Women and Respect -- Your Thoughts
 

Yesterday, a tour with No Doubt and Paramore was announced. Amidst the enthusiasm for the tour were, expectedly, guys pointing out that it was the "hot female lead singer tour." It's expected because any post about a girl in a band on AP.net causes all kinds of sick and disgusting posts. This behavior is not only limited to the Internet.

If you are a Straylight Run fan, you're no doubt aware of the catcalling and inappropriate behavior that Michelle Nolan faced on a nightly basis from her band's audience to the point that it would affect the live show. Is it practically impossible to be respected as a female in this scene? What is the cause for this?

Michelle winked at me during a show once, I swear it.

Anyway, it is absolutely possible to be respected in this scene. Take, for example, Tegan and Sara...I haven't seen them live yet but I think they're great and I definitely respect them.

In a scene where 95% of the bands are fronted by dudes who look like they haven't showered in three weeks, it's really nice to see a pretty girl up on the stage singing. It's probably just in our blood as men to want to call them hot and what-not. It's really no different than girls on message boards crying over how sexy Pete Wentz is, you know?

serioulsy?????? i fucking love no doubt, i never got to see them before they went on break, sick sick sick!!

"What is the cause for this?"

one theory. 85% of the "scene" is below the age of 21 and thus still so immature they don't understand the concept of respect for the opposite sex.

guys get objectified in a similar fashion by the millions of horny teen girl fans
but society says it's ok for a dude to be a whore

Um, welcome to things that are real. These real things are commonly known as life. In no way is this specific to "this scene".

I don't necessarily believe it's impossible to be a female in a band, but with the way the media works, they make these female performers to be sex icons. We can trace it back all the way to when Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, and many other 'divas' had to look amazing. Image means a lot in this business. I can't think of too many extremely ugly female musicians today (No disrespect to any female musicians). Take a look at the AP.net forum ad with Paramore for example, look at how Hayley is in the front of the guy musicians. Yes, she's the vocalist and image of the band, but that's how they market themselves. They have an attractive singer, and if anyone wants to say that they don't use her looks to market themselves, I believe you're sadly mistaken. It reciprocates though. For all the men cat-calling female musicians, all of the girls swoon over the "hot guys" in bands today. The girls are more ruthless to get to these male performers, but they act nice when they meet them. It doesn't affect the guys as much because they can laugh it off, make fun of them, or do whatever they do. It goes both way. Unfortunately, this is just the way the industry is. Image accounts for a lot.

THIS

its impossible to be a respected female in the scene because of all the girls that hook up with dudes in bands, just to hook up with dudes in bands. for every legit girl there are 100 that are whores, so the probability that you don't respect yourself is 99/100..thus noone respects women because 99% are whores.
I know, I live it, I breathe it, and it is one of the largest obstacles I will ever overcome in my life.

Pointing out a female in a band that is hot does not mean you don't have respect for them.

I didn't really want to put "I want to fuck you so hard Hayley" on the home page, haha.

I mean, it goes both ways... whenever I'm at a show that has any semi-attractive male on stage girls in the audience will whistle/scream/whatever.

this is pretty much what i was going to say

i also want to add that it is definitely possible for girls to be respected within the scene. if you have the musical chops, then fans will take notice, regardless of your gender. of course you're going to have some jackasses (the ones heckling at shows) anywhere you go, but for the most part I would think a majority of us aren't like that. I don't think a guy calling a female singer 'hot' is a bad thing... just as a girl calling a male singer 'hot' isn't anything to get bent out of shape over. it's the one's who cross the proverbial line that are the problem.


haha... that's when it crosses the line

Definitely not specific. Only limited to the scene for discussion purposes.

Look at Shane from Valencia. Incredible voice and great guy. But we all know what he had to go through when he was a bit larger. Columbia refused to sign Valencia until he lost a lot of his weight. If that's not a case of image being important, I don't know what is.