Bullet Soul.

So, this morning I was watching CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. A topic I'm pretty passionate about came up. He was reviewing the new movie The Runaways which features Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett. Apparently he thinks the movie's decent enough, but that's not my point I'm getting to here. He said something that really resounded with me. I can't quote it word for word at the moment, but it was about how the 70s classic rock movement was "a guy thing". Yes, there were female vocalists, folk artists, and female pop groups, but it was different in the rock world. It was an incredibly rare thing to see a women shredding on a guitar or picking up a bass. Such a thing was viewed as "too masculine".

Osgood also said that although many people feel women have achieved equality in the entertainment world, it's amazing how every actress or female musician that "makes it" is turned into a sex symbol or degraded by comments such as "She's good for a girl". This deeply angers me as a female musician. I've found that people are genuinely surprised when a girl wants to do more than sing and hold a tambourine. It's rather insulting, actually, to be written off as someone who's incapable of doing anything else! I've also discovered that I have to work twice as hard to be viewed as a legit musician with piano and bass. However, I also feel like being in an all-girl band wouldn't be cool with me either. I want to be accepted as a musician and work with a variety of people regardless of my gender or theirs. Even last night I went to a concert showcasing local bands and all the bands were either all male or had a female lead singer. I didn't see even ONE lady rockin' an instrument in the background of it all. See, for me, the day when having a woman in your band isn't rare is the day we're equal. When it's not a big deal to see a girl on drums, bass, guitar, etc....when it's so commonplace that no one's surprised...that's the day we've "made it". When we've proven we can do more than sing, we're equal. Some would argue this has already happened, but I say we still have some work to do. Maybe I'm just overly-passionate about all of it. I'm ok with that, because it's worth being passionate about.