Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)

[pascale amzallou <pascaleamz AT yahoo.com>]

I'd guess that most of the female artists talked about
here would
hate that a distinction is made purely on the basis of
sex, and
I think it would be fair to say that the Gang of Four
or Scritti
Politti contributed much more to the dialogue of sex,
gender 
and music than many female artists ever have.  Given
that both the Gang of Four and Scritti Politti came
out of a much bigger
scene that included men and women in more equal
proportion
than any musical scene up to that point, I think it
would be a
kind of ridiculous thing not to include them in this
group.  And
that's not to mention the fact that people here
obviously have
an interest in them, not to mention the fact that the
Gang of
Four did have a female member at their commercial peak
and
both groups had plenty of songs dealing with issues of
sex
and gender that took a very feminist /
deconstructionist stance:

Scritti's "Is And Ought The Western World" takes to
issue false
(or pointless) dichotomies in Western society, and the
idea that
pro-feminist, pro-activist men should not be included
in a discussion forum such as this, but that an artist
who reinforces
negative societal stereotypes of women can be included
purely
on a biological basis strikes me as absurd.  Even
later records
like "The 'Sweetest' Girl" dealt with mainstream ideas
of 
marketing (and perpetuating) ideas of feminity and
gender.

The Gang of Four tackled issues of gender and feminism
on 
nearly every record - "Damaged Goods," "I Love A Man
In Uniform," "I Found That Essence Rare," "Contract,"
"It's Her Factory," "The History Of The World" to name
but a few - and
they covered songs by other artists with similar
messages
too and were known to dissect their own music in terms
of
their sex and in contrast with artists such as the
Raincoats
in interviews and press releases.

This is simply my opinion.  I realize that this isn't
my list, but
frankly the Gang of Four or Scritti strike me more as
"typical
girls" than a group like Dolly Mixture, who were
marketed 
and behaved in many ways like most other girl groups
and who shied away from the big questions other groups
of the era
were asking.  Don't get me wrong, I like Dolly Mixture
and
they were not without their merits, but in many ways I
think
they reacted against the idea of what a "typical" girl
should be
much less than the aforementioned 'boy' bands.

So is this a discussion group about feminism and free
expression
in music (as the Slits' song from which the group's
name is
taken) or is it a kind of "Hurray For Everything
Female!" group 
with no capacity for the sort of flexible gender
identity at the
heart of the Slits, Raincoats, Scritti and the Gang of
Four?

Pascale


                
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