Re: (idm) electronic music grrrls?

From johnb
Sent Mon, Oct 5th 1998, 21:22

I'm amazed...  An honest, intelligent response is the first message to make
it through the ether to my computer (maybe I just missed a few of the more
inflammatory ones?).  As soon as I saw the original "electronic music
grrrls" post, I thought -- 'Oh no, here it comes, prepare to ignore
everything else with this Subject: line for the next few days."

I'm glad I didn't...thanks, Elizabeth.


.John.

NP: John Zorn - Spy Vs. Spy
WP: Merzbow & Null - Deus Irae
Mmmm......noise... :~)

>  Ok. For once (again) I will not keep my big mouth shut...
> 
>  I get really sick and tired of any woman in male 'dominated' 
>  field trying to play off her girl-ness. It discredits the gender,
>  and generally trivializes whatever they're trying to do. It's
>  playing a card, in my eyes, and a pretty worn one at that. You have
>  issues? Fine. You'd just better have some *worth* to go with them,
>  and fucking *run* with it. It's not just saying somethign 'cos you've
>  got something to say, but because you know how to *say* it. It gets
>  really old, being a female in a technological field, and not one
>  of the many who 'flaunt it' and try to make it as if they deserve
>  something for having a given set of genitalia. Guess what. It's 
>  just as goddamned bad as the OTHER SIDE doing it, ok? I don't see
>  Bjork or Mira Calyx or wheover else you guys love arguing about 
>  really playing up their female-ness - I didn't see any sticker
>  on their records saying "IS A GIRL!". So what's the bfd? I can see
>  where being female/male/whatever may impact the music, it's a 
>  different perspective, but what is up with making that a 'selling
>  point?'
> 
>  Bleah. Off my frigging soapbox already. You really shouldn't have
>  asked. :-)
> 
> 
> On Mon, 5 Oct 1998, Psuckpop wrote:
> 
> > Following text is an information/manifesto from a new label named 
> > *Homewrecker Records* founded by Hecate (co-owner of Zhark Records) and

> > another girl/woman named Siobhan... Something like a girl/woman/female 
> > author label... what let me ask: are they any females on this 800+ 
> > members list who produce electronic music? and if not, are they any 
> > females on the list? if yes. what they think about that statement? or
is 
> > the idm list 100% male dominated?
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Sex is Vinyl.
> > 
> > Homewrecker Recordings exists on multiple levels (as label,
> > ideology, politics and practice) in a multitude of locations (North
> > America, Europe - the world) and amongst a multiplicity of
> > identities (gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class...). Born of a
> > want, a need and a desire to include the issue of "gender" and its
> > problematics into not only the lexicon of a certain mode of music,
> > within a certain conceptual sphere, but also into various ways of
> > being. Homewrecker Recordings recognizes the shifting, the unstable
> > and the contested pronouncement of "gender" "female" "(wo)man" or
> > "girl" or even the questions raised concerning the notion of
> > (cultural) identity. Yet, Homewrecker Recordings deliberately seeks
> > out this contested terrain in order to force the issue onto the
> > (turn)table. In a patriarchal system the politics of gender do
> > indeed matter.
> > 
> > The abstractions approximated by music, the potential anonymity
> > afforded by the technology, the means of dissemination or
> > distribution, in some respect works to mask the function of gender
> > and gender issues in electronic music. White or black labels do not
> > speak of sex. But music is never sexless. Unbounded by historical
> > circumstance, the relatively new genre of electronic music is,
> > paradoxically, profoundly tied to patriarchal culture. The question
> > arises, who made this record, for whom was it made, how does it
> > circulate and within what context?
> > 
> > The label takes up these issues through a strict set of musical and
> > gendered parameters within a specific context: all female producers
> > and all electronic/digital music/noise. We aim to sex music. We
> > participate in a politics of exclusion merely to dislodge, disrupt
> > and displace the comfy covert politics of exclusion taking place in
> > (some) electronic music and labels of an extreme nature. 
> > Ironically, this politics of exclusion has also fostered the
> > dangerous practice of appropriating the female form and its
> > connotations; the same male structure in a feminine guise. Women up
> > front with the men in the back (and in control). The female body
> > and voice is presented totally without agency. Put on display.
> > Consumed. Passive. That game is old and boring.   
> > 
> > Homewrecker Recordings is provocation.... Homewrecking...Destroy
> > the patriarchy -  Dismantle the familial structure - Demolish
> > traditional female roles... The labels's aim is it's own
> > destruction - we will work to become obsolete. We hope Homewrecker
> > Recordings will be but an additional level in a myriad of
> > political/musical/cooperative workings. An international grass
> > roots approach is the means by which its artists shall come into
> > being. Perhaps she does not yet exist, or she exists unknown in a
> > Tokyo highrise or in a basement in Idaho - we'll hook up
> > eventually. The label recognizes the various manifestations of the
> > female, the existence of feminisms. Being pro-female does not mean
> > we are anti-male.  Homewrecker Recordings functions as a discursive
> > site. To open up debate, dialogue, and criticality around the
> > problematics of gender and its intersection with music. 
> >  
> > Female trouble. Evening the score. Hysteria. Resistance.  Whatever
> > you want to call it - we've had enough. It all starts and stops
> > here.
> > 
> > *for contact send mail to: xxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx
> > 
> > *for hecate interview goto:
> > http://www.digitalworldnet.com/artists/hecate.html
> > 
> 
> -- 
>      xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xx.xx.xx   http://www.extortion.com
> 
>  "Millions of human  hands at  work, billions of minds...a vast
>   network, screaming with life: an organism. A natural organism." 
>                         - Max Cohen, in the motion picture pi