Rock Against Sexism
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Rock Against Sexism was a series of gigs which intended to challege sexism in pop culture, as well as in wider society. Partially inspired and influenced by Rock Against Racism, it further vetted bands for sexist content to their songs and even rejected many artists including Motörhead. Ironically, Lemmy Kilminster was a supporter of all female hard rock act Girlschool as well as being an anarchist.
RAS started when a 1978 Rock Against Racism conference had the theme of sexism in music and art on the agenda, after they were criticised for putting on rastafarian dub reggae bands which had been accused of being mysogynistic. The bands(Aswad and Misty in Roots) either responded by saying it was the will of God, or that they didn't know what sexism was. Rock Against Sexism often gained press coverage in the music press, such as the NME and even criticism.
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[edit] Criticism
Most criticism of RAS was about how its message was confused, puritanical and even an over reaction. Puritanical because anything to do with sexuality in a song being deemed sexist and phallocentric, while over looking other themes. Performance style or subject matter were also often deemed suspect by RAS as well, which lead to bands having to sign agreements to not perform any sexist material.
Their message was often considered muddled, because it accused rock music of being sexist, but using it to challenge sexism. Furthermore, they were accused of equating then contemporary pop music with male power. Hence their arguments were deemed to bepoorly thought out.
Unfortunately, the stultifying political correctness meant that only the most boring bands could get on stage and potential headliner acts could be turned down by a misinterpretation of a song lyric. This effectively lead to its downfall when it went bankrupt, which lead to bickering over money when RAS accused universitiy and polytechnic student unions of overcharging to use their facilities.
[edit] Legacy
Rock Against Sexism's musical and political legacy was the advent of the riot grrl movement in the 1990's. It challenged heterosexism, homophobia, sexism and elitism, while challenging stereotypes of women, and the way they are represented.
Also many later punk bands challenged the machismo of rock'n'roll by diversifying into cuddlecore, as well as the less rockist side of post-punk and New wave. It could be argued that RAS may have been the catalyst, as the advent of twee pop in the mid 1980's lead to rejection of the machismo of hardcore punk at the time.
