Feb 11, 2011

Give Me Back - LP Compilation [EBULLITION]

Amenity "Machine"
Desiderata "Upon a Man Looking at a Woman"
Seein' Red "Bigot"
Spitboy "Seriously"
End of the Line "Burning Down"
Man Lifting Banner "Sister"
Born Against "Body Counts"
Econochrist "Seek to Use"
Profax "Patience / Bona Fide"
Suckerpunch "Religious Phallos"
Sawhorse "Spoke/Farther"
Struggle "Culture of Rape"
Bikini Kill "Daddy's Lil Girl"
Downcast "For In Love"

First of all, in sake of fairness, this record came out in 1992 and I was barely 13 years old -- my concepts of hardcore and sophisticated feminism were not very well-formed and, as such, I didn't encounter this record until four or five years later.  And by that point, unfortunately, this record felt very dated. It was a benefit for Planned Parenthood and the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, and those were good things to do, and it came with a 32-page booklet that contained a ton of information about the social issues facing women, GLBT folks, and those who refused 'gender' as a social construct.

However (and this is a BIG however), more than half of the tracks on this album were written and performed by men and have all the hallmarks of the early 90s hardcore obsession with the 'sensitive but macho' guy. There is a ton of the obnoxious "voice of the voiceless" posturing (check out Struggle's "Culture of Rape" for a great example) and the general assumption that women need a Big Strong Man to speak out about their issues in order to be heard.  Luckily, really strong female-fronted bands like Bikini Kill and Spitboy round out the roster, but I can't help but feel that this was ultimately a pretty misguided, if well-intentioned, release.

1 comment: