Comments on: [Guest Post] On Being A Feminist Metalhead

By: BrandonWilley

BrandonWilley — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 10:20:02 +0000

Melodic bands are the best, especially soft/clean vocals. Ive been listening to all types of metal all my life, and when I discovered Eths my life changed for ever. I went on to discover kells, epica, above the earth, and The Project Hate MCMXCX in search of other female vocalists that suit my style.

Honestly I would love to meet a girly t adorned girl, that way she might be into my girly metal bands instead of being like “You like kittie nightwish and evanescence? Thats not very masculine”. The girl in the slayer shirt will look like a badass, but I wouldnt consider her any more a fan or real than the girl with the brittany spears t-shirt who happened to get interested metal by her not so pop interested boyfriend recently.

I’m a different breed of metalhead though, so It might be rare to find people who share my opinions.

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 13:43:01 +0000

Thanks for sharing with us your thoughts in this article, Jo. And to others who shared in the comments section as well. I have two thoughts after reading this article. One is direct, the other is mostly a reflection on my own contradictory experience with black metal.

1) I studied Comparative Religion in college, and so I loved browsing scholarly books on religion. I found an interesting article on black metal in an anthology on modern Satanism, that attempts to understand a facet of this aggressively male demeanor of black metal that you so aptly characterized. It’s not completely relevant, since it is more interested in black metal’s connection to satanism, but it definitely talks about it. The article is called “‘With my art I am the fist in the face of God’: On Old-school black metal,” and the anthology is called “Contemporary Religious Satanism: A Critical Anthology.” If anyone is interested, I’ll link it below:

http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754652861

2) Your article, as I said above, caused me to reflect on my own experience with black metal. Long story short, my love story with black metal began with me as a fundamentalist evangelical christian, and ended with me as an atheist. I listened to all the monoliths of the second wave while still intensely religious. It was an interesting struggle, trying to validate my christianity simaltaneously with my black-metaller-ness (just made a word, sweet). I remember early in my black metal past coming across the song “Tormentor of Christian Souls” by Dimmu Borgir and being both appalled and enchanted at the same time. Retrospectively, I chuckle thinking of my reaction, knowing the facets of black metal that I would later find. As my black metal tastes evolved and my religiosity vanished (by the way, these aren’t causally linked, just for clarity.) I began to also identify as a feminist and LGBTQ ally. Just when I thought my relationship with black metal had become uncomplicated, the contradictions returned! And they remain today. Why do I share this? One, because I sympathize with your experience of the misogyny (and homophobia) in the genre, but, two, because I also think there is hope for positive change, despite my experiences.

I think black metal is intrinsically contradictory, both ideologically and aesthetically. But I won’t go into detail about this, because it digresses from the point. I think that it is within this inherent contradiction that the answer lies. The very entropic nature of black metal implies its potential for change. I think the genre is too malleable in it’s vast range of aesthetic and ideological possibilities (and already existing unique manifestations!) to not have room for a more gender-inclusive future.

Thank you for listening, and keep on listening to black metal! :)

By: linda

linda — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 18:52:10 +0000

I appreciate you calling out your own/others snobbery against “those metal girls” (listening to nightwish as we speak!). I always thought I was a bit of a loser because I didn’t listen to macho, extreme metal, especially because a lot of people on the metal scene turned their noses up at me, but I’ve learned to accept myself as a girly metal lovin’, non-black wearing fan that I am.

By: Jo

Jo — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 11:03:19 +0000

In reply to Slimer. Ha, they're awesome :D

By: Girls Don’t Like Metal interviews Jo T | Natalie Zed

Girls Don’t Like Metal interviews Jo T | Natalie Zed — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 23:50:55 +0000

[…] Ha, I wrote a whole article on just that topic, for feminist/pop culture site Bad Reputation. I don’t think I have much more to add to that, just that I have no problem now with borrowing my boyfriend’s Sólstafir t-shirt, because they’re an awesome band, and I am happy to advertise them in public. […]

By: Girls Don’t Like Metal interviews Jon Smith | Natalie Zed

Girls Don’t Like Metal interviews Jon Smith | Natalie Zed — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 08:25:05 +0000

[…] Dawes (who was interviewed for GDLM), and in the past year I was sent an online piece called “On Being a Feminist Metalhead,” written by “Jo,” that was explicitly about being a feminist black metal fan. That was an […]

By: Slimer

Slimer — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:06:09 +0000

Check out Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 05:17:03 +0000

I’m defently certain of that I might to belong to these “girly metalheads” you’re talking about. Since I’m into old school heavy metal, NWOBHM (and I’m not just talking about Priest and Maiden), Swedish death metal, melodeath, progressive metal, symphonic metal, power metal… You name it. I’m “girly fucking poser” enough to classify Burzum as “girlfriend’s metal, just by the fact that I like the music.

Just forgot to mention, I’m a Nightwish fan, as well.

By: Figment News » Blog Archive » Cleaning Out The Bookmarks Vol. 9

Figment News » Blog Archive » Cleaning Out The Bookmarks Vol. 9 — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:37:53 +0000

[…] while we’re on the subject of women and music, I enjoyed this article “On Being A Feminist Metalhead”. Black Metal ain’t just a boys club […]

By: Adriana Delgado

Adriana Delgado — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:11:13 +0000

When I started out as a black metal fan, I too in the first years experienced disappointment whenever I saw women wearing Nightsh T-shirts, or alike. In my case, however, contrarily to you, feminism came after my black metal initiation. So it was about the time I became a feminist that I started to realize that my disapproval of those girls came from an uncounscious disaproval of all things feminine. In other words, I felt trapped by society’s idea of what a woman should be and I believed to have found, in metal, a way to get away from the stereotype, and yet, there they were, the metal version of girly-girls. I came to realize that, uncounsciously, I was somehow buying this ideas that feminine things are inferior. So I hated those girls for being stereotypically soft, romantic, well, “lame”…
“Lame” is really a word we use to denigrate all things thought of as tipically feminine, isn’t it?… This whole thing made me realize that I wasn’t tackling the gender normativity issue very well. I was rejecting things considered feminine instead of supporting the idea that they’re just as worthy as things considered feminine. Challenging gender roles stoped being about hating one of the roles but simply understanding that none should be gender specific and that you can have whatever behaviour you want, free of shame and without classifying them as “feminine” or “masculine”.
So now rather than be disturbed by the vision of those girls, I’m disturbed by the idea that there is somehow more unworthy metal based simply on that fact that it seems to be more apealing to women. As if somehow our place whithin the genre was arguable and to belong we have to sort of become a man.
I’m not sure you can relate to what I wrote, but I thought it might help if I shared my experience.

Also, as a disclamer, English is not my first language, so I might not have been very clear and for that I apologize. So I’d just like to point out that what I wrote referst to my situation and I’m by no means saying that’s also your case.