Rockin' out of the Box:Gender Maneuvering in Alternative Hard Rock - Softcover

Schippers, Mimi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081353075X ISBN 13: 9780813530758

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Given the long history of feminism and its contested place in popular culture, important, practical questions arise: What effect, if any, have feminist ideas and practices had on the lives of young men and women who grew up with them? How do these individuals negotiate the realities of gender in their daily lives?

In Rockin’ Out of the Box, Mimi Schippers, employing the crucial feminist insight that gender is a constantly shifting performance and not an essential quality related to sex, explores the gender roles, assumptions, and transgressions of the men and women involved in the alternative hard rock scene. The author focuses on this sizable section of rock music both because it is widely inclusive of men and women and because it explicitly adopted feminism as its point of departure from mainstream music. Schippers uses the innovative term gender maneuvering to explain her observations that gender and sexuality are negotiated and always changing features of social relations. This process, she demonstrates, operates as a cultural practice and as an individual strategy of resistance to socially prescribed gender roles.

Schippers, who spent more than two years frequenting alternative hard rock clubs and concerts in Chicago, conducted extensive interviews with fans as well as musicians, including Ian MacKaye of Fugazi, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, Donita Sparks and Jennifer Finch of L7, Kat Bjelland and Lori Barbero of Babes in Toyland, Rose of Poster Children, Louise Post and Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt, and Liz Davis and Valerie Agnew of 7 Year Bitch. As it documents the development of a rock music genre that has so far received little academic attention, this book  also demonstrates how this musical culture contributes to our understanding of the daily practices of gender relations among young people.

About this title

About the Author

Mimi Schippers is an Associate Professor with a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include sexuality, gender, social theory, feminist theory, queer theory, culture, polyamory, non-monogamies. She is currently working on a study of the relationship between race, gender, class, and non-monogamies in the history and culture of New Orleans. Combining archival, ethnographic, and interview methods, she is comparing and contrasting the practice of placage, the commercial sex industry, sex tourism, and polyamory as they take shape in the socio-historical and cultural trajectories of New Orleans. Her main research question is: What are the relationships between race, class, and gender inequality, New Orleans’ sexual cultures, and non-monagamy. Schippers is the author of various titles including Beyond Monogamy: Polyamory and the Future Polyqueer Sexualities (NYU Press, 2016) and “Recovering the Feminine Other: Femininity, Masculinity, and Gender Hegemony” (Theory and Society 36, 2007).

From the Back Cover

Given the long history of feminism and its contested place in popular culture, important, practical questions arise: What effect, if any, have feminist ideas and practices had on the lives of young men and women who grew up with them? How do these individuals negotiate the realities of gender in their daily lives?

Employing the crucial feminist insight that gender is a constantly shifting performance and not an essential quality related to sex, Mimi Schippers explores the gender roles, assumptions, and transgressions of the men and women involved in the alternative hard rock scene. She uses the innovative term gender maneuvering to explain how gender and sexuality are negotiated and always changing features of social relations. This process operates as a cultural practice and as an individual strategy of resistance to socially prescribed gender roles.

Schippers conducted extensive interviews with fans as well as musicians, including Ian MacKaye of Fugazi, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, Donita Sparks and Jennifer Finch of L7, Kat Bjelland and Lori Barbero of Babes in Toyland, Rose Marshack of Poster Children, Louise Post and Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt, and Liz Davis and Valerie Agnew of 7 Year Bitch. As it documents the development of a rock music genre that has so far received little academic attention, Rockin' out of the Box also demonstrates how this musical culture contributes to our understanding of the daily practices of gender relations among young people.

Reviews

This uneven study of the perceived intersection of feminist politics and a subset of a discreet musical style focuses on the Chicago alternative hard-rock scene of the mid-1990s. Schippers (sociology, Albion Coll.) presents this scene as a progressive, antisexist subcultural group devoted as much to "gender maneuvering" (challenging mainstream preconceptions of gender and sexuality) as to music. Schippers's conclusions are based on two years of research in the Chicago scene, consisting of immersing herself in the subcultural experience and observing and interviewing friends, fans, and musicians, including members of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Fugazi, 7 Year Bitch, and Veruca Salt. The author is at her best when describing concrete expressions of subcultural bricolage such as dress and adornment and at her worst when drawing sociological conclusions based on personal experiences. The anecdotal evidence seems designed to validate Schippers's high opinion of the scene as populated by socially progressive, open-minded, and enlightened individuals. Schippers fails to recognize that compared with the likes of mainstream hard rockers like M tley Cr e, just about anyone is. The book's tone is not unlike the public persona of one of its subjects, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam: sanctimonious and self-consciously earnest. Recommended for academic libraries only. David Valencia, King Cty. Lib. Syst., Seattle
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081353075X
• ISBN 13: 9780813530758
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232