Week Eight: The Heavy Metal Habitus

Kahn-Harris explains Deena Weinstein’s perspective on women in metal by stating, “Deena Weinstein argues that the absence of women within the scene is fundamental to metal, since the music’s aesthetic is founded on notions of ‘power’ and ‘power . . . is culturally coded as a masculine trait’” (p. 73). While this is a good way of examining the power structure of metal, I think it’s possible, too, that women were simply not considered into the metal equation when metal first developed. One of the quotes from the film watched on Wednesday stated, “That’s a way of thinking about gender -- by not thinking about gender.” This quote really stuck with me because I believe this could really be what happened regarding the presence of women in metal as musicians in particular. Since men have historically had more mobility and abilities to create change, metal is a form of creativity that generated among solely men unintentionally. Perhaps women weren’t intentionally excluded from the metal scene, but instead were not considered because there was no voice of the women. Now, as women have emerged in various forms of metal, a feminine presence is clear, at least in the realm of vocalists of metal bands.

I also think that often time women in bands (of any genre) tend to get the limelight because they stick out like a sore thumb. I think this is in a way a problem when it comes to women being accepted in subcultures, such as metal. In the photos we went through you can see how women deliberately stand out from the rest of the band, which ends up looking like a backing back. Women have long hair, are often wearing a bright color (usually red) and are always in the front of teh band. If, instead, women were equal to any other member of the band and did not stand out so prevalently, women would be considered equal and more equally a part of the band rather than the frontman and spokesperson for the band, which is what usually happens.

I’ve added a few videos of women in metal from my experience.

The first video is of Eyes Set To Kill, a band fronted by a woman and that has another woman in the band. What I find interesting about this band is that they combine both the feminine high vocal range with the deep guttural vocals of the male. Even more, the female vocal that drift over the guitar riffs compose the verses while the male vocals compose the choruses. Also, finally it’s a woman with short hair.

The next video is of Walls of Jericho, which has a female front-person, who imitates the male guttural singing style.

Another example of this style of singing is Otep.