But no avail, on ILM girls are still icky and not allowed in the tree house without a mudpie to the face, thanks to the Noize Boys, who think their power drill symphonies are so much more sophisticat

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QUOTE: Most of the time, ILM is a disappointing dick-measuring popularity contest where any serious, sincere discussion of any kind (particularly of gender) is met with a seventh grade bra-snap and high five. I’ve even brought it down to their level: ever think your disrespect of women might have something to do with the fact that you’re not getting laid? I try to step back demurely and make jokey foxy rock critic jokes and join in on bathroom habits threads, you know, just to lighten things up. But no avail, on ILM girls are still icky and not allowed in the tree house without a mudpie to the face, thanks to the Noize Boys, who think their power drill symphonies are so much more sophisticated than everyone else. Their politically incorrect putdowns are so “gay” and punk rock, when really, their language parallels the rise of conservatism in this country. So really, in 2005, this shit makes my blood boil. I can only okey doke along for a limited amount of time, and I have less tolerance than I did a decade ago, perhaps from a decade of this shit. And I mean, my music probably sounds like power drill symphonies to some people, but I don’t use my taste to impress other losers on a message board or make jokes at other people’s expense (except Penn kids who like Citizen Cope because Sonic Youth scares them). The funny thing is, with the Noize Boyz, you can’t joke about their bands or they get all self righteous and cry and rub their penises together, but they will put down anything that you like, if it happens to be female-identified with humor that would make Maxim look smart in comparison. Wow, hairy feminist lesbian jokes, how original? (Le Tigre’s music has been kinda lame lately, which I’d be more welcome to discussing because I can’t figure it out myself). And I mean, when you’re talking to people halfway around the world, don’t you want to do something better than oscillate your weiner? But times like this, something good can come from it. This is from a Sri Lankan woman who responded to a thread about MIA, and thanks to Ned Raggett, she got this piece published in City Pages, a very illuminating discussion on MIA’s politics as PR from someone who lived them. It’s disappointing when a board with so much potential (like the internet itself) has so few flowers among the mudpies. There used to be smart discussion more regularly on ILM, I guess I just missed it, which coincidentally, disappeared along with most of the female posters, I’m told. Everyone knows that guys in packs are dumb, but why do they get so much power when they’re anonymous and cowardly? Not pointing out their obvious cowardice to me, seems downright cowardly, but doing the opposite is an impassioned waste of time, and I have far too many distractions these days. Entry Filed under: Uncategorized 17 Comments Add your own 1. mike | April 5th, 2005 at 9:05 am And this is why my ilxor.com posting is very selective. It’s such a strange place, and it’s a matter of cherry-picking the threads that are actually interesting to me. If nothing else, ilxor.com did lead me to that 1981 10-CD box set, which is going to enrich my life immeasurably. 2. Jim | April 5th, 2005 at 4:22 pm Man. On what planet does this list exist? To each his own, but if you ask me, any list that’s made up of nothing but one-liners is bound to attract idiots who are not capable of posting any more than a single line of semi-original wisecracks. 3. Barry | April 6th, 2005 at 1:59 am Sara, I enjoy your writing most of the time, but you are way off the mark here. Maybe 5% of the threads are dedicated toward making fun of musicians, and maybe 10% of those centre upon silly, harmless jokes like that Le Tigre thread (which is easily ignored amongst the dozens of more constructive threads). The other 90% of the ridicule-based threads attack bands such as Arcade Fire, Wilco, and other blatantly obvious indie-rock targets. I think you’re seeing what you want to see. 4. nathalie | April 6th, 2005 at 3:49 am alas no, barry, she sadly had a point. it’s not always *overt*, but mostly an undercurrent. i hate saying it out loud because most of the time you’ll only get a “sigh, not again.” barry, why do so few women post on ILM? compare it (for example) with ILE. 5. ScottR | April 6th, 2005 at 11:08 am Why post on a list that’s not to your liking? Seems like a waste of time to me. 6. jimmy draper | April 6th, 2005 at 12:05 pm wow! once again, a dude telling a woman why she shouldn’t feel oppressed or marginalized, etc. “it’s you, not the world, that’s totally crazy.” this stuff never ceases to amaze me. 7. jek | April 6th, 2005 at 2:41 pm i always feel like a spoil-sport when i point out some of these things about ilx, but the discourse there really does bum me out about 70% of the time. i think it started out as something good, but it seems to have degenrated pretty quickly. i dunno - maybe i’m just wearing the same fog-colored glasses as you, but a lot of the time i just end up feel frustrated with it. 8. nathalie | April 6th, 2005 at 3:36 pm “Why post on a list that’s not to your liking? Seems like a waste of time to me.” it’s not that i hate it, quite the contrary. but why should i stop? there are good moments/people. and with that attitude (just refrain from posting), nothing will change. 9. Barry | April 6th, 2005 at 3:43 pm once again, a dude telling a woman why she shouldn’t feel oppressed or marginalized, etc. That’s not what I was doing — notice that I didn’t defend those asshattery threads — but to characterize *most* ILM threads as being chock full of dick humour in the manner she described is certainly nonsensical. 10. jimmy draper | April 6th, 2005 at 4:43 pm i don’t think sara’s point is “nonsensical” at all, barry. i definitely characterize ILM in general as being a space that’s overwhelmingly dominated by a gross duuuude mentality. (sometimes it’s simply more explicit.) which is why i personally keep away from it, and why i totally understand why others may not feel comfortable participating in it. 11. carolyn | April 6th, 2005 at 8:18 pm not to make light of your post, but dude, i love high fives. i’ll slap your paw a good one once i come out of this work coccoon and family-induced tragic fugue state i’m in. high fives and a boozy may brunch for Bees and me, okay? 12. Barry | April 7th, 2005 at 12:44 am Jimmy, you may be interested in reading the recent “who do you not engage with much on ILX?” thread that was on ILE last month. There, you can read comments by people like yourself, who enjoy slagging and making wild generalizations about ILM despite not having a clue about what goes on there because by their (and your) own admission they never read it or post on it. There was a lot of discourse on that thread about why some people avoid ILM. Believe me, dick jokes and adolescent humour are not the main reasons, not by a long shot. It also bears mentioning that anyone proposing a “girls don’t feel welcome on ILM thanks to the noise dudes” theory has to find a way to explain why the ILX noise board has far more regular female posters than ILM does. 13. Sara | April 7th, 2005 at 1:07 am Barry, The noise dudes welcome ladies who aren’t a threat to them, who coddle them like cute puppies who shit on your new carpet, and never disagree with them even the slightest. I’ve been posting on and off on the board for about a year, and as Stevie was saying, it’s more an undercurrent of hostility if you dare to even rock the boat slightly. The dudes (both noisy and not) seem to have this playing back and forth, but the women tread lightly. I mean, there are people like you and Ned and Anthony and a few others, but unfortunately, you guys are in the minority. And it’s interesting that most of the people who agree with me so far, are guys. And there are far more folks who have written to me privately who feel the same. I couldn’t figure out why this was bugging me so much and then Jimmy hit the nail on the head privately about ILM’s growing influence in print pubs, which only rewards the asshole behavior. And seriously, why would Jimmy post to a board where people were giving him shit for voting for primarily female artists in Pazz and Jop? Wouldn’t it be interesting if all the folks who agreed with me, male and female, all posted to ILM en masse, instead of posting here, which is still quite nice. Hey I guess I have more to say. I lied. 14. amy | April 7th, 2005 at 2:28 am sara, you are writing so much important stuff here. i wish i had time to write some sort of in-depth comment, but alas, EMP continues to fry my brain!! all i can say is thank you for bringing up these issues. 15. fifty nine cent | April 7th, 2005 at 9:29 am I am that rarest of creatures, a rock music illiterate. Almost completely, as those who know me will aver. But I love the writing on this blog. The ideas being bandied about are germane, up to the moment and usually make me think. Sara’s writing usually makes me laugh, loud. That is why I keep coming back to Bees! No apologies, ever, Sara. 16. Diet Tab with Lymon | April 8th, 2005 at 12:25 am I love you, Sara, even though I’m a bad friend lately. But please: More krazy kustomers, less “the InterWeb’s got me down” stuff. I don’t understand why you waste energy on this junk. The InterCon is like the TV. Turn the channel if you don’t like what’s on. I don’t know what the heck this internets chat room geekery is that you’re talking about here, but it sounds like a.) it’s just another place where guys have to rub d-ckheads together because you know, that’s what guys do when shit gets their intellectual pee-pees hard. And b.) more generalizations about guys keeping the females down. I’m a “noise rock” guy (I assume, I like noise) and I don’t want to be coddled by women, I want to be challenged by women. Which I guess makes me one of the 300,000 “exceptions” to the “rule.” And c.) do you want these guys to “change?” Do you want to be their mommy or something and redeem them somehow? Like that doctor chick in “Road House” tried to do with Patrick Sawyze? If they’re dipsh-ts, they’re dipsh-ts. They’re young, they’re drunk with internets power, whatever. Just leave it alone and pay no mind. There are plenty of friendlier places to chat with people. It just seems like there’s a masochism involved here, where you get hopelessly attracted or rather hopelessly drawn to people and places who make you feel unwelcome, instead of just saying “eff you, I know who I am” and walking away and being around the many people and places who welcome you and treat you decently. I mean, you’re not some high school kid. You should be above Internet squabbles with mental juveniles, or even people pretending to be juveniles, by now. I so miss typing “curse words” but I wanted this to get through. Monkeyfluffer! Anyway, I beg you, don’t make me attempt to share more “self-help” with you in the future. It’ll be even worse than this attempt. 17. Sara | April 8th, 2005 at 12:46 am Type all the curse words you want, we’ll make more! No, seriously, all the spam I’m getting is from diets and pharmaceutical companies, which I could surely use in real life, just not here. So the words that have been despammed are words that most people don’t use anyway, but might cause blockages of other words.