My name is Holly from Hell Hath No Fury Records Label & Promotions – A newly established non-profit DIY label & promotions company (est. 2017) that focuses on providing a platform for womxn, non-binary and queer folk within the DIY punk scene.
I often get under people’s skin, more often than not from cis men, as to their horror, I very rarely book all cis male bands. I get called sexist, fascist, discriminatory against straight cis men, a gig saboteur (for being concerned over a band’s safety), oversensitive. Sometimes I reply, other times I just don’t have the emotional energy to repeat myself over and over again – You can’t achieve true equality without equity first.
I get comments saying “well, it’s just laziness, if women don’t want to be in bands then that’s not our problem”. That’s been one of the many lazy attitudes for years and it’s not fucking fixed anything has it mate? Because we have been socially conditioned since birth that to be ‘a girl’ means to be weak, emotionally unstable, that we are not good enough, we should be seen and not heard, be ladylike and if we are too angry we are called bitches or it is just our time of the month.
Well…. Mr ‘I’m All-fucking-right Jack’, you might not know this (because we are sick and tired of arguing your derailing, moot points and being your fucking Encyclopaedia and Google search) but in the depths of the DIY Punk Scene we have incredible DIY grassroots collectives such as LaDIYfest, Loud Women, First Timers, Eat Up Collective, Decolonise Fest, Ladyfuzz and so many more – Who have been pole-vaulting womxn, non-binary and queer inclusive bands into the DIY Punk and festival circuit for years. From providing workshops, tutoring and support to putting them on their shows, festivals and labels.
All this whilst promoters and festival organisers who put on cis-male heavy shows are still commenting on gender imbalance statuses saying ‘but there’s no womxn in punk, lol’ and ‘I book bands based on talent, not gender’ because they can’t be fucking bothered to do the research themselves. How do I know this? Because if I and other collectives can put on 2-3 day festivals made up of diverse bands, you have no excuse.
It boggles my mind when you consecutively put on all hetero white cis-male mediocre line ups, do you wonder why you don’t have a diverse crowd? You are essentially saying to queer, POC, womxn and non-binary people that they don’t exist nor belong in the scene. It may not matter to you, but representation matters.
Of course, it does not matter to you, because you have had that representation the majority of your entire life, but guess what? It’s not always all about YOU. It is about hearing womxn scream “Touch me again and I will fucking kill you!” whilst raising their fists in solidarity and with tears in their eyes because they finally realise that they are not alone and for 3.04 minutes we feel like we have taken back control from our abusers, because our sistxrs and siblings in the crowd have got our backs.
If you want to follow our releases and events coming up, please follow Hell Hath No Fury Records on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Bandcamp.
Hell Hath No Fury Fest 2.0 is on May 31st – 1st June 2019 at the Bread Shed, Manchester with War on Women, Mobina Galore, Petrol Girls, Drones, Cultdreams, Ms. Mohammed, Witching Waves, Pussy Liquor, Cryptic Street, Falaun, Piss Kitti, Midwich Cuckoos, Swansong, Bridget Hart Poetry, Fistymuffs, The Baby Seals.
Weekend Tickets available at www.anarchisticundertones.bigcartel.com
Huge thanks to Casandra Lane for supplying the portrait above. (WEB FB IG)
Good article. I will be experiencing many of these issues as well..