Sinister: cause offense by the way i look

[Kyla Schuller]

Hello dearies -- 

I have an important question for all sinisterines.  It
involves "the scene."  I am curious how other people
feel about the appearance roles men play versus the
appearance roles women play.  In my experience, which
is pretty much limited to the US west coast, it seems
that in indie rock it is indeed fair and dandy for
maletypes to be huge ol' nerds, including poorly
chosen clothing, sporadically-tended hair, and the
like.  Of course I don't mean the hair that is
carefully sculpted to look disheveled, but the more or
less "authentic" thing.  Some of this is postured, but
some of it isn't.  this seems to me incredibly
liberating, at least from my girl vantage point, the
cultural revenge of the uncool child, and not the
hungry capitalist retribution of the computer geeks,
but something much more sweet and giving.  

A few weeks ago at a show of all-female bands, there
was this bio boy with a bright yellow t-shirt
featuring a school bus (not the b & s one), a huge
band-aid connecting the bridge of his nose to his
cheekbone, and most admirably, he totally circumvented
the whole "earplugs? or no earplugs?" question by
sporting a large maroon-colored pair of construction
worker earmuffs. plus, he danced as one imagines he
would. 

now, he stuck out all the more to me in a room full of
riot grrls and riot grrl bands, and I could find no
equivalent nerdy female, not even a remotely close
nerdy female, even (especially?) in riot grrl, it is
not acceptable to be an unintentional nerd, or heaven
forbid, a girl who detests to shop for clothes, one
must be either a carefully chosen truck stop café
patron, or a hard punk rocker, or a retro-perfect
femme, or an 80s glam queen, or a deliberately dressed
"dork"  (my favorites are the girls who sculpt huge
cowlicks to stick out the back of their heads!). .. .
you get my point. 

Which seems to me quite sad.  Where is the space for
the nerdy girl?  So I ask all you lovely sinisterines,
especially those of you lucky enough to go to the
ongoing shows -- are there nerdy indie girls there? 
How many of us are nerdy girls?  My hope is that a
band like b & s, who feature so many female
characters/heroes in their songs, would attract some
less-posed girls, or maybe create a space for girls
who don't comb the thriftstores every weekend.  My
naïve, rather formalist, hope is that b & s is a sort
of refuge.  Of course, males who want to slam my
outsider glamorization of male freedom in indie rock
would also be of interest.  Anyone who wants to share
these fashion details of the crowds at the b & s shows
with us will receive my never-dying love!

so this is plenty for a first post.  thank you.

kyla



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