Editorials

Why Don't More Women Listen to Heavy Metal?

Why is anyone attracted to metal? I’m trying not to talk about any one specific subdivision of metal, by the way. In general, metal is darker and more concerned with darker topics than most other genres. Horror, gore, rage, hatred, pain; these, amongst other passionate and frightening topics, are often confronted and embraced by the mindset in which metal thrives.

Do you have to have had an abusive childhood or some other past trauma to be attracted to metal? Obviously not, although I personally feel that it may be an initial factor for many, myself included. I do think, though, that metal fans are more intrigued by the darker experiences of humanity than the general population. For example, we’re more fascinated by death, more willing to confront the fact that we’ll all be decomposing meat eventually, and this is evident in our music. We’re not afraid of our darker emotions like hate or despair or rage, and we don’t attempt to hide them behind a pleasant façade; we embrace these emotions, and by embracing and accepting them, are perhaps more able to deal with them, both on a daily basis and through crises. I could even go out on a limb and say that perhaps metal fans are more sensitive than other people, and are attracted to metal because it simultaneously provides a tough wall to hide behind and a powerful release. If this makes you angry, then I may just be right!

I’m annoyed by people who fear darkness and refuse to talk about it, as if we’re still in the Dark Ages and evil can be avoided simply by turning one’s back on it. I’m annoyed by people who feel that inane pleasantries a full life make, as if by acknowledging depth or passion or fury, the things that make life interesting, they will be somehow sullied. This is what I think underlies metal: a willingness to connect with and feel darker emotions, because by so doing we are eventually more able to be at peace with them. Put that way, it doesn’t sound so metal, but who hasn’t felt an almost sexual satiation and release after a particularly good show, having expended one’s fury and insanity in that dark and passionate environment? Somehow, I just don’t see Backdoor Boys fans feeling that same kind of deep emotional and physical fulfillment… maybe I’m being an elitist metal fuck, but I seriously doubt it.

So what does all this have to do with women and metal? Well… I’m specifically speaking for American women here, since that’s my own experience, but it could be applied to many other parts of the world as well. I think that women as a whole have been taught by society and the popular media that we’re supposed to be delicate and nurturing, emotionally sensitive but not darkly so, always striving to be pretty and pleasantly scented, and easily disgusted by unpleasant things like blood and decomposing bodies. The media tells us that we’re supposed to look pretty, dye our hair, and buy trendy clothes so that guys will think we’re cute and ask us out. Metal is scary, and cute guys don’t like girls who scare them; they’re supposed to protect us, not run away from us in terror.

Freaky goth/metal/punk girls are intimidating because they throw these stereotypes and social expectations out the window; they don’t paint their nails pink and wear pants that say “tight” on one ass-cheek and “end” on the other. Girls who aren’t obsessed with their looks in the typical “preppie bitch” way are intimidating, and we’re specifically told by the popular media not to be intimidating… because we won’t get hired, we won’t get asked out, or we’ll be social outcasts fit only for emotional freak-outs of Carrie-like proportions.

Not only this, but you have to be in touch with your anger to enjoy metal, and I think this is one thing with which a lot of women have trouble. Not being angry… being in touch with and accepting anger, because "angry" is not something that women are supposed to be. Angry women are bitches, they’re unpredictable and are quite likely to do things like kill their children so they can run away with some man or throw their boyfriend’s things out a fifth-floor window onto a busy city street in a fit of chocolate-deprived PMS. Is it any wonder, then, that many women aren’t attracted to metal and all the scariness and loss of control it implies? Obviously, there’s a lot more to it than not liking death vocals, which is an acquired taste for everyone at some point.

Attending an all-women’s art college has provided me with an interesting side-note to this topic. In my major, fashion, it’s not too surprising that the number of metal fans are very few and far between… they probably number all of myself and a girl who graduated last year. The fact that we’re a tiny school of 500 students doesn’t help. Interestingly enough, it seems that metal fans tend to conglomerate in the 3-D department, and prefer working in metal and other high-energy materials. (By high-energy I mean that working with these materials takes a lot of physical energy.) Not that this necessarily means anything; like I said, it’s just an interesting aside.

For me personally, I’m attracted to the darker side of human nature, and I’m intrigued by the deeper psychology of it as well. I’m fascinated by the gory bits of the news that they never show on TV, and I resent being condescended to in journalistic venues that are supposed to be for adults. And while I don’t relish the thought of being dead, I’m not terrified of the concept… when the time is right. I feel that my own need for darkness is partly to balance the saccharine inanity of socially acceptable life as presented by the American media, and partly as a highly personal emotional outlet. Metal fulfills this need in a way that other genres of music could never provide, and I love the fact that in the midst of a huge American abyss of utter musical shit, metal provides a passion, intensity, and realness of which popular music is utterly devoid. While I also love and respect many other genres, I really believe that metal provides a unique passion and intensity which isn’t quite the same in any other kind of music.

I’ve had severe episodes of depression that metal has gotten me through, and years-long periods of extreme anger at people and situations in my life that metal helped me survive. I think a lot of metal fans could admit to the same. So in light of this, does the fact that I’m a woman ultimately make a difference?

I think that it takes a lot of bravery for anyone to own up to the blackest parts lurking in the human soul… and it’s not easy to fight against centuries of social programming in order to fully own those emotions and be true to those emotions, while also not letting them overcome your life.

At least in the Philadelphia area, I’ve observed that the number of women both in metal and who listen to metal seems to be growing. Is this because it’s becoming more socially acceptable, or because women are truly resonating with what metal offers us? Is there a distinction? While the overall male to female ratio will probably never be equal, I’m guessing that coming years will reflect that growth. I hope that before all you metal guys write all us women off as perpetual pussy-rock fans, or worse, pop/hip-hop fans (perish the thought), you might take into consideration the origins and repercussions of what I’ve discussed here.

I’m interested in what others’ thoughts on this may be, both from a male and female perspective.

By: Bianca Lindblad

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