Alissa White-Gluz spoke about the situations she faces.
As part of the International Women's Day celebrations, Revolver magazine recorded a video with Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz.
Alissa spoke about what it's like to navigate the world of Heavy Metal as a woman and how she perceives the change that is happening in the male-dominated culture:
“It’s always been like this: Oh, there’s a woman in the band? So the sound style is ‘Female-Fronted Metal’? How can they put Nightwish, Arch Enemy, Lacuna Coil, Butcher Babies, all in the same category? We’re totally different musical styles, you know?”.
Alissa continues: “Because of this, a lot of people don’t like the term ‘Female Fronted Music.’ It doesn’t describe a style of music! It describes the gender of a band member.”
“Because I’m a woman, some people use derogatory terms, ask you to use your sexuality when you don’t want to… It’s very frustrating, but I have a very strong network of friends who are also in Metal bands and go through exactly the same thing. It doesn’t matter what you look like, whether you’re tall, short, wear a lot of clothes, little clothes, long hair, short hair, it doesn’t matter: We all go through the same thing.”
Alissa concludes the statement on a positive note:
“I think that’s changing, which is very interesting. I don’t want to fight the fact that I’m a woman, I don’t want to hide and pretend I’m a man. I am a woman! I know it’s different for you. I know it’s different for some people. But that’s who I am. And I’m going to embrace that, I’m not going to fight my own femininity. I’m going to redefine what femininity is.”
Check out Alissa White-Gluz's statement:
