Doing Gender in Heavy Metal: Perceptions on Women in a Hypermasculine Subculture

This book provides a sociological examination of gender issues concerning the status of women in the subculture of heavy metal. The study specifically analyzes how women are perceived to ‘do gender’ in the heavy metal community, which is known for its hypermasculine qualities. Relying on interviews with fans of heavy metal, the respondents describe their own music (sub)culture as having been dominated by men, but they also note distinct signs of the progress women have made in the heavy metal culture on terms aspiring to equality with men. Despite these changes, gendered conditions driven by masculinity continue to exist for women in heavy metal. Even as women are slowly finding their way to develop what might one day become, but as of now not yet is, a realized identity and culture of heavy metal feminism, patterns of masculinity continue to hamper gender equity in this area of popular culture. 

Anna S. Rogers is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Georgia.

Mathieu Deflem is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of South Carolina.