{"id":6243,"date":"2013-06-29T16:44:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T21:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/?p=6243"},"modified":"2013-06-29T16:44:26","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T21:44:26","slug":"feminist-music-can-help-with-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2013\/06\/29\/feminist-music-can-help-with-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"Feminist Music Can Help with Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month\u2019s column features\u00a0a new\u00a0guest author:\u00a0Adrienne Trier-Bieniek<\/a>,\u00a0Ph.D.\u00a0is a sociologist and author of the new book Sing Us a Song, Piano Woman: Female Fans and the Music of Tori Amos<\/em><\/a> (Scarecrow Press).<\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

I have spent the better part of the last five years trying to understanding how women use music to heal after\u00a0 experiencing trauma.\u00a0 When I was interviewing women for my book, Sing Us a Song, Piano Woman<\/em><\/a>, one comment stuck in my head from a woman named Madeline.\u00a0 Madeline talked about how she used to be into music by hair-metal bands.\u00a0 She said, \u201cGrowing up, all my favorite bands were male artists.\u00a0 Um, maybe it\u2019s just that now I see that their message is from their point of view.\u00a0 And I internalize that and maybe that\u2019s why I made all the shitty choices that I made.\u00a0 I think that maybe the reason that I only listen to female artists is because I just would rather have their messages in my head.\u201d And this comment wasn\u2019t rare.\u00a0 Many women said that they found empowerment\/comfort\/salvation in music written and performed by another woman.<\/p>\n

Now, I am totally aware that women can listen to male bands to feel support and vice versa.\u00a0 However, one thing that I think it missing from conversations about feminism and pop culture is how women use music by feminist musicians as a way to heal after they have experienced trauma. This was the premise of my research for Sing Us a Song, Piano Woman<\/em>.\u00a0 The women I spoke with selected Tori Amos’s<\/a> music as their self-care guide.\u00a0 They were very much aware that this help was coming from a feminist performer and, because of that, found her music to sit close to home.<\/p>\n

From this study I took away a few helpful tips for connecting feminism with music and healing that I would like to share.\u00a0 In no particular order:<\/p>\n

– Find an anthem:<\/strong>\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it gets much better than listening to powerful women belt out songs like it is the last time they will have the opportunity to sing in their lives.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s Sister Rosetta Tharpe<\/a>, Aretha<\/a>, Tori Amos<\/a>, Ani DiFranco<\/a>, Janelle Monae<\/a>, Beyonce <\/a>etc.\u00a0 Feminist musicians approach their songs with an eye toward empowerment, equality and expressing the experiences of women.\u00a0 One of the reasons many of the women I spoke with enjoyed Tori\u2019s song \u201cSpark<\/a>\u201d was because it addressed her experience with miscarriage.\u00a0 Healing from the loss of a child is hard, but hearing a performer address her emotions can be helpful.\u00a0 So find your feminist anthem.\u00a0 (I have many.\u00a0 Some, like Aretha\u2019s \u201cRespect\u201d and Ani\u2019s song \u201cAlla This\u201d I will gladly cop to.\u00a0 Others are embarrassing but help me get through the day!)<\/p>\n

– Create While you Listen:\u00a0<\/strong> In 2007 I was a grad student at Virginia Tech\u00a0 when my college became the site of the worst school shooting in U.S. history.\u00a0 One activity that got me through was creating art while listening to Tori\u2019s music and trying to use the lyrics to illustrate my feelings.\u00a0 Many of the women I spoke with did the same thing with writing, crafting, singing and dancing.\u00a0 Song lyrics became immortalized through their bodies, art and voices.\u00a0 What is even more important is that this exercise requires you to think about the lyrics you are repeating to yourself.\u00a0 What do they mean?\u00a0 Are they empowering?\u00a0 Of course we all can rattle off songs meant for entertainment.\u00a0 But if there was ever a chance to think about the impact of music on our identities, it is when we are expressing ourselves through art and being vulnerable.<\/p>\n

– The Feminist Standpoint<\/strong>:\u00a0 Ok, stick with me.\u00a0 In sociology (my field), the feminist standpoint basically says that women\u2019s stories are often ignored in a culture.\u00a0 So, I would encourage you to take an anthem song and use it to tell your story.\u00a0 Anthems are great backdrops for activism.\u00a0 They can help with speaking out about being raped, having an eating disorder, having a miscarriage etc. And, speaking out is a huge step toward breaking the culture of silence that surrounds these experiences.\u00a0 I, like many of you, have found a new hero in Wendy Davis<\/a> (the Texas legislator who stood for 11 hours to strike down anti-abortion laws).\u00a0 She used her voice and inspired the band The Bright Light Social Hour to record this song called \u201cWendy Davis.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Finding feminism in music (for both female and male artists) is key to changing the ways pop culture stereotypes women.\u00a0 Finding feminism in music to help us heal from trauma is key to finding empowerment in vulnerable moments.\u00a0 What do you listen to?<\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

\u2013 Crossposted from Feministing<\/a> with permission \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month\u2019s column features\u00a0a new\u00a0guest author:\u00a0Adrienne Trier-Bieniek,\u00a0Ph.D.\u00a0is a sociologist and author of the new book Sing Us a Song, Piano Woman: Female Fans and the Music of Tori Amos (Scarecrow Press). ____________________ I have spent the better part of the last five years trying to understanding how women use music to heal after\u00a0 experiencing trauma.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1918,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21094],"tags":[245,22457,33,115,22454,3623,568],"class_list":["post-6243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bedside-manners","tag-feminism","tag-healing","tag-health","tag-music","tag-tori-amos","tag-trauma","tag-virginia-tech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6243"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6253,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243\/revisions\/6253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}