you’re totally right. that was very gendered of me. thank you for calling me out on it. i would, however, like to give my own perspective, and i think you might be able to understand. as someone who thinks about women’s place in rock ‘n roll and in the music industry every single day (and constantly has to deal with music-industry prejudices), i want to make sure i’m not misunderstood by someone i admire so greatly.

i am a woman who also plays in a band. i’m not nearly as talented as cassie, nor will i ever be as successful. i didn’t mean to be so focused on her looks in such a male-gaze kind of way; i’m not sexually attracted to women, for the most part. i just think she’s really, really wonderful, and for me, she was the glue that held the band’s performance together, woman or not. i meant “babe” less in a physical sense and more in a rock-aura sense. on the one hand, you’re right, it isn’t fair to peg her as “the girl in the band.” that’s not what i meant to do. but, as a young woman in a band myself, i find her inspirational, someone to look up to and to aspire to be more like. that’s one huge reason why i focused on her in my review- i relate to her. i don’t think it’s fair to take that away from me, the ability to have female peers to look up to and greatly admire in local bands, especially when most of my favorites seem to be these (albeit wonderful) boy’s clubs, much like real estate or even your band.

also, another reason i focused on cassie is because there has been a dialogue on this blog (and among friends and coworkers) about the vivian girls and their place in the scene. i’ve used them before on this blog to think about exactly how difficult it can be to be a woman in a band. i find it fascinating how much viv girls get pegged and criticized for being a “girl band.” it’s really wrong and fucked up, but a difficult line to walk because i truly don’t believe they are the most talented or interesting of bands (merely my own subjective opinion). it’s difficult because i obviously don’t believe that a band should be popular just because they are an all-female group, but i don’t think vivian girls would have made it so big if they had penises. they just wouldn’t have stood out so much. it’s a double-edged sword for any feminist music critic. i like the fact that cassie seems to be so much better in babies (more energetic, her voice blends better in the overall group, better songs, more interesting guitar parts, which i assume she writes or at least co-writes), because it proves to me that viv girls are better than i think, and i need to revisit my whole argument about them again.

part of my review, moreover, was just laziness. since i’d already considered cassie many times before, it was easy to write about her. i was in a rush putting up the article, didn’t know much about the other band members, so just wrote what i knew.

shame on me for that indeed. sloppy journalism. but please, don’t shame on me for the gender politics on my blog. i am hyper-aware of gender politics and rock n roll, and i think anyone who knows me would get that i was more admiring cassie than objectifying her. i recognize that as my blog’s readership grows beyond my friends, however, i need to rethink exactly how i’m framing what i say.

thanks so much for calling me out, and please let’s keep up the discussion if you’re interested. one of my favorite topics! women in rock and roll!