Microaggressions and VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music

Last.fm

I'm a big fan of the site Microaggressions: the term coined by psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce to mean those "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of other races." (source ) The site extends to those indignities committed against gender and sexual orientation, too, and watching VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock, I couldn't help but tally them up.

Granted, a pop culture show on a mainstream cable network isn't the best place for nuanced discussion on the kind of sexism that's woven so deeply into society that it becomes invisible, but some things are just blatantly obvious, like the need to how "sexy" each performer is. But this one annoys me to no end:

"Kim Deal, blah, blah, blah, AND she was in the Pixies."

(You can also substitute Meg White or Kim Gordon and their respective bands.)

Here's what's wrong with this. If the tables were turned and we were talking about Frank Black, no one would say "AND he was in the Pixies," as if his being in the Pixies were some huge accomplishment irrespective of his talent. Of course he was in the Pixies. Most inveterate indie rock fans would consider him THE PIXIES, but read for subtext, it sounds as if Kim Deal was allowed to be in the band, rather than be a part of it. Kim Deal's greatest accomplishment isn't her guitar or songwriting skills, but her permission to enter the boy's club.

Programming Note

This Sunday, on the tenth anniversary of September 11, VH1 is re-airing The Concert For New York City, which originally took place a month after the attacks. The concert will also be streaming on their website beginning at 4pm ET.

Links & Bits for 7/8/11

The Mental Burden of a Lower-Class Background (Sociological Images)

I don’t feel ashamed of my background any more, because I’ve achieved enough proof of upper-middle-class success — a Ph.D., a tenure-track job, the knowledge that Brie is fancy cheese and not, as my grandma thought upon seeing it for the first time, fish bait — and some useful theories, like the idea of cultural capital, to help me make sense of what’s going on.*

What a Bastard The World Is: The Feminist Politics of Yoko Ono's Personal Song (The Curvature)

What does it mean for men and women to need each other when men cannot fully respect and women cannot wholly trust? What does it mean for women to love those who were never taught to see them as fully human? And what does it mean, too, for women who are oriented towards partnering with men to leave them behind, when these dynamics keep perpetuating themselves? Is that liberation? What can liberation mean in this context? Can there be true liberation if it is absent of love? Can there be true love if it is absent of liberation?

Sex, Scripts, & Single Ladies (The Crunk Feminist Collective)

Bottom line for me: the show is not great, but it does prompt some interesting questions about race, class, gender, and sisterhood, in addition to having a slew of foine—yes, foine—guest stars and an easy, breezy plot. I’ll be watching, with a crunk feminist critical lens of course, for now.

* I included a link to this article not because it's the most nuanced, but because I think there were some important points raised, though the author came off rather classist herself. I think there's a better article in here somewhere, with more insight -- maybe mentioning the ways we code switch to make ourselves more "acceptable" in middle-class society.