Men Making a Scene

Sara Cohen, in this article on the rock scene in Liverpool, examines the role of gender within what she identifies as a "male culture." In doing this, she looks at the place of the female members of this scene and how they affect it, as well as the masculinity itself, and how it relates to traditional gender roles. While, on the one hand, she attributes some of the roots of gender relations in the Liverpool scene to the working-class backing of most of the people forming it, and the clear cut cultural and professional lines drawn between genders there. She describes the style of the three bands around which she's framed this article (Space, Cast, Lightening Seeds) as "an image of spontaneous, heterosexual lads-off-the-street" (26). On the other hand, the kind of male culture put forth by these bands, as outlined later in the article, is somewhat distanced from the traditional role. The use of the scene as a place for emotional and artistic expression unacceptable elsewhere creates an image of a "vulnerable" male. Women are not only usually somewhat unwelcome to get deeply involved, and taken less than seriously when taking roles as musicians; they are seen as the emotional threat as well: the seductress, a source of hurt and distress. The idea that this has almost entirely flipped from a traditional idea of music, usually thought of as generally feminine, is a very interesting idea. It gives a context for men to be quite protective and even possessive of their own musical territory.

Discussion question
Are there parallels between the desire within an underground scene to keep out the mainstream and/or outsiders and the desire to keep female members from taking too much of a role, altering the scene and its culture? Why do you think there is such a disconnect, as Cohen points out in this article, between how males express their attitudes toward females in music/lyrics, and how they actually behave in the social setting of the scene (and elsewhere)?