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'Hard and Heavy': Gender

and Power in a heavy metal
music subculture
Leigh Krenske & Jim McKay
Published online: 14 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: Leigh Krenske & Jim McKay (2000): 'Hard and Heavy': Gender
and Power in a heavy metal music subculture, Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal
of Feminist Geography, 7:3, 287-304

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 Gender, Place and Culture, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 287304, 2000

Hard and Heavy: gender and power in a heavy metal

music subculture

LEIGH KRENSKE & JIM MCKAY, University of Queensland, Australia

ABSTRACT This article analyses gendered structures of power in a heavy metal (HM) music club.
Although both male and female HM devotees often declare that they are engaged in a rebellious activity,
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this romantic conviction sits uneasily alongside the HM scenes reinforcement of conventional gender
relations and identities. Although many women gravitated toward the HM setting in order to escape
stiing adolescent situations, they wound up in another oppressive context. Both the forceful corporeal
practices of men and the highly gendered structures of power meant that women did gender on mens
terms. HM texts, narratives, identities, and corporeal practices constituted a complex and contradictory
gender regime that literally kept women in their place.

The future of rock belongs to women. (the late Kurt Cobain, lead singer with grunge
rock band Nirvana)
it was like my dress was being torn off me, people were putting their ngers inside me and
grabbing my breasts really hard and I had a big smile on my face pretending it wasnt
happening. I cant compare it to rape, because it isnt the same. But in a way it was. I was
raped by an audienceguratively, literally, and yet, was I asking for it? (Courtney Love,
Cobains widow and grunge rocker, explaining why stage-diving inspired her
to compose the song Asking For It)

Introduction
This article uses a social constructionist perspective to analyse gendered structures of
power in a heavy metal (HM) music youth subculture. According to most social
constructionists, gender relations and identities are not the natural outcome of biology
or the product of appropriate sex-role socialisation, but rather institutionalised practices
that all of us do (West & Zimmerman, 1987). Given that men control the most powerful
social institutions and their values are more highly esteemed than womens, then women
must continually do gender under disadvantaged conditions. Kandiyoti (1988, p. 286)
uses the term patriarchal bargains to refer to the uid and tension-ridden ways in which
both men and women accommodate and acquiesce to pre-existing gendered structures
and meanings within which women generally bargain from a weaker position.

Correspondence: Leigh Krenske Department of Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Queensland,
Queensland 4072, Australia.

ISSN 0966-369X print/ISSN 1360-0524 online/00/030287-18 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd 287
 288 L. Krenske & J. McKay

Our perspective relies heavily on the explicitly pro-feminist work of Connell (1987,
1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998), who has provided a useful theoretical framework for
studying structures of labour, cathexis and power in speci c gender regimes (e.g. families,
education, the military, work, religion). Connell argues that gender regimes are charac-
terised by a combination of physical and economic coercion and hegemony. The latter
concept refers to the cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a leading
position in social life (Connell, 1995, p. 77). Thus, he uses the term hegemonic
masculinity to denote the culturally idealized form of masculine character, which
stresses the connecting of masculinity to toughness and competitiveness, the subordina-
tion of women, and the marginalization of gay men (Connell, 1990, pp. 83, 94).
Depending on the context, other men (e.g. gay men, men of colour, working-class men)
occupy a subordinate or marginal status in relation to the institutionalised exemplars of
masculinity such as sports stars (Connell, 1995, pp. 7681, 1998). Connell stresses that
the reproduction of hegemonic masculinities is not based simply on sheer numbers and
the crude imposition of a dominant ideologyit rests on consent and complicity rather
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than conspiracy and numerical superiority:

the hegemonic form of masculinity is generally not the only form, and often
is not the most common form. Hegemony is a question of relations and cultural
domination, not of head counts. (Connell, 1993, p. 610)
The public face of hegemonic masculinity is not necessarily what powerful men
are, but what sustains their power and what large numbers of men are
motivated to support. The notion of hegemony generally implies a large
measure of consent. Few men are Bogarts or Stallones, but many collaborate
in sustaining those images. (Connell, 1987, p. 184)
Another key feature of gender regimes is the complex and contradictory articulations
both within and between what Connell terms hegemonic, subordinated and mar-
ginalised masculinities on the one hand, and emphasised femininity on the other.
According to Connell (1987, pp. 183184), emphasised femininity is the accommodation
of women to the interests and desires of men and womens compliance with this
subordination, while other forms of femininity are de ned by complex strategic
combinations of resistance and co-operation. Connell submits that there is a kind of
t between hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity, in that hegemonic
masculinity must embody a successful collective strategy in relation to women (pp.
185186). Within Connells framework, gendered relations of power are neither static
nor uncontested: The authority of men is not spread in an even blanket across every
department of social life (1987, p. 109). Thus, some men and women do struggle against
the oppressive structures that constrain their everyday practices. However, dissenters
have to contend both with men who derive what Connell (1995, p. 79) calls the
patriarchal dividend from the subordination of women in general in society, as well as
women who complicitly sustain the emphasised mode of femininity that helps to
reproduce gender inequalities. Connell stresses that these elaborate gender formations
interact in multifarious and uneven ways with other social divisions (e.g. class, ethnicity,
race, age). In short, we do not just do gender, we also do difference (West &
Fenstermaker, 1995).
In aligning ourselves with Connells version of social constructionism, we take up a
broadly post-structuralist emphasis on decentring and deconstructing hegemonic
de nitions of language, rationality, equality, subjectivity, truth and objectivity, which we
consider to be crucial to wider feminist critiques of malestream knowledge. But we also
 Gender and Power in Heavy Metal Music 289

concur with those feminists who have noted that an unbridled acceptance of these ideas
can easily slide into a post-feminist scenario in which women (and men) cease to exist
as a category (Franklin et al., 1991; Modleski, 1991; Bordo, 1992; Ebert, 199293;
Jackson, 1992; McRobbie, 1994). So although we focus on intertextual and intergeneric
dimensions of HMMs discursive practices, we argue that all social texts, identities and
practices are always in some way relatively anchored by structuring forces such as class,
gender, race and ethnicity. The anchor points in this case, we suggest, are Connells
concepts of hegemonic masculinity and emphasised femininity.
Walser (1990, p. 168) states that popular musics polities are most effective in the
realm of gender and sexuality, where pleasure, dance, the body, romance, power and
subjectivity all meet with an affective charge. In this context, the rst goal of this article
is to demonstrate how Connells scheme can help researchers identify gendered struc-
tures of power in youth subcultures like HM music. We do so through a theorised
ethnography of a HM subculture, which complements existing historical, theoretical and
textual analyses of HM music (Gross, 1990; Straw, 1990; Walser, 1990, 1993; Weinstein
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1991; Hinds & Wall, 1992; Arnett, 1993; Binder, 1993; Pfeil, 1995). Our second goal is
to show that although Connells theoretical framework is useful for investigating gender
relations and identities in the HM scene, his concept of emphasised femininity needs
further elaboration in order to account for internal hierarchies among women. Before
introducing the research site and our eld methods, we describe the main features of the
HM scene.

The Heavy Metal Music Scene

Dominant Codes and Signifying Practices
In her analysis of women in rock music, Sawchuck (1989) invokes de Lauretis term the
trap of representational coherence in order to caution scholars against collapsing
heterogeneous cultural formations into a monolithic entity. This caveat is apposite in
exploring the genealogy of HM. When HM emerged in Britain and North America
in the late 1960s, it manifested strong elements of acid/psychedelic rock that was then
in decline. Despite retaining many psychedelic motifs, HM has embraced myriad musical
and visual styles (e.g. classical, glam, grunge, funk, rock, R & B, and punk) since its
inception and constitutes a highly elaborate genre. For instance, much to the dismay of
some fans, the archetypal HM band Metallica recently performed publicly and then
recorded an album with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. As with youth
subcultures in general, the dress code of the HM scene is a bricolage of styles. HM
performers and fans have synthesised elements from the middle-class hippie counter-
culture (e.g. long hair) with ingredients of working-class subcultures. The biker style and
S & M regalia (also used by punks) have had a major in uence on the HM look. Fans
usually wear a picture T-shirt of their favourite band with jeans when going to concerts
and many performers and fans sport tattoos.
HM concerts usually involve moshing and stage-diving. The former is a sort of group
dance that takes place in front of the stage, an area that is also known as the mosh pit.
Moshing is sometimes referred to as slamming, although there is a subtle difference
between the two, in that the latter entails particularly forceful body movements. Moshers
jump and press towards each other in a type of collective bodily skirmish. Stage-diving
involves a Superman-like ying leap into the upwardly-stretched arms of catchers in
the pit. The activity is usually done head- rst, with legs raised slightly in order to avoid
 290 L. Krenske & J. McKay

hitting people in the head with the customary heavy boots. The successful mosh pit has
a de nite etiquette and requires a strategic balance among the (predominantly male)
participants bodies. The tasks in the mosh pit are frequently distributed in terms of
somatotype, with the catchers usually being strong and tall and divers tending to be
ectomorphic. A tight mosh pit is preferred, because chances of being dropped are
lessened. These activities, which often leave the exponents kicked, bruised and exhausted,
are read by band members as a form of audience appreciation.

The Heavy Metal Sound

HMs distinctive sound is embodied in the genres name. It is characterised by the use
of simplistic, very rudimentary harmonies and melodies [with an] endless repetition of
simple [power] chords with extremely short progressions (Denski & Sholle, 1992, p. 43).
Loudness is a mark of competency, with the thunderous sounds of concerts giving the
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receiver the energy to respond with physical and emotional vigour. Sound is experienced
through the body: the music can be felt, not only metaphorically, but literally,
particularly in the listeners chest (Weinstein, 1991, p. 145).
The lyrics of HM span a continuum of possibilities, largely based on the (un)holy
trinity of sex, drugs and rock n roll (see Table 1). However, the sentimental notions of
romance often found in pop music, and less frequently in rock music, are virtually absent
from HM. References to sex are typically of a lustful nature, for the pleasure of men, and
without commitment. For instance, the lead singer of the popular HM group Guns N
Roses uses the moniker Axl Rose, which is an anagram for Oral Sex. The more
intellectual and political lyrics (usually about rebellion) are likely to have been written
within an alternative subgenre. Enunciation of lyrics is secondary to intonation and
expression, which are used to generate the appearance of power and control. The various
intonations are enhanced by the particular types of body movements of a performer;
gestures often relay the general thrust of lyrics, which are also summed up in key phrases
(or choruses) and made more comprehensible via repetition.

Gender, Sexuality, and Power

This music is not played from the head, its played from here [touches his heart] and here
[ditto his groin] (Klaus Meine of HM band Scorpions; cited in Drozdowski, 1990,
p. 48)
HMs predominantly young, white, male performers and distinctive signifying practices
mark it as an aggressively heterosexist formation. HM lyrics, artwork, language, bodily
practices and dress generally valorise hegemonic masculinity and denigrate women and
gay men. For example, ridiculing some HM as soft cock frequently occurs when a
particular genre is not considered masculine enough. Much of the imagery of HM is
resonant with mens power, typically articulated through technology, mens bodies, the
voyeuristic male gaze of the sexually objecti ed female body, or the threat of violence.
Like the larger youth music setting, HM women artists tend to be marginalised or
trivialised, with the few who do manage to in ltrate the scene succeeding by conforming
to masculinist scripts. Some women have attempted to overcome their subordinate
status by instituting alternative genres. A good example is Riot Grrrl, which evolved out
of the American underground punk scene, and included oppositional bands such as
Babes in Toyland, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Huggy Bear and Spitboy (http://garnet.berkeley.edu/
 Gender and Power in Heavy Metal Music 291

TABLE I. Examples of common themes in heavy metal music (including mainstream

and alternative HM bands)

Heavy metal theme Band name Song title

Teenage rebellion Alice Cooper Department of Youth

Motley Crue Smokin in the Boys Room
Death and the macabre Cannibal Corpse Blood, Pus & Gastric Juices
Skull Full of Maggots
Depression Rollins Band Low Self Opinion
Odes to the genre itself Judas Priest Rock Hard Ride Free
Rainbow Long Live Rock nRoll
Sexual exploits of men Red Hot Chilli Peppers Sir Psycho Sexy
Def Leppard Make Love Like a Man
Oral sex Kill Lick It Up
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The Hard Ons Suck N Swallow

Drugs Alice in Chains Drug of Choice
Saxon Drink Till You Puke
Black Sabbath Sweet Leaf
Devil worship Witchryche Ceremony
The love of God Blood Good Spirit With You
Political statements Sepultura Propaganda
State of society Suicidal Tendencies Institutionalised
Humour Scatterbrain Dont Call Me Dude
Optimism Bon Jovi You Gotta Have Faith
Hedonism Motorhead Ace of Spades

, annaleen/riot.grrls.html). Riot Grrrl concerts often prohibit men, which results in

accusations of lesbianism (Williams, 1993). However, as one member of a Riot Grrrl band
stated, It is a refreshing change to play at a gig where there is no stage-diving, no
slamming and no women are being pushed around or groped (France, 1993, p. 27). Yet,
the presence of all-women bands does not necessarily subvert the ascendant masculine
codes, since women performers nd it dif cult to transcend the status of sex object.
Moreover, they frequently personify Connells concept of emphasised femininity and
even sometimes manifest misogynous and violent tendencies (Gottlieb & Wald, 1994).
The following letter to a HM magazine encapsulates some of the heterosexist and
homophobic elements of the scene:

MOSH ON: Ive had it with the weak motherfuckers who stand in mosh pits
like theyre pulling their cocks to a porno. I was destroying my body at [a
concert] when the screams of some dumbfuck told me to stop elbowing and
bumping into him. My response was brief. If you cant handle it in the pit and
youre not going to mosh, get the fuck out! This poof was in the middle of the
pit with his arms crossed, staring into space. I warn all weak posersif you are
not gonna mosh in my pit, stay the fuck out! (Hot Metal, July, 1993, p. 31)
 292 L. Krenske & J. McKay

The Research Context

Situating Club Thrash
The empirical study was based at Club Thrash in the central business district of
Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. As part of the north or deep
north, Queenslanders inhabit a region that Australians generally equate with inferiority.
In addition to being located in a northern area, Queenslands otherness has also been
articulated in terms of its outback landscape, frontier or hillbilly mentality, racist
treatment of indigenous people and indentured workers, relatively decentralised popu-
lation, rural-based economy, and nearly three decades of post-war rule by an authori-
tarian-populist government. Civic boosters and the tourist industry regularly tout
Queensland as the California of Australia and Brisbane as its Los Angeles. But in his
recent World Tour of Australia video, comedian Billy Connolly invoked another frequently
used description that he thought was more apposite: the Alabama of Australia. Popular
media representations of Queenslandness tend to re ect and reinforce regional and
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masculine stereotypeswhat Morris (in Turner, 1992, p. 651) has termed the dreaded
tradition in Australia of men, sport and beer. For example, Queenslanders success
in the conspicuously masculine sport of rugby league has been an important site where
the media has constructed myths about the states allegedly rugged regional character in
order to rebut attributions of its cultural backwardness by contemptuous southerners
(McKay & Middlemiss, 1995).
Although Brisbane is large enough to attract entertainers of international calibre, its
musical pro le has generally been lower than that of larger southern state capitals like
Melbourne and Sydney. At the time of the study, Club Thrash was the only venue in
Brisbane that played live HM music. The heterogeneity of both the patrons and the
music of Club Thrash can be explained by the relatively small population of Brisbane,
the absence of a critical mass that can support distinctive HM subcultures, and the citys
generally conservative culture. The depressed condition of the local economy has also
made opening nightclubs a risky enterprise, so entrepreneurs are loath to offer alterna-
tives to the conventional blues, jazz, rock and country bands that predominate in most
venues. In fact, the club where the study took place subsequently went bankrupt.
The type of music played at Club Thrash was a pastiche of speed, thrash and
alternative HM. Dim lighting was used to create a gloomy atmosphere for patrons, most
of whom were Anglo-Celtic men aged between 18 and 24. The venue was often quite
hot and had a distinctive smella conglomeration of sweat, tobacco and marijuana
smoke, alcohol, and stale cleaning agents. Using illicit drugs, which was an integral part
of the subculture, was facilitated by the dark lighting. The general ambience was similar
to the music that was constantly playing: heavy.

Research Methods1
A feminist framework underpinned the project. Men were included in the study, because
the subordinate status of women in a given gender regime cannot be understood unless
the relational aspects between men and women are examined. As Haraway (1997, p. 28)
puts it:
Gender is always a relationship, not a performed category of beings or a
possession that one can have. Gender does not pertain more to women than
to men. Gender is the relation between variously constituted categories of men
 Gender and Power in Heavy Metal Music 293

and women (and variously arrayed tropes), differentiated by nation, generation,

class, lineage, color and much else.

One of the central tenets of feminist inquiry is to replace the view from above with a
view from below (Mies, 1983, p. 123). In this context, Smith (1987) identi es the
importance of explicating and inserting the researchers embodied self within the texts
of sociological research. This stylistic gesture effectively grounds the reader in the
subjective reality of the writer and the ways in which research may be affected because
of such subjectivities. Smith calls this procedure the standpoint of the viewpoint.
Adopting an ethnographic approach, one of the co-authors (Leigh) spent over 40 hours
observing interactions at the club during the period from July to November 1993.
Preparation for the eldwork included becoming familiar with the HM scene by reading
relevant popular magazines and local entertainment guides, listening to a local FM radio
programme, and examining semiotic structures in various HM lyrics, posters, and
album/CD covers. Relevant magazines (e.g. Metal Masters and Hot Metal) and local
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entertainment guides (Time Off and Rave) were analysed in order to identify dominant
semiotic codes in HM music. Five hours of pilot work was then completed at the club
in order to identify what correspondence, if any, there was between these semiotic codes
and social interactions at the venue. It quickly became apparent that although individuals
had their own practical understandings of the clubs subculture, a number of distinctive
codes were swiftly identi able, especially through modes of dress, body decorations, and
corporeal practices. These codes are presented in Tables II and III. It was relatively easy
to characterise Metalheads, Metal Wenches and Glam Chicks, since these were the
terms that most participants used to describe members of these groups. Three peripheral
groups were not as easily identi able by the participants, so the etic categories of
Fanatics, Cool Dudes and Hardcore Bohemians were eventually used to describe
them. It should be noted that some individuals evinced two or more codes, while others
did not t precisely into any of them. De nite intra- and inter-gender differences did
appear, however, and generalisations were possible, which were signi cant in relation to
data collection as well as its analysis. For instance, among the male particpants, the
Metalheads were clearly hegemonic over the subaltern Fanatics, Cool Dudes and
Hardcore Bohemians. These preliminary codes were subsequently re ned through
further participant-observation and in-depth interviews with 10 participants.
In the club, most of my time was spent observing participants interactions occurring
in response to the performances of bands (e.g. moshing and stage-diving). During
intermissions, however, I endeavoured to speak to as many people as possible. This
usually resulted in musical small talk, often articulated through the participants
drug-induced haze. In spite of this, such conversations were sometimes the prologue to
some valuable data. Field notes were written at the venue in a pocket-sized journal.
Contrary to a widely advocated procedure (Lo and, 1971), the toilet was not used for
note-taking, because the line-up to use them was usually too long.
My background (young and Anglo) resembled the characteristics of most of the people
who participate in HM music subcultures, which was an advantage in establishing an
af nity with participants. Furthermore, although tertiary-educated, my working-class and
rural background helped consolidate rapport with respondents. The considerable size of
the audience and its dynamic nature from week to week meant that my status as
researcher was largely unknown. However, my reasons for being at the club were given
to all persons I approached. Thus, I believe my assimilation into the scene was successful
and relatively unobtrusive (Stoddart, 1986).
 294 L. Krenske & J. McKay

TABLE II. Pro le of male codes at Club Thrash

Male codes Dress code Somatotype General mode of participation

Mctalhead Simple combination of black Usually Enters club with male

jeans & picture T-shirt
Sometimes has an iconic
tattoo
Fetishises long hair as a
status symbol
mesomorphic; friends or Metal Wench
sometimes Drinks at the bar; very
overweight seldom moshes or stage-dives
Occasionally uses
marijuana
Often intimidates women

Fanatic Shorts sometimes worn and Usually Totally dedicated to

shirt may be taken off
because of the heat
Short hair
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ectomorphic moshing and stage-diving
Favours alcohol & speed
cocktail; sometimes uses
LSD
Occasionally uses marijuana

Cool Dude Black jeans & leather jacket
Long hairoften tied back
Usually Sometimes enters club
ectomorphic alone; usually drinks alone at
the bar or mixing desk
Seldom moshes or stage-dives;
sometimes plays pool
Occasionally uses marijuana

Hardcore Unkempt bricolage of hippie Usually Often involved in the fringes

Bohemian and punk (torn jeans, ectomorphic; of the local art and music
sometimes cut off at the knee sometimes scenes
and worn-out T-shirt or emaciated Uses various drugs (e.g.,
annelette shirt heroin, LSD, marijuana)
Sometimes has body Seldom moshes or stage-dives;
piercing often plays pool
Often have heavy, black
tribal tattoos
Short hair or dreadlocks

An ethnographic encounter is not simply a matter of observing and noting. It creates

a particular reality that re ects the situation and biographies of both researcher
and researched (Emerson, 1987). An ethnography, therefore, is an artefact that is
derived from a multiplicity of participants realities. My view of the research site
was greatly in uenced by my sexed corporeality. While engaged in participant obser-
vation, I repeatedly encountered the same forms of male intimidation and feelings
of vulnerability experienced by other women at the scene. For instance, irrespective
of whether I was alone or with other people (male or female), I was habitually
harassed whilst walking to and from the club. At times, movement within the institu-
tion of the street was particularly unpleasant and reaching the research site was often
a relief.
My embodied self also affected the type of people that I was able to contact at the
research site. Entering and being accepted into the research site required the adoption
of appropriate dress and behaviour codes (Spradley, 1980). I adopted a version of the
Hardcore Bohemian dress code, which, within the terms of the HM scene, re ected my
mode of participation and my body type. This decision had important consequences
 Gender and Power in Heavy Metal Music 295

TABLE III. Pro le of female codes at Club Thrash

Female codes Dress code Somatotype General mode of participation

Metal Wench Simple combination of black Usually Female equivalent of the

jeans and picture T-shirt mesomorphic; Metalhead; incorporates
Little or no make-up sometimes masculine codes of
Long, straight hairsections overweight participation
may be bleached or coloured Young Wenches
occasionally mosh and stage-dive

Glam Chick Overtly sexual clothes that Usually Usually gains access and
accentuate body shape (e.g. ectomorphic, or status through attachment to a
short, tight skirt; revealing well-toned and Metalhead or Cool Dude
top; high leather boots; mesomorphic Occasionally moshes; never
highly made-up) stage-dives
Long, teased or curly hair
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Hardcore Bricolage of hippie and punk Usually Often involved in the fringes
Bohemian (e.g. long, owing skirt with ectomorphic; of the local art and music
short top in order to expose sometimes scene
pierced navel) emaciated Uses various drugs (e.g.
Often have a pierced nose and heroin, LSD, marijuana)
mouth Occasionally moshes and
Often wear tribal jewellery stage-dives; often plays pool
and have
tattooed armbands
Short hair, dreadlocks, or
long, straight hair with
sections shaved off

since certain codes clashed with others. For instance, attempts to recruit Glam Chicks
for interviews were constantly thwarted, because of their disdain for the pierced
bodies characteristic of Hardcore Bohemians. I did not adopt the dress code of the Glam
Chicks in an attempt to in ltrate their subset, because this would have been inconsistent
with my own corporeality, and, therefore, detrimental to my overall position, or sense
of authenticity, within the research site. Thus, all comments made about Glam Chicks
are based on my observations and other participants accounts of them. Contact
with men, especially Metalheads, was also very dif cult, because most interpreted
my attempts to initiate conversations as a come-on. Nevertheless, it was still possible to
gain rich insights into the gender regime of the club from the particular position I
adopted.
Participant observation allows the researcher to come to grips with some of the
interactions transpiring at any particular site. However, if researchers do not ground
observations in the experiences of the participants, they run the risk of imposing a
ctional reality onto the eld (Minichiello et al., 1990). Furthermore, the activities that
were observed at the research site constituted only part of the subcultural activities. In
order to bridge the gap between my own observations and the realities of the
informants, a number of in-depth interviews were conducted. Minichiello et al. (1990, p.
87) describe in-depth interviewing in the following manner:
in-depth interviewing is conversation with a speci c purposea con-
versation between researcher and informant focussing on the informants
 296 L. Krenske & J. McKay

perception of the self, life and experience, and expressed in his or her
own words. It is the means by which the researcher gains access to, and
subsequently understands, the private interpretations of social reality that
individuals hold.
Concurrent with the participant-observation, 10 people were interviewed in order to
examine participants identities and perceptions of the research site. An effort was made
to include at least one person from each of the main groups that were apparent at the
research site. The female toilet provided a fertile ground for making connections and
gaining rapport with women, so I often introduced myself to the small groups of women
who congregated and talked both inside and outside it. Except for women who did
not live in Brisbane, all of those approached in this manner agreed to participate and
gave me their telephone numbers for future contact. I also offered my own telephone
number in an effort to foster mutual trust. Five women were contacted using this
procedure and another was contacted via a colleague. Making contact with men was
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exceedingly dif cult. Both the context and my corporeally-inscribed gender meant that
talking to men on my own initiative was frequently interpreted as a sexual advance
or regarded with suspicion. A good deal of my contact with men was spent negotiating
this heterosexist regime and establishing a sense of legitimacy. In the end, I was
able to interview four men. Two were contacted at the club through conversations
initiated about the performing bands, I met one through a mutual friend during a game
of pool, and I approached another one on campus after recognising him as a regular at
the club.
After obtaining the telephone numbers of possible respondents, I called to arrange a
formal interview. All but two of the interviews were held in public places, such as art
galleries, parks and libraries. These locations were chosen because I felt uncomfortable
about going to the homes of men I did not know, whilst some of the women were
hesitant about inviting me into their homes. The remaining interviews were conducted
in homesone in my own and one in the home of the interviewee.
Before each interview began, respondents were given a brief outline of my research
question and its methodological and analytical framework. The interviews focused on the
participants views of the interactions within the club and its af liated subculture, their
reasons for liking HM music, and discussion about bodies, as well as gathering
demographic and biographical details. Interviews lasted between 45 minutes and a little
over 2 hours.
Analysis of the data was continuous and sequential (Becker, 1970). The practice of
moving between theory and data, with each modifying the other, was maintained
throughout the whole research process, resulting in a questionobservationquestion
research cycle (Spradley, 1980), whereby the collection of further data was directed
by the data preceding it (Becker, 1970). After data collection was nalised, eld notes
and transcribed interviews were coded using codes based on both their manifest and
latent content (Minichiello et al., 1990), and their relevance to Connells theoretical
framework.

Analysis and Discussion

Gender, Power and Space
The territorial dynamics of the club illustrated both how space is gendered, and gender,
sex and sexuality are spaced (Bell, et al., 1994, pp. 3132). Women who attended the club
 Gender and Power in Heavy Metal Music 297

entered a social space that was hard and heavyboth symbolically and materially. In
articulating their anxieties, women often made comments that exempli ed Roses (1993,
p. 146) thesis of how the threatening male look intensi es womens consciousness of
being gazed at and occupying spaces. Even Wenches, generally the most assertive group
of women, were apprehensive about the ambience:
when you walk into the room all you see is guys wearing black with long
hair. Some of them are quite big and you just walk in and go, Oh shit, where
are all my friends? Just that rst look around the place can be very
intimidating. (Caroline, 20, Metal Wench)
Women increased their social space either by relying on male partners or friends, or
forming groups of at least two women when going out. Womens precarious position and
dependence on men was demonstrated by the following conversation:
Leigh: Do you nd that many men come here to pick up women?
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Donna: One just tried to pick me up ve minutes ago.

Leigh: What did you do?
Donna: I told him I was here with my boyfriend, and he said that it didnt
matterwe could have a threesome!
Leigh: What did you say to that?
Donna: Nothing. I just moved really close to my boyfriend and put my arm
around him. (Donna, 20, Metal Wench)
Spatial arrangements changed during the evening. Early in the night before the bands
began to play (about 10 pm), people tended to meet and talk, play pool, and drink in
a relatively diffuse pattern. As the evening progressed, more people entered the club and
an atmosphere of anticipation developed prior to the bands performance. A highly
gendered spatial arrangement emerged, with various groups gravitating towards particu-
lar spaces where they staked out their territory: Metalheads and Metal Wenches
positioned themselves at the bar; Fanatics moved towards the stage with the expectation
of forming a mosh pit or creating opportunities to stage-dive; the Cool Dudes lingered
on the second level or in front of the mixing desk; and the Glam Chicks and Hardcore
Bohemians tended to circulate throughout the club.
Metalheads were extremely territorial, spending most of the night in a group in front
of the bar on the lower oor. By herding together, Metalheads strengthened their
ownership of space and effectively built a wall of intimidation, that other patrons had
to penetrate if they wanted to go to the bar:
I avoid the bar I dont drink that much anyway I go upstairs if I ever
want to buy a drink. The people there are much more relaxed. (Michelle, 22,
Hardcore Bohemian)
These social dynamics con ned women spatially and created feelings of vulner-
ability. Any woman standing alone was a prime target for sexual harassment. Although
extreme, the following incident illustrates the kind of harassment to which women were
subjected:
There was this guy who carried rats around with him. He kept pet rats, and
like heits pretty disgustingbut he stuck his tongue in the rats rude bits,
and he then came up and stuck his tongue down my throat I went to the
 298 L. Krenske & J. McKay

bathroom and just scrubbed my mouth until it bledit just disgusted me.
(Shirley, 22, Metal Wench)
The technique of taking up space was also used by the all-male bouncers, who
accidentally-on-purpose bumped into people as they patrolled the crowd. Tensions
sometimes developed when the etiquette of the mosh pit and stage-diving were breached.
On several occasions tension occurred when some Metalheads approached the stage for
a closer view of the band. By remaining steadfastand, more importantly, physically
unchallengedin the middle of the mosh pit, they effectively broke a code of participation.
It should be noted, however, that no major ghts were witnessed during the 4 months
of participant-observation, and any incipient con ict was quickly terminated by the
bouncers. For the most part, the overall spatial order of the club was not contested, and
the very fact that the various subsets maintained distinctive terrains suggests they were
conscious of the hierarchy:
[Cool Dudes] are actually small-framed pretty skinny they are well aware
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of it and they are not going to hide it from anyone else. They dont go round
starting trouble purely because they wouldnt be taken seriously anyway. They
are going to be beaten up, so what does it matter? (Shirley, 22, Metal Wench)
Despite these internal divisions amongst men, structures of power were de ned almost
totally on their terms:
[Women] cant go to a night club and do what they want it is not what the
guys are there for. They would move on, I think, and nd another place to
hang out the club really does have the tendency to be a guys world I
mean, it is not bene ting an understanding of women or anything like that.
(Andrew, 24, Hardcore Bohemian)

Gender, Power and Corporeality

Band members (almost all of whom were young white men) were expected to display
their authenticity via particular bodily aesthetics and practices. As concerts progressed,
audiences expected that performers long hair would mat and their clothes dampen as
they exerted themselves. Lead singers who did not sweat profusely were viewed as having
given a phoney performance. The few women who performed were seldom taken
seriously. For instance, Rosa claimed that audiences perceived her performances to be
inauthentic, because of her dress code (a hybrid of Hardcore Bohemian and Glam Chick)
and the intimation that she was just a front for male musicians:
These people dont know meright, but I am accused of being a bauble,
because I front an all-male band. I am called a bimbo because of the clothes
that I wear. A lot of women hate me in the scene.
Gendered differences in the use of corporeal space were particularly evident in
moshing and stage-diving. First, men usually constituted at least 95% of the participants,
whilst women were either absent or occupied the periphery. Second, men and women
used their corporeal spaces differently. Men generally moved freely through the pit and
stage-dived with little or no constraint:
Leigh: Do you think stage-diving is something that you have to learn to do?
Andrew: Nah, you just get up there and do it. Its a totally ordinary activity.
 Gender and Power in Heavy Metal Music 299

Both moshing and stage-diving rested on elements of violence and male bonding that
made it dif cult for women to participate in any substantive fashion, because status was
achieved by demonstrating bravado and in icting pain on ones body:
I think that the only criteria of being a stage-diver is that you cant do a
half-hearted jump. You have to jump in such a way that if nobody catches you,
you hit the deck really quite hard. (David, 24, Hardcore Bohemian)
You actually do it until you dropwe used to do it until we practically had
heart attacks after youre panting and sweating and wet right through, you
think to yourself, I should have stopped three songs ago, before I got this black
eye or strained my wrist or something, but it is just not really a concern
[its] maybe what youd experience if you were working in a chain-gang
digging a hole together. Youre all in there together and there is a feeling of
being together, and doing it to excess, pushing yourself to the limit. [Peter, 24,
Fanatic]
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On the other hand, womens movements were usually fearful and hesitant, with
women almost always con ned to the periphery of the pit and tending to react to the
vigorously moving bodies of men rather than slamming into others:
I have noticed that even when girls are in the pit, they dont really get into
moshing as much as the guys they are moshing to themselves. [Caroline]
Few women stage-dived and those who did hardly ever used their bodies con dently.
When women were asked why so few of them stage-dived, their principal response was
related to anxiety about pain. Women who dived usually approached the stage in a timid
and ambivalent fashion and had to be repeatedly coaxed and reassured by the catchers.
According to Michelle:
The guys just throw themselves into it a bit more, whereas women will sort
of sedately jump back in or fall in or whatever. The guys will just throw
themselves out there.
However, a few women reported a sensation of liberation after stage-diving successfully:
occasionally you see the girls get up, the ones wearing jeans and shirt and
no shoesthey will do a big full-on [jump], if not better than the guys You
see them get out of the pit and their eyes are just bulgingespecially the ones
who have done it for the rst time. [Shirley]
When asked why she stage-dived, Shirley said:
Total adrenaline rush. Its just the closest thing that you can get, apart from
skydiving and things like thatjust the thrill of jumping into the unknown.
You dont know what you are going to get once you hit the people, whether
they are going to let you go or hit the oor.
Women like Shirley, who moshed and stage-dived, were considered to be one of the
boys:
I have chipped a few teeth and gotten black eyes from doing stage-diving and
stuff It is kind of a status thing, coming out of a gig with a bloody lip; you
go, Yeah, look what I got. The more damage you do, the more fun it
iseveryone just laughs at each other. It is no big deal to get a black eye, its
only a bruise. Bloody nose? Big deal, it will stop you just learn to accept it,
it is fun to do.
 300 L. Krenske & J. McKay

In summary, women who moshed and stage-dived successfully were incorporated into
the male-de ned ethos of the subculture. On the one hand, this had the potential to free
women from their restricted corporeal and spatial experiences. On the other hand, the
damage that they did to their bodies was very real and hardly liberating at all.

Gender, Power and Sexuality

Any prospect of women overcoming their subordinate status was negated by an internal
hierarchy that revolved around rivalry for mens attention. Like women in motorcycle
gangs (Hopper & Moore, 1990), Metal Wenches admired men who acted tough. Thus,
their emphasised femininity was oriented toward complying with Metalheads standards
so that they could relate to men on their level. This was usually done by adopting the
Metalheads codes of participation (e.g. attempting to match their copious consumption
of alcohol and demonstrating an authentic appreciation of HM music). Consequently,
Wenches believed that they were the most authentic women in the scene. Wenches
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bodies were normally concealed underneath an androgynous mode of dress and,

therefore, not sexualised to the same extent as the Glam Chick or the female Hardcore
Bohemian. Wenches perceived Glam Chicks, whose emphasised femininity was based
primarily on looks, as the main threat to their power base:
You can really tell instantly, because [Glam Chicks] are there one weekend
and the next they are not. They show up with a member of a band and its
like, Yeah, we know what you are on about. Thats all they are out to
dosleep with a band member. This is how a lot of girls that I know get status
in the metal scenethey sleep with the band members they are not really
the metal chicks, cause the metal chicks are more down-to-earth and arent
into stuff like that. [Shirley]
The following comment by Shirley illustrates both some key differences in demeanour
between Wenches and Glam Chicks and how such distinctions were interleaved with
mens power:
You are there to have a bit of a bash around, be violentnot violentbut be
bashed around a bit in a fun sense. [Glam Chicks] stand back and if you touch
them or anything like thatspill your drink on them or blow smoke in their
facesthey go off their brains. They get their big boyfriends to come down
and beat up your boyfriend, and its, Hey, he had nothing to do with it!
Because Wenches attempted to conform to Metalheads ideals, they denied that there
was any sexism in HM, despite its manifestly misogynist overtones:
Leigh: Do you ever get offended by some of the Death Metal lyricswhen
they sing about slicing up women after fucking them, because that is all they
are good for?
Shirely: No, no it is just more extreme in form, more aggressive, not beating
around the bush it gets straight to the point. I dont take offence to the stuff.
Regardless of her personality, a Glam Chick was invariably positioned in terms of her
appearance and alluring sexuality. Caroline described a Glam Chick as someone who
can wear the shortest dress or tightest jeans, the littlest vest, or something like that.
Other terms used to describe Glam Chicks were metal slag, metal slut, bimbo, and
groupie. According to Peter, Glam Chicks always come across as being really ignorant
usually we would re-classify them as try-hards .
 Gender and Power in Heavy Metal Music 301

Female Hardcore Bohemians occupied a different position set apart from the con ict
between Metal Wenches and Glam Chicks. Associated with male Hardcore Bohemians,
they were not viewed as competing for the attention of Metalheads, Fanatics or Cool
Dudes. They sometimes parodied emphasised femininity by wearing revealing clothes
(e.g. exposing pierced navels).
The heterosexual regime evident in the club was linked to homophobia, as the
following exchange illustrates:
Leigh: It is pretty heterosexual?
Caroline: De nitely. Oh god! If there was a gay person there, they would be
dead.
Leigh: You have never heard of a gay person being in there at all?
Caroline: No, even if they were, they would have to be thick to admit it.
Everything is like, faggot, poofter, kill that poofter.
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Homophobia swiftly surfaced when the conventions of the mosh pit were encroached
upon or misunderstood: Peter stated, If any guys were [feeling a mans body in sexual
manner] there would be hell to pay! However, lesbians af liated with the Hardcore
Bohemian subset were occasionally apparent:
It seems that the lesbian thing is more accepted in the scene it is probably
more of a man thing as well, because a lot of the men that I have spoken to,
their ideal fantasy is having sex with two lesbians which is probably why
they are accepted. [Caroline]
Contrary to expectations, women seldom cited apprehension about how men might treat
their bodies as a reason for not moshing or stage-diving. However, the anonymous
fondling of women stage-divers was acknowledged by men:
Leigh: How much of an opportunity do you have to actually touch women?
Peter: Heaps like you just see these hands, not so much catching but
groping. It is quite common.
Unlike the women interviewees, men believed that groping hands would be the
foremost explanation as to why women would not stage-dive.
Leigh: Why do you think that not many women stage-dive?
David: Because a lot of those guys would be copping quite a bit of a feel when
they dived.
The difference between mens and womens explanations of why women did not
stage-dive points to mens objecti ed and sexualised view of womens bodies. Moreover,
the fact that women did not nd groping hands terribly problematic suggests compli-
ance with the male de nitions of the HM scene.
In summary, both the forceful corporeal practices of men and the highly gendered
structures of power in Club Thrash meant that women perpetually did gender on mens
terms. Womens access to, and experiences of, the subculture were determined by
unequal relationships with menwomen participated in male-de ned terms or not at
all. To borrow a phrase from Allen (1990, p. 34), such strategies reproduce a gender
regime which is based on males judging their own value in terms of competitive
performance against other males, and females judging their own value in terms of the
degree to which they are valued by males.
 302 L. Krenske & J. McKay

Conclusions
The most frequent reason that women gave for gravitating toward the HM scene was a
desire to escape sti ing adolescent situations. For instance, women who had grown up in
rural areas of Queensland often spoke of the small town mentality that they had
endured. Some indicated that they had been frustrated during adolescence at seeing boys
visit the bright lights or big smoke while they stayed at home:
when I was younger I used to watch all my male friends go and see all
these bands that I wanted to see, while I had to stay at home. [Michelle]
Caroline recalled that:
I would have to sneak out every Friday night. I would go over to a friends
house and her parents would drive us out to the bus stop So we would catch
the bus [to Brisbane] and stay up late and then catch the rst bus back in the
morning. And then her mum would come and pick us upshe was really cool
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I just knew when I was growing up that all my friends at high school would
stay in that stinking town in the middle of nowhere. They would marry the
same people they went to school with, they would have babies and they would
get fat. This was not going to be my life story.
Thus, most of the women in the study were involved in classic escape attempts (Cohen
& Taylor, 1976) from the oppressive conditions of everyday life. Furthermore, both male
and female HM fans often reiterated the generic HM discourse that they were engaged
in rebellious activities in an authentic setting. However, this romantic conviction sits
uneasily with the highly commodi ed nature of the HM scene at large, and the ways in
which it reinforces conventional patterns of hegemonic masculinity and emphasised
femininity. Consequently, women drawn to the HM scene to escape one oppressive
context merely inserted themselves into another.
In returning to the two goals of this article, we can say that Connells scheme is useful
in assisting researchers to identify gendered structures of power in youth subcultures like
HM. Connells emphasis on the necessity of understanding the elaborate and contradic-
tory interplay both within and between men and women in any given gender regime was
borne out by this study. For instance, there was a clear hierarchy among men:
Metalheads were clearly hegemonic, while Fanatics, Cool Dudes and Hardcore Bohemi-
ans were subordinate and/or marginalised. Despite this internal hierarchy of masculini-
ties, it was the men who took up most of the space, intimidated women, and valorised
bravado and pain in stage-diving. Even the subordinated and marginalised men obtained
both individual and collective bene ts (the patriarchal dividend) from socially con-
structed de nitions of their bodily superiority over women. We also found support for
Connells thesis that emphasised femininity is manifest in terms of how women generally
have to accommodate mens values, as nearly all of the women in the study had a
peripheral or incorporated status in most activities and the Glam Chicks were sexually
objecti ed. The most telling indicators of womens subordinate status were that: (1)
although some individual women held some power, this was always over other women; (2)
when individual women did have power over men it was always exercised via a male
friend or boyfriend in a defensive or reactive situation; and (3) women never exercised
any collective power over men. However, a serendipitous outcome of our study was the
array of competing femininities evident in Club Thrash, as it was clear that Metal
Wenches, Glam Chicks and Hardcore Bohemians had different statuses. So, just as
Connell (1993, p. 603) has urged researchers to think of multiple masculinities in
 Gender and Power in Heavy Metal Music 303

multiple cultures, we suggest that it is also necessary to consider the hierarchy of

feminine codes operating in particular settings and how these articulate with the
arrangement of masculine codes. Finally, Connells emphasis on the obdurate structures
that underpin gender regimes was also rmly illustrated. Without advocating notions of
a conspiracy among men or that women were cultural dopes, the HM texts, narratives,
identities, and corporeal practices in this study constituted a complex and contradictory
gendered regime of power that literally kept women in their place.
The focus on a single HM music club necessarily limits the scope of the analysis
advanced in this article. However, it could usefully be developed through comparative
studies of similar venues and different subcultural HM scenes. Although the eld
researchers embodied gender enabled the development of rapport with women in all
groups except the Glam Chicks, it simultaneously restricted access to some men,
particularly Metalheads. Therefore, male investigators could augment the research by
providing complementary perspectives that study up the gender order (Connell, 1992).
Another possible direction of future research would be to apply Connells framework to
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other musical genres and settings in youth subcultures.

Acknowledgement
We would like to thank David Rowe, Liz Bondi, and four anonymous referees for their
helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

NOTES
[1] After completing pilot ethnographic work for this study, Leigh collaborated with Jim in order to theorise
the results in a way that was sensitive to her site. Leigh then used the theoretical framework as a guide for
the main phase of data collection. Jim took the main responsibility for writing up the project in full
consultation with Leigh. The order of our names is meant to signify that Leigh instigated the project and
collected all of the primary data.

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