Is it true, what they say about lesbians in the NY Times?

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In the September 5th piece on the stellar new Tegan & Sara album comes this quote:

"From the middlebrow radio hits of Melissa Etheridge and the edgy acoustic poetics of Ani DiFranco to the riot-grrl yell of Sleater-Kinney and the jazzy bash of Tribe 8, lesbian musicians have largely hewed to two pop traditions: folk and punk."

Could it really be true, or is the Times just propping up an easy cliche?

― dlp9001, Monday, 6 September 2004 23:00 (twenty years ago)

yeah, what about folk-punk?

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:03 (twenty years ago)

just kidding. are we supposed to name all the lesbians we can think of who play something other than folk and punk?

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:05 (twenty years ago)

melissa etheridge doesn't really make folk OR punk. i think it's just called rock.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:06 (twenty years ago)

I know multiple excellent jazz/funk lesbian drummers.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:06 (twenty years ago)

this kind of shit is so stupid

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:07 (twenty years ago)

and what about people who aren't out? like wynonna and queen latifah.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:08 (twenty years ago)

It's like they think gay people come from another planet where these are the only genres of music.

Any time you read a music article that says gays THIS, straights THAT, you're know you're not dealing with a very intelligent journalist.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:13 (twenty years ago)

My hunch was that the quote was really dumb, but I realized that I only knew the sexual orientation of about two female musicicians...

― dlp9001, Monday, 6 September 2004 23:13 (twenty years ago)

well, it is true that a lot of "out" lesbian performers who are well-known to a wide audience are folky. there's no shame in that. And folk and punk have given gay women a voice in a way that more uptight genres haven't. obviously this pertains to singers/songwriters more than a jazz drummer who happens to be gay.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:23 (twenty years ago)

they get so much done in a day.

― adam west (adamwest), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:24 (twenty years ago)

but what's the point of saying this in an NYT article in the first place?
so some housewife can say "oh, those dykes and their folk music" ? WTF?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:27 (twenty years ago)

i guess it all depends on if you think it's a slur to say that a lot of lesbians make punk and folk music as opposed to rap and metal or r&b and klezmer. i think they just worded it wrong. they should have made it clear that they were talking about people who "sing" about sexual politics/being gay/etc. cuz obviously there are lesbian musicians in every field/genre.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:30 (twenty years ago)

that riot-grrl yeller in Sleater Kinney is married to a man now you know. So is Ani Difranco

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:32 (twenty years ago)

It'a all up to cris, holly, and ferron now.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:33 (twenty years ago)

I remember writing to the Times magazine when they published a piece called "Queer As Folk" saying that folk music was THE lesbian music arena. I used 4-letter words, so that kind of guaranteed they wouldn't run my letter. Hey, I'm glad to see the Times gave us dykes another genre to our credit! Woo hoo! Progress, people, progress. Heh heh...sheesh...

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:09 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and last I read, DiFranco divorced the dude.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:11 (twenty years ago)

Lesbians like PORTISHEAD.

― MATH BLASTER MYSTERY! (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:14 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and last I read, DiFranco divorced the dude.

already? maybe she got tired of all that "hetero-sellout!" hatemail she was getting.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:19 (twenty years ago)

I hate Ani DiFranco.

― MATH BLASTER MYSTERY! (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:21 (twenty years ago)

yeah she marries a dude against the wishes of 90% of her fans and then drops him when the pressures on what's up with that?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:27 (twenty years ago)

those lesbians and their middlebrow marriages

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:28 (twenty years ago)

and their shitty music

― MATH BLASTER MYSTERY! (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:36 (twenty years ago)

and their inconsistent homosexuality

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:39 (twenty years ago)

and their inability to spell "girl"

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:50 (twenty years ago)

or woman (womyn wimmyn etc)

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:51 (twenty years ago)

and their flannel shirts and their mullets

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:54 (twenty years ago)

and being boring

― MATH BLASTER MYSTERY! (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 00:59 (twenty years ago)

and watching sports all the time and shit

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 01:02 (twenty years ago)

and no sucking my cock like they should

― MATH BLASTER MYSTERY! (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 01:16 (twenty years ago)

and owning drawerfuls of penis mask replicas instead.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 01:18 (twenty years ago)

mexia!!!

― MATH BLASTER MYSTERY! (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 01:19 (twenty years ago)

and watching Angelina Jolie movies all time - even the really bad ones.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 02:35 (twenty years ago)

"Gia". Taped off latenight Tv.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 02:37 (twenty years ago)

yes, and "Hackers".

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 02:38 (twenty years ago)

Tatu?!!/.

― Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 02:38 (twenty years ago)

wasn't that a faux-lez let's sucker straight guys who think lesbians are hot into buying our shit type thing? Like Madonna/Britney/Xtina as well?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 02:52 (twenty years ago)

LESBIANS BOUGHT IT TOO FYI

― MATH BLASTER MYSTERY! (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 03:26 (twenty years ago)

http://www.elektrolysis.com/lesbo.html

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 03:31 (twenty years ago)

What I find baffling is that BOTH Tegan & Sara are gay, supposedly. I've never asked either of them about this, but evidently there's some quite a few sets of gay twins. Is that weird? Or is that just smoking gun, "hey it's genetics, get over it."?
I find it more fascinating than I probably should.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 7 September 2004 03:55 (twenty years ago)

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid63/pd39d4499d75cc018e5efd167796e895f/fc1171d2.gif

― MATH BLASTER MYSTERY! (ex machina), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 04:03 (twenty years ago)

John and Frank Navin of the Aluminum Group are brothers (not twins) who are both gay.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 04:26 (twenty years ago)

Jon, where do you keep finding this shit?

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 12:47 (twenty years ago)

I mean, it's a slight improvement over Turtles pr0n and everything, but...

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 12:48 (twenty years ago)

Is it true that graduating from college is a cure for lesbianism?

― shookout (shookout), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 18:20 (twenty years ago)

hahahahahaha

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 13:16 (twenty years ago)

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