I‘ve always wanted to write a review of a dude band in the same way that some journalists write about my band, Tacocat. Because Tacocat is a band with three girls in it, people say the stupidest shit about us—the same stupid shit they say about all female-dominated bands. My idea is pretty simple: copy any old review of Tacocat but change the band in question to a “regular band” (read: male) to see how it would turn out.

For example, I could write a review of my roommate’s oh-so-male quintessential hardcore band Tit Pig. It could start out “Tit Pig is my favorite all-male band.” I would, of course, praise them for “just getting out there, they are so cute.” I would definitely point out that “it is just so great that they are doing it.” Then I would subtly condescend to them by mentioning how long they have been playing their instruments. In the case of Tit Pig, I would definitely slip in that even though singer Sean Evoy hasn’t been at it that long, he is just out there giving it his all, trying his hardest. Obviously, I’d need to slyly find a way to slip in that “it doesn’t hurt that they are all good-looking dudes.” I’d even go into detail describing their clothes and haircuts—drummer Chris Byrne’s dreamy blue eyes, bassist Willy Nils’s edgy, trendsetting dreads.

And, since I am lazy and don’t know that much about hardcore, I would compare them to the same two bands all the other lazies compare them to—Black Flag and Minor Threat—since they are the easiest, most obvious hardcore bands I can think of. And then I would add that it would be so much better if Tit Pig held the same political convictions as Black Flag and Minor Threat.

Tacocat will always get labeled “riot-grrrl,” but the thing is, didn’t that already happen in the 1990s? And we always get compared to Bikini Kill. I’m secretly okay with being compared to Bikini Kill because I grew up listening to/loving Bikini Kill and it makes a lot of sense that I’d be influenced by them, but does it have to happen every time? Do we always have to be put in a Bikini Kill–shaped box? And does it have to come along with a complaint that Tacocat’s politics aren’t as “serious” as riot grrrl/post riot grrrl/Bikini Kill politics?

Maybe while you’re at it, you could criticize GG Allin’s “Needle up My Cock” (I know, Allin is no Tit Pig, but I’ve never been great at maintaining analogies) for not being, ummm—what’s the opposite of feminist?—masculinist enough? We get criticized for not being feminist, not being serious, because of our party subject matter. We also write songs like “UTI” or “TSS,” but, apparently, having a sense of humor about urinary tract infections and toxic shock syndrome is unacceptable to people. It’s not “political” enough. Never mind that these songs are discussing generally unspeakable issues related to the female body.

I was watching a band with my girlfriend last year, and they paused to have a quick shout-out about how important their lyrics were to them by saying (about a different girl-dominated band): “Last night we played with this band that had four females, all good at their instruments, but then all their songs were about cats… and that just made me angry. It’s like, we work really hard on our lyrics, and I don’t wanna hear some girl sing about her cat.”

My girlfriend and I were irate, since both of us were in bands that play songs about our cats, other cats, and all kinds of other apparently invalid things. I found it offensive that this political/queer/female punk band would get up onstage and trash another grrrl band for having fun subject matter. For anyone—particularly another self-described feminist—to discourage any women from making the music they want to be making is absolutely inexcusable. (Ironically, the band they were talking shit about are friends of mine from Bellingham who do indeed have a silly party band that sings about cats, but they were also part of the genius, ultrafeminist group Post-Post-Fuck-Fuck, which spawned several female bands after it dissolved.)

And this was within the confines of a queer/punk/DIY community. The straight music-journalist dudes disapprove and want us to be more political, just like the queer punks disapprove and want us to be more political. Is it your duty as a female in the punk community to have a specific political agenda when making art? I sure wish I was a dude, then—I could make party songs and not have to worry about all the people I was letting down. Meanwhile, Tit Pig get to sing about partying in the USA as much as they want and no one questions it. Must be nice. recommended

Bree McKenna is the bass player in Tacocat.

63 replies on “Sexist Queers”

  1. #49, yeah except that they do that all the time. Ty Cowgill, Trent Moorman, Kaz from PWRFL Power and Lars from the Intelligence’s tour diaries. Nice try, though.

  2. @47: All musicians get asked if that’s them playing on the recording. It’s a really stupid question that seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, so I get how you could relate that to being female, but…it’s more common than you might think.

    @ the author:
    Totally love the article, totally love riot-grrl, totally love Bikini Kill, not really sure why you are complaining about being compared to good bands. :/

  3. I totally love this article and agree with everything said, 100%.

    But I was hoping The Stranger would take the bull by the horns (so to speak…) and address the attitudes of misogynistic gay men and lesbians who (what is the opposite of misogynistic?) because I have seen those attitudes in action and it seems counterproductive in so many ways.

  4. @53 Misandrist is the opposite of misogynistic, but I’m not sure where that word fits into your comment….
    @52 I’m also a female musician and I get compared to Joan Jett a lot. The first few times, I was insanely flattered–who isn’t in love with Joan Jett?–but also a bit confused, because my style isn’t much like hers. Then I figured it out: I’m a girl and I sing rock music, so I MUST be like Joan Jett. If your style is like Bikini Kill, it’s awesome to be compared to them. If it’s not, it’s just people assuming that all girl bands are the same.

  5. @4 Are you familiar with Girlie Feminism? It was a strain of 90s third-wave that insisted there was nothing wrong with being girls or with femininity. That’s part of why “Riot Grrrl” used the term girl almost exclusively.

    Also keep in mind that these days “man” and “woman” sound super-adult to most of us under-30s. I’m 29 already and I have trouble calling myself a woman, or calling my guy friends men. The real problem is that there’s no good equivalent to “guy.” Sometimes I say “ladies” or “chicks,” which is tongue-in-cheek and probably lame but at least it avoids the girl/woman binary.

  7. @44 “And hey, go and call yourselves whatever you want—sluts, girls, whatever. But then don’t complain when you’re not given the respect you deserve.”

    Myself, I’ll complain about whatever I damn please, thanks. Don’t really feel the need to kowtow to outdated mores in order to get ‘respect’ from people too simple-minded to deserve mine.

  10. @4 – being someone who is from australia and basically knowing nothing about Tacocat (who i now think are amazing) i think its important to note that there are females in the band so it gives the write up reference and context. I didnt know if the members were male or female but it definitely needed to be noted for the review purposes.

    – I have been in a band with a similar dynamic and its disheartening to be lumped into a box, people dont bother referencing the music at all, they see gender and make the closest (also gender based) reference.
    They dont even bother engaging with whats been written musically.

    This is a great write up, Im stoked that other people feel that their ‘hobby’ doesnt have to be politically based. That you can write and do whatever you want with your own music.

    – and in reference to the band being called out for not being political enough??!!
    I know alot of people who are in bands that are not political but personally have amazing politics.
    Should be concentrating on the people outside of our circles who have horrific politics and need to be pulled up instead of people in your own scene, who have common goals.
    not to say that people in the scene don’t need to be held accountable for things they say and do, but i do believe that there are alot of bigger fish to fry so to speak, otherwise what good are our politics if were only bothering to self regulate a small punk DIY scene.

  11. @4 – being someone who is from australia and basically knowing nothing about Tacocat (who i now think are amazing) i think its important to note that there are females in the band so it gives the write up reference and context. I didnt know if the members were male or female but it definitely needed to be noted for the review purposes.

    – I have been in a band with a similar dynamic and its disheartening to be lumped into a box, people dont bother referencing the music at all, they see gender and make the closest (also gender based) reference.
    They dont even bother engaging with whats been written musically.

    This is a great write up, Im stoked that other people feel that their ‘hobby’ doesnt have to be politically based. That you can write and do whatever you want with your own music.

    – and in reference to the band being called out for not being political enough??!!
    I know alot of people who are in bands that are not political but personally have amazing politics.
    Should be concentrating on the people outside of our circles who have horrific politics and need to be pulled up instead of people in your own scene, who have common goals.
    not to say that people in the scene don’t need to be held accountable for things they say and do, but i do believe that there are alot of bigger fish to fry so to speak, otherwise what good are our politics if were only bothering to self regulate a small punk DIY scene.

  13. Having only ever been in all female bands since the early 90’s I couldn’t agree with this article more.
    I remember a friend, who was also a musician, in college saying once “Well, you guys have gimmick.”
    I actually had to ask what said gimmick was and he said that because we were all female people were going to like us better and more people were going to come see us play.
    True as it may be that we were well liked at our pretty liberal college it pissed me off that this guy would say we had a gimmick and totally diminish our music and talent.
    In other settings we were treated like shit, people didn’t listen to us play or they just stared at us like they’d never seen a bunch of punky chicks play music before.
    I’m sad to know it hasn’t changed much in the past twenty years.

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