Mansplaining, Privilege and Aging Rock Critics

Last.fm

(link via Sick Mouthy)

Critic Chuck Klosterman has plenty of opinions on tUnE-yArDs' album,  w h o k i l l, which  topped the Pazz and Jop poll, despite not listening to it prior to the poll's results, and admittedly knowing very little about its progenitor, Merrill Garbus. The Guardian's Charlotte Richardson Andrews writes:

You could say Chuck Klosterman "mansplained" Tune-Yards on Wednesday, when he wrote in Grantland about her second album, Whokill, topping the Village Voice's annual Pazz and Jop poll of pop writers. Mansplaining is the phenomenon of a man explaining a subject to a woman, despite her being the one with the relevant knowlege and experience. Although Klosterman admitted to having "no idea what these songs are supposed to be about", he flippantly labelled Merrill Garbus as an "androgynous American woman … I get the sense that asexuality is part of her hippie aesthetic". This kind of clumsy conjecture is a major disservice to an artist who queers indie in a way this privileged male writer clearly has no language for. That Klosterman could overlook the bold, politically charged sexuality bursting our of Whokill is astounding.

Or maybe he's just turning into the Andy Rooney of rock criticism.

Sydney Brownstone for The L Magazine, I think, made one of the best observations, pointing to Klosterman's privilege as part of the "old guard" of rock critics:

In some ways, this could be because Chuck Klosterman represents a slightly older guard of music critics, the ones stuck firmly in a mostly male-dominated High Fidelity kind of indie-verse. Maura Johnston, music editor of the Village Voice, rightly labeled his position on Garbus as “Old Man Yells At Cloud That He Seems To Find Gender-Ambiguous ,” but Klosterman's piece seems more deliberately irresponsible and misleading than that. Perhaps, “Old Man Attempts to Discredit Artist Who Challenges Gender Binary by Calling Her ‘Asexual' ” would be more apt. Thing is, it's been over a decade since High Fidelity came out. Indie rock is no longer fairly represented by the slightly greasy, slightly antisocial Rob Gordons of the world. Time to get with the times, Mr. Klosterman.

I can't help but feel a sense of schadenfreude at this mini-takedown. For years Klosterman's work has relied on an outdated gender essentialism that shuts out anyone who isn't like him: the quintessential white, middle-class, male rock fan. If that accusation seems a little harsh, in his book, Fargo Rock City, he wrote: "I am a little uncomfortable making these statements [about male and female music fans] because -- as I said before -- it seems to indicate that guys somehow like music "better" than women. it suggests that a male listener can appreciate the visceral sound of a Van Halen record, but he can hold a high-minded discussion about why it's aesthetically superior, Meanwhile, a female can only sustain some kind of mindless fleeting obsession [...] that has no regard for intellect or taste. It preys upon the classic stereotype that men are more fundamentally analytical and women are more fundamentally emotional. All of which is true."

Even though it was written tongue-firmly-implanted-in-cheek, that attitude is pretty pervasive among critics and fans as well, although it doesn't directly have anything to do with this recent piece But to be honest, I'm still unsure what his greatest crime is: being flummoxed by an artist not so easily categorized or plain ol' journalistic laziness?