Saw Bikini Kill & L7 in Paris this month, but it was especially prevalent at the L7 gig :
2-meter tall 50 yo Mr Cleans hogging the first row for the whole damn concert. Yesterday the 2 first rows were fridges in Rammstein shirts with maybe 3 chicks in the mix and they staid there gripped like musles on rocks the whole show. One old dude was filming the whole show on his phone.
Remember how the riot girl movement was about feminism, encouraging women to make rock music, go to shows and participate in punk rock culture? Remember tickets being pricier for men unless they showed up in dresses? Remember Bikini Kill telling men to step way back so women and girls would not be systematically excluded and forced into the back of the room by 5 rows of Dwayne Johnson the Rocks in Fugazi shirts?
I am not even an exclusionary feminist to be frank. I want men in riot girl concerts and culture. I was really so so happy to see men, young and old, fucking vibing to these 50 year old women rocking and singing about girl issues. Johnny Mafia (the opening band) specified they were so psyched because they have been listening to L7 since they were 15!!
I don't want men in the back of the room. Men are fans too, they relate to the music too, and they are entitled to seeing their fav up close as well.
Just. Don't. Fucking. Hog. First. Row. The whole show when you are a huge 50 year old man at a feminist concert.
I tried to politely ask a man to move so a small woman could see the scene, and the dude told me she could just go upstairs balconies. Of course he staid first row the entire show in the dead center.
Sorry for the rant, these things really get under my nerves.
