HOW "FEMALE FRONTED" FEELS

Recently, I saw a band request to be removed from a "Top 10 Female Fronted Bands" list. They, understandably, did not like their music being solely defined by the gender of their vocalist. The author of the list, however, refused to remove the band from the Female Fronted List, and claimed the band have a "bad attitude" and should be "grateful for the promotion." But...should we?

When a list maker has reduced your band to the sex of one member, what exactly is there to be grateful for? The tokenism? And what exactly is the list maker promoting but a patronising, gender-based segregationist attitude? Is lumping women in bands together in a list a bad thing, because it makes a novelty of them?

Some would argue that "Female Fronted" is a celebration of women in metal. But for me, the term 'Female Fronted' represents a loss of control. It means I no longer get to decide what is 'noteworthy' about my creative output. The term barges in, with huge capital letters and starts talking for me. Moulding my representation as a girl, before I get the chance to represent myself as a musician. It's almost as if my presence in metal needs to be handled as a charity case by some patrionising spokesperson.

Female Fronted as a description speaks before my music does,. It tells others that the most important thing they need to know about me is my gender. Regardless of what I say otherwise. It places my gender is a position that eclipses everything else I have created. It implies that somehow, my gender makes a difference to my music. Which I can assure you. it doesn't. You can't hear my ovaries on the record.

Then there's the comparisons that permeate these lists. This inability to talk about women as artists without ranking them off against each other. We. are. not. in. competition!

When my band gets tagged in a "Top Women in Metal" lists, my heart sighs. But then I try to reason that the author probably comes from a well-meaning place. They could see that there are fewer women in metal and simply want to recognise the talent out there. They probably have no intentions of fetishizing the presence of ladies in rock. But then...isn't that what these lists essentially are? The sole thing they focus on is gender. Can't we just be written about as musicians, rather than female musicians?

So I can't help but wonder what makes these reductionist lists positive. How exactly does gender-based segregation of musicians help the struggle for equality of the sexes? When is 'Female Fronted' truly an appreciation of women in metal, and when is it some kind of cynical fixation...and how do we tell the difference?