Green Beard Festival
So I briefly thought about breaking my tent-ban and going to a festival this summer. WHY?! my friends ask in shock disbelief. Because, you know, I'm a slave to my hormones and the current Object Of My Obsession aka Beyond The Wizards Sleeve only seem to be playing festivals this summer - and there was the promise of four hours of groovy psychedelia with proper psych lighting and projections and everything. Nobody's Prawn and Emsk said that they were both thinking of going, so I started to consider it.
So I start looking at the lineup. I even go on the website and start paging down through the little photos and descriptions of the other bands. First thing I notice - crikey, it's beardy. The Animal Collective - possibly the most beardy music of all time. It even sounds hairy. Jarvis Cocker, he's got a beard now, you know. Wilco. Beard City. Bon Iver, Roky Erikson, man, look at those beards. I keep paging. It's so fucking beardy I can start to feel my ovaries shrivelling and my tits drying up and falling off as I read, massive hairs sprouting from my chin.
And then it strikes me.
I start playing a game, counting the beards. I count 10 photos before I see a face that isn't WASPy white. 15 before I see an actual woman.
Is this an aberration? Is this a bit weird? I look at some other independent festivals for comparison, just reading the names in their ads. Field Day? 1. Mogwai - yeah, beardy, white, male 2. Santigold - WIN. Turn the page, an ad for the Loop Festival. 1. Squarepusher 2. Fever Ray - WIN
So WTF, Green Man? I guess the clue is in the name, isn't it?
Why do I even notice this? What strikes me as odd is that more people DON'T.
Am I weird, that when I walk into a situation, I kinda subconsciously seem to scan and notice whether the people I'm looking at - you know - resemble me. Yes, I know I'm already one up on the privilege loop, since I am white. (Though I've certainly had enough of the immigrant experience to understand what it is to be Other in a homogenous group.) If the genders were reversed, and there was a festival where the first 15 headline acts were ALL female, do you think that would go unnoticed, uncommented on? (Though I'm not sure such a festival would exist outside a Ladyfest.) Doesn't that strike you as, well... lopsided!
The irony being, I did actually have this exact argument with Richard from BTWS the night I met him. (Unfortunately rather too drunk to make much sense.) I complained that they were rather leaving the female side of the 60s out of their equations - play some Selda, play some Shocking Blue, the Rattles, Francois Hardy, Marianne Faithfull, Amon Duul II. He shrugged and said "I don't listen to gender, I just listen to music. It doesn't matter to me if it's a man or a woman." How are you supposed to respond to that? I drew a rather filthy comic and thrust it across the decks - a picture of a nude woman with Spacemen 3 logos for genitalia with the slogan "IF IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S A MAN OR A WOMAN, WHY IS IT *ALWAYS* A MAN?"
He laughed, handed it to Erol - so I snatched it back and ran away before he could turn the page and find, erm, inappropriate drawings of himself - but they did start to make with the groovy girls.
OK, why do I notice this? Do I go looking for all male exclusivity? Or, in the case of this festival, was I just looking through the bands and wondering why none of the acts appealed enough to me to make it worthwhile camping in Wales. I prefer the sound of the female voice - that's merely an aethsetic judgement, not a political one.
Could I make mine own little indie festival, just to make me happy? Oh, who shall I have headlining? Electrik Red, M.I.A., Bat For Lashes, School of Seven Bells, Telepathe, Ebony Bones, Bishi, Micachu and the Shapes. Oh, whoops! I seem to have forgotten to book any men. Oh, let's get Erol Alkan down as a bit of eye candy for the ladies, but we'll make him do everything backwards and in heels - and make sure we're extra condescending as we ask "oh, do you need any help being shown how to use those decks, love?" and oh, we've got a man now, so you can't accuse me of being sexist! For the Mumrock contingent, oh, let's have a good nostalgic blast of... Madonna! Woot! And dust off Marianne Faithfull and Ronnie Spector for the grans.
Yes, I'm just being silly now. But what if. What if?
So I start looking at the lineup. I even go on the website and start paging down through the little photos and descriptions of the other bands. First thing I notice - crikey, it's beardy. The Animal Collective - possibly the most beardy music of all time. It even sounds hairy. Jarvis Cocker, he's got a beard now, you know. Wilco. Beard City. Bon Iver, Roky Erikson, man, look at those beards. I keep paging. It's so fucking beardy I can start to feel my ovaries shrivelling and my tits drying up and falling off as I read, massive hairs sprouting from my chin.
And then it strikes me.
I start playing a game, counting the beards. I count 10 photos before I see a face that isn't WASPy white. 15 before I see an actual woman.
Is this an aberration? Is this a bit weird? I look at some other independent festivals for comparison, just reading the names in their ads. Field Day? 1. Mogwai - yeah, beardy, white, male 2. Santigold - WIN. Turn the page, an ad for the Loop Festival. 1. Squarepusher 2. Fever Ray - WIN
So WTF, Green Man? I guess the clue is in the name, isn't it?
Why do I even notice this? What strikes me as odd is that more people DON'T.
Am I weird, that when I walk into a situation, I kinda subconsciously seem to scan and notice whether the people I'm looking at - you know - resemble me. Yes, I know I'm already one up on the privilege loop, since I am white. (Though I've certainly had enough of the immigrant experience to understand what it is to be Other in a homogenous group.) If the genders were reversed, and there was a festival where the first 15 headline acts were ALL female, do you think that would go unnoticed, uncommented on? (Though I'm not sure such a festival would exist outside a Ladyfest.) Doesn't that strike you as, well... lopsided!
The irony being, I did actually have this exact argument with Richard from BTWS the night I met him. (Unfortunately rather too drunk to make much sense.) I complained that they were rather leaving the female side of the 60s out of their equations - play some Selda, play some Shocking Blue, the Rattles, Francois Hardy, Marianne Faithfull, Amon Duul II. He shrugged and said "I don't listen to gender, I just listen to music. It doesn't matter to me if it's a man or a woman." How are you supposed to respond to that? I drew a rather filthy comic and thrust it across the decks - a picture of a nude woman with Spacemen 3 logos for genitalia with the slogan "IF IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S A MAN OR A WOMAN, WHY IS IT *ALWAYS* A MAN?"
He laughed, handed it to Erol - so I snatched it back and ran away before he could turn the page and find, erm, inappropriate drawings of himself - but they did start to make with the groovy girls.
OK, why do I notice this? Do I go looking for all male exclusivity? Or, in the case of this festival, was I just looking through the bands and wondering why none of the acts appealed enough to me to make it worthwhile camping in Wales. I prefer the sound of the female voice - that's merely an aethsetic judgement, not a political one.
Could I make mine own little indie festival, just to make me happy? Oh, who shall I have headlining? Electrik Red, M.I.A., Bat For Lashes, School of Seven Bells, Telepathe, Ebony Bones, Bishi, Micachu and the Shapes. Oh, whoops! I seem to have forgotten to book any men. Oh, let's get Erol Alkan down as a bit of eye candy for the ladies, but we'll make him do everything backwards and in heels - and make sure we're extra condescending as we ask "oh, do you need any help being shown how to use those decks, love?" and oh, we've got a man now, so you can't accuse me of being sexist! For the Mumrock contingent, oh, let's have a good nostalgic blast of... Madonna! Woot! And dust off Marianne Faithfull and Ronnie Spector for the grans.
Yes, I'm just being silly now. But what if. What if?
posted by Masonic Boom | 1:41 pm
2 Comments:
Ugh, totally agreed. And with music journalism, it doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman...until it's a woman. This is one reason I'm excited about Micachu even if the music isn't quite my thing, because people haven't been calling them a 'girl band' or anything yet, or flailing around about how ~*attractive and interesting*~ their frontwoman is -- they just talk about the sound.
I'll play your festival. I'll play it in a flannel shirt and man jeans if you need a little bit of dude power. XD
And I've just been chewed out by Richard for not wanting to go. I give up. :-(
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