Last Human Alive Page Seventeen
There’s a discussion happening in the blogosphere about dating while feminist. In a discussion of red flags over at Pandagon, Amanda Marcotte made the following point:
I’ve never seen this red flag fail to pan out—if a guy can’t think of any female musicians or writers he admires, then he’s a giant, honking sexist and you will regret dating him. The deeper he is into being a fan of an art form, the more women in that field he should admire.
Good advice. I’ve heard this particular gem of wisdom before, applied to situations other than dating. Then she laid the following bomb:
For example, if a guy is, say, my age (32) and big into 90s indie rock, if he is not a fan of Sleater-Kinney, do not date him. They were the best band of the late 90s, bar none, and the only reason not to like them if you like music like that is you are threatened by female success.
Sleater-who?
I was shocked: I have never heard of these Sleater-Kinney people before. Or, at least, I can’t recall them… that’s bad. The 90s, unlike the 60s, are a decade that you’re supposed to remember. A quick check at Wikipedia reveals that yes, they were a big deal. How’s it possible that I missed them?
I have two theories. The first is that they didn’t really reach Canada until after I had moved to Korea. The second is that a secret government agency wiped the memory of Sleater-Kinney from my brain for some nefarious purpose.
So, in the end, there’s a little bit of good and a little bit of bad. The bad point is that I’m not as cool as I thought I was fifteen years ago. The good point is that I now have a new 90s indie rock band to discover.
April 7th, 2010 at 8:06 am
I may have to discover them myself. My favorite 90s band was Ben Folds Five, and they’ll be hard to supplant as a favorite.
And if that makes me sexist, I will point folks to the UMD Treblemakers cover of The Best Imitation of Myself.
April 8th, 2010 at 1:35 am
My editing probably mangled Amanda’s point, but the argument isn’t that you’re sexist if your favorite singer isn’t female, but that it’s quite likely that you’re sexist if there are
no
female singers that you like (if you are into music). I just wanted to clear that up because there was a huge derailment about it at the Pandagon comment thread.
April 8th, 2010 at 5:05 am
Considering the article on Pandagon reads more like a justification of Amanda’s habit of pigeonholing people than anything else, I don’t think sexism is really the issue at play in her case.
April 8th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Frankly, I just look for any opportunity to talk up Ben Folds Five.