I am pleased to announce that I will be presenting a paper at the 2018 Yale Graduate Music Symposium, trans[...]. The conference will take place in New Haven, CT from March 2-3. I have included my abstract below:
“Sex Metal Barbie”: Maria Brink’s Performance of Post-Feminism with In This Moment
“I heard I don’t belong in this scene,
Sex Metal Barbie, Homicidal Queen”[1]
– Maria Brink
The metal music genre, from its origins to its present-day forms, maintains a distinctly masculine reputation. Beyond simply being masculine, metal tends to be anti-feminine. Lyrics sometimes promote violence towards women, artwork features hyper-sexualized images of women, and female participants face discrimination. Despite this, women still produce and consume metal music. I explore this phenomenon by focusing on one of the female performers of heavy metal music: Maria Brink.
Brink, lyricist and lead singer of In This Moment, has achieved success by presenting herself in a way that coincides with the existing narrative of hyper-sexual violence surrounding women in metal. Her case can help us address the question about these women posed succinctly by Heather Savigny and Sam Sleight: “Sexy or Sexist?”[2] On the surface, Brink’s provocative costumes, choreography, and lyrics seem to subscribe to the image of women put forward by the male-dominated metal community. In this paper, however, I argue that Brink’s performance stylings instead renegotiate, exaggerate, reclaim, and embrace this image in ways that challenge an oversimplified definition of “feminist.”
Looking at Brink’s role in In This Moment and in the wider metal music community provides a case study in what happens when metal is unabashedly female. She defies the masculine codes of the genre, finding her own heavy-metal power through her femininity. I draw on a lifetime of experience as a female metalhead to tease out the complexities of Maria Brink’s transgressive empowerment through self-sexualization. With this project, I hope to draw attention to the diversity of the ways in which women can feel empowered.
[1] In This Moment. 2014. “Sex Metal Barbie,” Black Widow, Atlantic, 545974-2.
[2] Savigny, Heather and Sam Sleight. 2015. “Postfeminism and Heavy Metal in the United Kingdom: Sexy or Sexist?” Metal Music Studies 1(3): 341-357.