Sometimes when I’m listening to music – particularly music written and/or performed by women – it occurs to me that the music I’m listening to would probably annoy or even anger Men’s Rights Activists. And that makes me want to share this music with the world. So I’m starting a new series here: Music to Annoy MRAs With.
First up: Meredith Monk, an avant garde composer/performer/filmmaker/etc probably best known for her “extended vocal techniques” which one music critic has described as a melange of “extraordinary ululations and incantations, vertiginous leaps, drops, cries and other wordless acrobatics.” That seems about right.
If you’re a fan of The Big Lebowski, you’ve heard at least one song of hers: when the lovably pretentious feminist artist Maude Lebowski makes her memorable entrance, swinging naked through the air on a harness in a darkened studio, splattering paint onto a giant canvas, it’s the voice of Meredith Monk that provides the musical accompaniment. (Monk found the scene hilarious.)
Anyway, here are some Meredith Monk videos for you all. You may like them, you may not – Monk is sort of an acquired taste — but one thing is virtually guaranteed: they will confuse and annoy the hell out of any MRAs who happen to watch. A critically lauded female composer/musician making music they don’t understand? Noooooooo!
The first video is a selection from a longer piece called Dolmen Music; essentially, we’re supposed to be listening to a conversation in a strange language amongst Neolithic Brits (or perhaps space aliens, as Monk has suggested). I may have posted this before, but I’m posting it again, dammit.
The second is a clip from her film Book of Days depicting a variety show of sorts in a somewhat unusual Medieval village; stick with it until the end. I think I posted a shorter version of this once as well.
The final video is Monk performing a solo piano piece that actually has words; try to ignore the really patronizing voiceover.
Her official site is here, though I was having trouble reaching it today.
“Music to Annoy Misogynists” — what a great concept. May I also add Marianne Faithfull’s “Broken English” album? I especially like “Why’d you do it?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mvAMEaWgTQ
Whoot! Use that cello as a percussion instrument! You go, chopstick person!
4:50 to the end of the churchyard things is definitely my favorite bit, though. The atlas and the flying balls thing was a little too odd for me. That villiage would either be way fun, or way, way terrifying.
Nice idea for posts, would like to see more of these. I would like to contribute, but most of the music I listen to is male-dominated and rarely gets into issues of gender and feminism, unfortunately. XD
Diamanda Galas would be great for this. Particularly her album with John Paul Jones, The Sporting Life.
Thank you for posting this. I haven’t thought of Dolmen Music in a long while. I sort of know Monk’s work from having been a dance fan in the 1970s. I think Merce Cunningham used her music for some of his dances. She has some voice!
Cinzia, ha! I was literally JUST looking for a good live version of “Why d’ya do it” to use in a future post. Great minds, etc.
I have two suggestions. The first is Tori Amos. She seems to really confuse and terrify sexist guys for some reason. Is it the red hair? Her suckling a pig on the cover of Boys for Pele? I’m not sure.
My other suggestion is Amy Lavere. Two of her songs in particular have lyrics that would really freak them out.
ooo ooo do St Vincent
Seconding Tori Amos…she freaks them the fuck out. And Fiona Apple, too.
This reminds me of something I read years ago, about men who don’t like music with female vocalists. Something about having to listen to a woman’s voice just irritates them. This was before I started learning about online misogyny, but even then it struck me as suspicious.
My own musical tastes are bourgeois and limited, for which I take responsibility. These days, it’s mostly jazz and Terence Trent D’Arby.
One song I listened to recently by Tears for Fears, both the title and subject matter, would probably make most MRAs burst a blood vessel as they went into a nonsensically angry rant:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fz5KO4j1Dk&w=420&h=315]
“Blah blah blah blah blah it’s men who are really in chains, to marriage and child support and blah blah blah blah blah!”
Ya get the drift…
Bikini Kill, obvs.
I’d venture to guess that they’d probably hate Yasuko from Melt-Banana as well, not for explicit feminist lyrics (who can tell what she’s saying, anyway?), but for being all loud and aggressive and stuff while also being a girl.
Magic Man by Heart is probably another song MRAs hate. First, it’s a song by early female rock musicians who tried to “copy Black Sabbath” and invade rock, which is a male safe space. Second, the lyrics are about a woman being attracted to a man. And third, the solo isn’t a “real” solo because the guitarists are women, and women are incapable of being good guitarists.
The worst part, though, is that the band was entirely headed by women. What about male potential band members? Such misandry.
[CN: rape, violence]
Tori Amos was beaten, raped, and almost murdered in her early twenties. Partly because her history as a survivor, she ardently supports anti-rape advocacy and supports RAINN in particular.
Of course, MRAs probably see her as a “professional victim” with “crocodile tears”. And they probably also see her as contributing to institutionalized misandry by having solidarity with female rape victims. The ‘worst’ part is that a lot of rape victims have found her music inspiring and healing – because nothing is worse than telling a woman that it wasn’t her fault for being raped and that she’s still a valuable human being deserving of love and respect.
Björk, for sure. Go for some of the off-the-wall throat-singing stuff from Medúlla for maximum confusion and frothing.
I bet MRAs also hate ABBA because it was a Swedish group with female members, and we all know how much of a matriarchy Sweden is!
OT Mads has been practicing her Cute this morning. 🙂
She’s so gorgeous.
And she knows it! 😀
OT, but I have an example of real-life misandry for you all!
A man wrote into my local paper complaining about women complaining about unfair division of household labour. His reasoning for why men shouldn’t have to do household tasks? “99.9% of men give their lives so 100% of women can live the life they do.”
His letter was published. In the ‘Humorous Submissions’ section. Which is run by a woman.
In all seriousness, this is a paper which, two pages earlier, had an article about how prostitution “is basically sex abuse for money.” When the conservatives are laughing at you, you’ve gone way too far.
Give their lives? What did he even mean there? Was he saying men are some sort of indentured labour for women, or that they actually die for women?
::baffled::
I…think it was military or something?
Yep, it was “for Queen and Country, so women can…”, sorry about not including that.
I had not realised that 99.9% of men were in the military. For life.
Also OT: I’m looking at the iPad website ‘cos my friends were using them during the holiday, and these are some of the features Apple brags about:
1.2-megapixel photos
720p HD video
FaceTime video calling over Wi-Fi or cellular3
Face detection
Backside illumination
Backside illumination
Backside illumination
Backside illumination
World to Apple advertising geeks, you keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.
wewereemergencies – or that all the dudes who are in the army, die on active service!