Fuck You Revolver, Women Aren't A Gimmick

I am tired of crappy publications posting their top 10 hottest chicks in metal with pinups and calendars, and yes I am looking at you Revolver and editor-in-chief Brandon Geist. For years, heavy metal was stuck with the stigma of a females role was to look pretty and be their at the disposal of the male artist. This generalization was forever solidified in nearly every music video of the 1980’s. Twenty-five years later, females in metal are still having a hard time shaking this stereotype and the press, labels, and clubs are doing little to help.

A lot of the female fronted bands are against using sex to sell, but are pressured by magazines like Revolver. Revolver is the 800 pound gorilla that makes threats of dropping coverage for bands if the women don't appear in their issue. Even when bands directly email Revolver's editor-in-chief, their requests fall on deaf ears. "It was really upsetting to me," stated Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy. "Revolver kept exploiting this one picture they had despite several requests not to do that. I had to get very aggressive and threaten to publish emails for them to get the hint."

"It basically came down to Revolver telling us that if you don’t want to be in these Revolver Magazine chicks issues anymore, then they’d make sure Arch Enemy would never be featured in another magazine by their publisher. So we are no longer seen in any magazines by their publisher. We are not a small band so we just don’t give a fuck."

Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy has been vocal about this before. "Revolver puts us in the corner with other female fronted bands. There is no female fronted bands genre and this doesn't say anything about the music we play. We want to be seen as a band and as musicians. We don't want to be in their shitty recycled jerk-off calendars."

Revolver isn't the only magazine that exploits female rockers. Thrash Magazine, Metal Hammer, and Playboy have all been guilty. It isn't just the magazines though, but the publicists that consider this good coverage for their band. Jucifer’s Amber stated “One label publicist submitted me for a "hottest chicks" feature in Playboy. I was told it would be one of their, y'know, serious articles and would have nothing to do with the mag's overall tone. Reluctantly I said it'd be okay if they ran the interview or review (can't remember which). The publicist was trying to help us get coverage in a huge mainsteam mag right? Hard to say no. Later I find out I've been included in one of those reader votes. Then for a few years we'd show up at venues and the show'd be advertised "Jucifer with Amber Valentine as featured in Playboy hottest chicks". Yeah, that's gonna bring the right crowd."

Of course there are fans that will initially get into a band because their is a female on stage. "Some people get into us because they do like my looks" states Gazelle Amber Valentine of the doom metal band Jucifer. "There's especially that chance at a show, where somebody isn't necessarily a fan of the music but maybe they'll stick around to ogle. It sucks that in both cases, the music gets overlooked. Not to mention all the characteristics of me and of our band that came from work and individual ability rather than a trait that just gets handed out at birth. What I love is when somebody comes to me after a show and says they had no idea there was a woman onstage until the lights came up at the end. Or that they thought it was like five dudes until they got close."

"Chicks are what you call a chicken. If they ever call me that, I'm going to tear their fucking balls off" affirmed Gossow. "Hottest Chicks in Metal is already sexist just from the title. I hope this all goes away as their are so many women getting into metal and it doesn’t even mean anything anymore. Girls growing up now aren’t seeing a female fronted band as a novelty, but just as something they are growing up with. I am in the second generation of women in metal. Once the third, forth, and fifth generation of women start getting into metal it will be so cool. It takes time though. People need to keep an open mind. You can’t have parents saying that playing this instrument is not for a girl. They need to be more positive and say 'yeah of course I will buy you a drumkit and you can play the bass in your bedroom as much as you want."

Heavy metal is about the music, not the visuals a female brings to the stage. It is just sad most aren't vocal about it like Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy or Amber Valentine of Jucifer. I think Amber sums it up best when she articulated "It's not okay to say that women bring it on ourselves if we make an effort to look good. EVERYBODY makes an effort to look good unless they are morbidly depressed. And all of us have a sexual energy that is completely natural. Nobody should have to crossdress or obliterate their own sexiness to be respected."

You can check out more on Jucifer at jucifer.com

You can catch Arch Enemy on tour and pick up their new album Khaos Legions.

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Tags:  Women, gimmick, revolver  

Jason Fisher    September 30, 2011