Madrigal:
Thanks for clarifying. I do see where you're coming from better now.
I can't argue with the fact that the number of women in metal - particularly instrumentalists and songwriters is shamefully small. It frustrates me too.
I haven't done any research on the subject or anything, but from my own experience I see so many different factors influencing this. I touched on some of these before, but I'll name off some of them and you can see if they make any sense to you:
History: Historically, in all genres of music, women who compose and perform music and display enormous talent have been viewed more as performing monkeys than as serious musicians, like - oh look what tricks she can do! On top of this, when the recording industry began to take hold women were only used as vocalists, not as intrumental players, and only occasionally as songwriters. If you take a look at all music genres today you will still see women underrepresented as actual composers and players. Even in pop there are way more women who play the eye candy role than that of serious musician. And this extends to other industries as well, like science and technology. Women are still recovering from thousands of years of subjugation. I've seen improvements in the 12 years or so I've been into metal, so it's bound to keep getting better, but it moves slow.
Image: Metal has a bad reputation to those who don't understand the genre as a whole. Misogynistic lyrics, sexist imagery, lots of screaming and noise. This kind of stuff turns women off metal before they can look a little deeper into the forms that are more meaningful and less anti-female. Still, on the whole, playing killer heavy guitar or kicking as on the drums, or whatever - there are a lot of left over masculine connotations to that kind of behaviour, all tied up in virility and power issues. It may be the 21st century, but many women are still afraid to break down traditional gender barriers and take on a powerful role.
Attitudes of others, especially men in the scene: Like you said, women in metal are often just eye candy. That's exactly the problem. We're not judged by our talent by so many people as much as we're judged by our ability to turn the boys on. And what good is a hot woman behind the drums where she can hardly be seen? Even a guitar strapped across her chest gets in the way of a clear view of what she has to "offer." I bet a lot of people don't even realize how much their opinion of a woman's looks affects their opinion of her talent.
But from this standpoint, at least women who are hot and talented should be at a great advantage. Except when you remember some of the things I said about women as performing monkeys. We're viewed far more as novelties rather than serious musicians. This is probably a bad example, particularly since she's a vocalist rather than an instrumentalist, but look at all the hype that's surrounded Angela Gossow's joining Arch Enemy - she's under way more pressure than a new male singer would be in her situation. Not only does she need to prove herself, but she's also acting as a representative for women as aggressive singers in general. There are a lot of people who doubt a woman can keep that kind of thing up, and if she fails what kind of effect is that going to have on the next woman who tries?
From my own experience - growing up I had few female role models, especially when it comes to heavy music. The most outstanding one I can remember is Joan Jett.
Compare that to the hundreds of role models aspiring male musicians have, and that's bound to have an effect. When I tried playing the drums as a wee kid, it was seen as cute, but no one encouraged me to actually learn. I never imagined back then that it was something for women do as well as guys. I was given piano lessons, but not guitar lessons, and when I did get a guitar one Christmas it was an acoustic, not an electric.
When I finally joined a metal band, they wanted a chick who could sing and play keyboards (and look good), so I put the guitar aside because I didn't have time to do everything. I came up with all my own keyboard parts and vocal melodies and worked on the song arrangements, but when I tried to contribute to the actual song structure my ideas were subtly marginalized. Even some of my arrangement ideas were rejected and then brought back later - more acceptable because now one of the guys was suggesting my ideas as new. I always had to fight to have any real say in anything and then I was viewed as bitchy or bossy, and if they gave in it was to humour me.
I turned to writing songs alone so my ideas would actually be used and developed. And now I'm kicking myself that I never learned to play the drums, and let my guitar playing die off like that.
As for talented women composers - I was actually thinking about classical music when I said that. I listen to a lot of classical radio and I'm always hearing these wonderful new compositions by female composers, and this to me shows that women are fully capable of understanding the complexities of music. Even when I was studying music, most of the other girls may not have been into metal, but they had no more trouble grasping difficult and complicated music than the guys did.
But as for women in metal, I mentioned in a previous thread Samantha Escarbe from Virgin Black. I find her very inspiring. She's not the only one, but there definitely needs to be more!
Wow, this has been one really long rant.
