Session 5: The Swagger of Death: Sex, Gender and Power
2nd Global Conference
Wednesday 11th November – Thursday 12th November 2009
Salzburg, Austria
Den Mothers and Band Whores: Gender, Sex and Power in the Death Metal Scene
Sonia Vasan
University of Houston, Texas, USA
The heavy metal music scene has traditionally been male territory ever since its inception nearly four decades ago. In particular, death metal—a type of metal characterized by guttural vocals, aggressive, downtuned guitars, and violent or macabre thematic content—is arguably the most androcentric of any metal subgenre. Yet women, though few, are nevertheless a presence in all aspects of the death metal subculture, whether as artists, scene leaders, record label executives, or simply as fans of the music. Many women are even fans of misogynistic death metal acts—bands whose albums feature lyrics and cover art glorifying the sexual and physical assault of women.
Given their minority status within a largely masculine and masculinist scene, how do female death metal fans negotiate boundaries of gender identity within the death metal subculture? Do they participate solely on men’s terms, or do they appropriate masculine power and use it to assert themselves as women? The present study locates these issues within the phenomenon of subgroup formation by women in the scene. Field observations and interviews with female death metal fans reveal two groups of women who actively construct gender in two very different ways: by appropriating masculine norms, and by embodying male fantasy through hypersexualized femininity. These two groups—“den mothers” and “band whores”, as one female fan dubbed them—compete for power in the death metal scene by creating gendered identities according to the masculinist codes of the subculture. The study ultimately questions whether women’s construction of gender within an androcentric space can ever occur on its own terms.
Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
Gorgoroth’s Gaahl’s Gay! Power, gender and the Communicative Discourse of the Black Metal Scene
Karl Spracklen
Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Hegemony theory, which owes its popularity to the work of Gramsci (1971) – who elaborated at length on the difference between the dominance of a ruling class and complete cultural hegemony of the ruling culture throughout the ruling and the ruled – is crucial to understand the role of leisure in the construction of class and gender status (cf. Butler, 1999). Carrington and McDonald (2008), for example, say that the concept of hegemony, when applied to the structures in sport, emphasises both class, gendered constructions and cultural practices. As Carton (2008) claims, leisure does not necessarily have to be a medium for the hegemony of the values of the ruling class. It can be a medium for counter-hegemonic resistance, where the ruled react against hegemony and try and overcome imposed cultural values. At the same time, researchers of popular music have theorised the development of neo-tribes as the effect of postmodernity on practices of consumption and identity formation (Bennett, 2006). Black metal is a form of heavy metal music taken to extremes of image, content and ideology, exemplified by the church burnings and murders in Norway at the start of black metal’s recent history (Kahn-Harris, 2007). Previous work on black metal (Spracklen, 2006) has linked the discourses of identity in the scene to a Habermasian framework of communicative and instrumental rationalities at the end of modernity (Habermas, 1981:1984). This paper will use new research analysing publicly available comments on the fan forums to explore discussions about gender and sexuality in black metal, and in particular the decision by the singer of the band Gorgoroth to announce his homosexuality. It will be argued that such discussions are expressions of communicative discourse, in a Habermasian sense, which offers a counter-hegemonic position on some aspects (but not all aspects) of gender and identity.
Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
Harder, Faster, Stronger : Representations of Masculinities in Heavy Metal Music
Duygu Yildirim
American Culture and Literature, İstanbul University, Turkey
Heavy metal music which is identified with various forms of masculinities has sharply affected its fans throughout the globe. Within the feminist framework, it can be claimed that the female one is systematically excluded from the active participation to such an atmosphere. However, the women are merely portrayed as sexual images. Thus, the female alludes to the male gaze which is a part of the hypermasculine world.
As well as the fit bodies of the musicians, there are other gender distinctive images which underline their masculinity such as the guitars, and the swords which in fact identify with the penis. Apparently, heavy metal as a genre rebellious, yet it also (re)present itself within the dominant ideology. Hence, the well known patriarchal order becomes legitimate via their masculine images and lyrics.
Focusing on the paradigms of gender roles in this genre, this study also illustrates the crisis of masculinity within the heavy metal music. From Lacanian perspectives, the true heterosexual relationship is impossible. Therefore, homosociality reveals as a mechanism in heavy metal. Swearing signifies the heterosexual desire and it is also used to overcome the deficiency related to sexual relationship. As for the spectator, he gets an illusion of wholeness with the musicians which resembles Lacanian mirror stage. Sentimentality and melancholic behaviour are the characteristic qualities of the femininity. Nonetheless, sometimes these features are used which embodies an inappropriateness for the represented male figure.
The hegemonic masculinity is constructed on polarization of gender identities. Not only the musicians but also the male spectators are limited to a few excessive characteristic features of manhood such as consuming alcohol and swearing. This aspect results in the caricaturization of the genre. The representations of masculinities are also illusionary, although men are continuously expected to prove their masculinities via the women.
The analysis of masculinity in heavy metal music points out that there is plurality of masculinities. However, exaggerated depictions of them reveal that the men figures of this genre are also afraid of losing their masculinities.
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