been overwhelmingly been heterosexual men (Walser 1993).  The promotion of an exaggerated and idolized dominant, heterosexual form of masculinity is not surprising when taking into account the androgyny that also exists within the heavy metal realm.  Androgyny was especially prevalent during the 1970s and 1980s when heavy metal music peaked in popularity.  Male musicians and fans with long hair, make up and tight fitting clothes needed a mechanism to assert their masculinity and heterosexuality.  They found it in promoting a “sex-drug-and-groupies heavy-metal lifestyle” (Breen 1991).  This metal mantra was often at the expense of women and homosexual men, who were designated to the category of “other” and represented as a threat in visual images, lyrics, and video representations (Walser 1993).

Since the 1970s, women have increasingly gravitated towards the heavy metal scene.  Women who choose to participate, especially subgenres such as death metal or black metal that are more misogynistic, are aware of the culture of marginalization (Vasan 2011).  These women often report that the metal scene provides a sense of individual empowerment through breaking away from the gendered restrictions of mainstream society.   However, this freedom comes at a cost, which involves reframing empowerment through a masculine notion of legitimation."

Thesocietypages.org, (2014). Heavy Metal Music and Sociological Imagination » Sociology Lens. [online] Available at: http://thesocietypages.org/sociologylens/2013/11/18/heavy-metal-music-and-sociological-imagination/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2014].