Iron Maidens: The Heavy Metal Glass Ceiling

When you think of iconic metal bands, who comes to mind? Most would list bands like Black Sabbath Metallica, Slayer, etc. Now, if I were to ask you to think of female metal musicians, you'd probably have to think for a bit. In the scope of metal, women have always been present, but have never been given the recognition of their male contemporaries. In recent years, the number of women involved with metal has increased, but that doesn't eliminate the glass ceiling that was created with the genre.

For starters, let's google "metal bands" and see what is returned. Google returns a list of 51 metal bands, none of which even have a single female member. Of course, there are lots of metal bands that have female members, and many are exclusively female. The problem is in the exposure these bands get. In an 2015 article from Houston Press, Kristy Loye discusses how prevalent this issue still is: "This year's Rockstar Mayhem Festival hosted 13 bands, with two female band members between them...Both appeared on the Victory Records side stage; no female musicians were on the main stage." Women aren't taken as seriously, and this has to do with the fact that metal music, both in terms of artists and fans, is a predominately masculine genre. It's meant for the tough guys, with shaved heads, big muscles, and lots of tattoos. These ideals heavily counter the societal expectations for how women are supposed to act and look. This pushes women into a confusing situation. The Atlantic examines this point through the lens of Revolver Magazine's annual Hottest Chicks in Metal issue. "Revolver seldom gives in-depth coverage to female musicians or bands during the rest of the year; the women are almost always relegated to the now-regular 'Hottest Chicks in Metal' one-page feature that graces each issue." Women in metal not only don't get the press and exposure that men do, but when they are written about it's based on their looks and not about their talent. This creates a dichotomy that women have to appear overtly feminine and sexualized to be promoted, but because of this they won't be taken as seriously in the music category.

Oddly, while the women in the genre are expected to appear more feminine, the men aren't held to the same standards and expected to dress in a very masculine way. A great example of this would be Twisted Sister. Twisted Sister had long hair and wore tighter clothing and lots of makeup during performances. While they didn't conform to the typical look of men in metal, they weren't subjected to the same level of scrutiny as women due to the fact that they, at the end of the day, were still men. Since metal is a male dominated genre, their appearance became a distinction rather than the main feature.

Twisted Sister
Photo from People Magazine

There is also a common attitude that women in metal don’t get the same coverage because they aren’t as skilled or that they're more fit for lighter genres. Combined with the lack of available female metal icons, this can discourage aspiring female musicians. Of course, there are women who are successful, such as Alice Cooper's Nita Strauss or Smashing Pumpkins' D'arcy Wretzky. These are two of many examples of great female metal/hard rock musicians, and shows that women are equally capable of playing this style of music as men. That being said, this doesn't mean that people like Strauss have been free from the stereotypes just because of their success. Prior to joining Alice Cooper's band, Strauss rose to prominence through her all-female Iron Maiden tribute band; Iron Maidens. In a Loudwire article, Bruce Dickinson, the singer for Iron Maiden, discussed what it was like to watch the tribute band: "We were watching them and I said to Steve [Harris], 'This is a really weird question, but looking at them, would you f--k yourself?' And he went, 'I don’t know, but we’ve all been thinking it.' It was very, very weird." This is the only quote included from the full interview, and it has no reference to how well Iron Maidens performed or what Dickinson thought of their abilities, but rather just commenting on their sex appeal. 

In Westbrook and Schilt's piece, Doing Gender, Determining Gender, they examine how the perception of gender is primarily societal and not biological: "Focused on the interactional level, such theories illustrate how people sort each other into the category of “male” or “female” in social situations on the basis of visual information cues (such as facial hair) and implicit rules for assigning characteristics to particular genders (women wear skirts; men do not)." Similarly, people judge female musicians based on their expectations of how popular women should look, rather than on the basis of their musical ability, which they view as a distinctly masculine trait. The gender of the artist doesn't have any biological effect on how well they can play, but just changes the criteria and degree to which they are judged.