{"id":217,"date":"2022-03-31T10:47:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T09:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/genderatwork\/?p=217"},"modified":"2022-03-31T10:47:46","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T09:47:46","slug":"gender-the-guitar-and-why-people-wont-stop-calling-wet-leg-industry-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/genderatwork\/2022\/03\/31\/gender-the-guitar-and-why-people-wont-stop-calling-wet-leg-industry-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender, the guitar and why people won\u2019t stop calling Wet-Leg \u2018Industry Plants\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Johnny Hurst<\/u><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"Following CPB-London\u2019s recent \u2018imagine a\u2019 campaign:[1]<\/strong><\/a> picture a guitarist. Are they a man? They shouldn\u2019t be. Not only should you not assume a man \u2013 historically, you should assume a woman. So why has this changed? And how does this relate to the accusations of Wet-Leg being \u2018industry plants\u2019? Let\u2019s start at the beginning\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The Guitar and femininity<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The association between masculinity and guitars is a relatively recent phenomenon. Originally, the guitar was a paradigmatic feminine instrument. In 1783, Carl Junker named the guitar\u2019s predecessors[1]<\/a> as one of the 4 women-appropriate instruments (Stenstadvold, 2013). In the early 1700s, Roger North echoes this judgement (ibid). These pro-women guitar stances weren\u2019t a stand against sexism: the guitar\u2019s slender frame allowed women to remain elegant whilst playing. The guitar was also not a professional instrument[2]<\/a> \u2013 it was an amateur instrument, played at home (Stenstadvold, 2013), accompanying[3]<\/a> another instrument (Jackson, 2020). Thus, the project for modern women guitarists is not to create<\/u><\/em><\/strong> a feminine space in the guitar-world, but to reclaim<\/u><\/em><\/strong> it.<\/p>\n

\"\"So, when did guitar\u2019s feminine-status decline? Pinpointing a date here is difficult. Whilst the well-known Delta-Blues players of the early 20th<\/sup> Century are all men,[4]<\/a> we have to recognise that history might be filtering out women-guitarists of this time through looking backwards with a guitar-as-masculine lens. Elizabeth Cotten writes Freight Train<\/em> 20 years before Robert Johnson steps into a studio. Cotten even used a left-handed-upside-down string technique,[5]<\/a> later used by[6]<\/a> male-guitarists Albert King and Jimi Hendrix. Sister Rosetta-Tharpe could be seen ripping on an SG Custom in the early 1960s. So when did the change occur?<\/p>\n

\"\"Strohm points to the invention of the electric guitar (Weinstein, 2013). This makes sense: before amplification, the guitarist had the quiet role at the back of the Big-Band. Once amplified, the guitar could take the lead role (ibid).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Enter the men. Amplification permits distortion: the aggressive<\/em><\/strong> sound of rock. Here we start to see the masculine paradigms work their way in. Then comes the virtuoso; the fiery and phallic displays in the late 1960s.[7]<\/a> This trajectory continued: think 1970\u2019s and 1980\u2019s \u201cmasturbatory\u201d (Weinstein, 2013, p. 144) guitar solos[8]<\/a> \u2013 the guitar was cemented as a masculine domain.<\/p>\n

So how did this affect guitars?<\/p>\n

\"\"Firstly, once the guitar had been made masculine, the unspoken rule of \u2018standard\u2019 coming to mean \u2018masculine\u2019 instantiated itself.[9]<\/a> The masculine<\/em> way of playing guitar became the standard<\/em> way of playing guitar. Deviation from this standard was\/is seen as a mark of the amateur. Look at how Jett, St. Vincent and Millington[10]<\/a> stand in powerful, assertive, masculine poses when performing.[11]<\/a><\/p>\n

Masculine-as-standard worked in another way: guitars were now made for male-bodies. A standard-size guitar today is not<\/u><\/strong> a standard-sized guitar for a human body; it\u2019s the standard-size for a male<\/u><\/strong> body. Perez (2019) talks about this problem for pianos: the keyboard was designed with only male hands in mind.[12]<\/a> This can be seen in the size difference between guitar brands like Teisco in the 1950s[13]<\/a> and the larger Gibson and Fender guitars that continued from the 50s onwards. Teisco guitars are shorter, so are retrospectively dubbed as student<\/em>\/3\/4 sized<\/em>[14]<\/a> guitars. Perhaps they\u2019re not smaller versions of \u2018standard-sized\u2019 guitars, they are just guitars not made for men! Moreover, guitars such as Teiscos had a revival in women-driven punk-bands. Perhaps they wanted to use a guitar that fits![15]<\/a><\/p>\n

Thus women in the modern-age are faced with a dilemma: they must play guitar like a man[16]<\/a> on an instrument that is too big for them to do so. Here enters Wet-Leg.<\/p>\n

Wet-Leg and unapologetic rejection of normative-masculinity<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wet-Leg are a new alternative band. Neither Wet-Leg guitarist plays with the violence, aggression<\/em><\/strong> or domination<\/em><\/strong> of the instrument that the male-standardised perspective insists on.[17]<\/a> Wet-Leg doesn\u2019t need to perform masculinity to perform the role of guitarist; they perform the role of \u2018guitarist\u2019 continuously with their performance of femininity.<\/p>\n

\"\"Against the masculine-as-standard backdrop, Wet-Leg\u2019s deviation from masculine-styles of guitar-playing is viewed as a deviation from \u2018good\u2019 guitar-playing. One video that centres Wet-Leg\u2019s guitar-style is riddled with comments expressing their disgust for it. So Wet-Leg refuse to play guitar like men. And thus fuels the fire of \u2018industry plant\u2019 accusations.<\/p>\n

Inference to Industry Plants<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Innumerous Tiktok comments accuse Wet-Leg of being \u2018Industry Plants\u2019.[18]<\/a> Whilst there\u2019s no single reason why, I think their rejection of masculinity-as-standard is a strong factor.<\/p>\n

Viewers see Wet-Leg\u2019s non-masculine style of playing, and because non-masculine is seen as bad, Wet-Leg\u2019s guitar-playing is seen as bad\/amateur. If Wet-Leg are amateur musicians, then how have they had viral hits? The answer is simple! Wet-Leg\u2019s success is the industries work, not theirs! Thus the apparent inability of Wet-Leg\u2019s guitarists is squared with their commercial success.<\/p>\n

Only, the viewer is wrong; they\u2019ve mistaken non-masculine guitar-playing for bad guitar-playing. Wet-Leg aren\u2019t amateur guitarists, they are women guitarists who have succeeded on their own merit! It turns out, Wet-Leg are actually just a decent band!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>[1]<\/a> The Lute and Zither<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> The guitar not being part of the orchestra<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Read: being subservient to<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Think Robert Johnson, Son House, Lightning Hopkins\u2026<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Seen being used by Cotten herself here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IUK8emiWabU<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> And often incorrectly credited to<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Think Jimi Hendrix\u2019s wild onstage movements, and sitting his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Think Van Halen, Guns \u2018n Roses, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard\u2026<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> For a more detailed discussion of male-as-standard phenomena across historical data and modern society, see Perez\u2019s \u201cInvisible Women\u201d (Perez, 2019)<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Of the 1970s all female rock group \u2018Fanny\u2019 who I recommend. Especially their cover of Marvin Gaye\u2019s \u2018Ain\u2019t that Peculiar\u2019<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> I\u2019m not saying here that these fantastic female guitar-players are \u2018pretending to be men\u2019, but instead pointing out that we seem to celebrate and hold in higher acclaim female guitarists who play guitar \u2018like men\u2019.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> See Perez (2019) Chapter 7: One-Size-Fits-Men<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Production ending early 1960s<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Presumably \u00be the size of a standard male body<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Where more standard brands of guitar were used, female alternative rock bands often use guitar models with shorter scale lengths, such as the Fender Mustang, or Gibson Les Paul Jr (notice the \u2018Jr\u2019: it\u2019s the smaller, younger and inferior guitar to the flagship, men-in-mind Gibson Les Paul).<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> With deliberate reference here to Young\u2019s (1980) \u2018Throwing Like a Girl\u2019<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> See an example of Wet Leg\u2019s Teasdale playing guitar here: https:\/\/vm.tiktok.com\/ZMLf7ybTN\/?k=1<\/a><\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> An Industry Plant is a band\/artist manufactured by a record label to be commercially successful, though presented as a grass-roots musician.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>https:\/\/l.facebook.com\/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fp%2FCa2WkCbsudA%2F%3Futm_medium%3Dcopy_link%26fbclid%3DIwAR3iZduqT2x-_4NxUQh8dpByUrmBDp4oEZSO8rMILcTnFF0izCVKOsEaqKc&h=AT1E5QZMoawxA48ZUgQKnVYYJ8BIHSzamX_oSsYbj-5sfjThHBbQKbPLBFvWs-LiavMUA3l_LK3BvvD2SGtZoysUaNVpsb7hKe9A65MOdqx1V0IFILn4mQKJTkYi7TENzmspfg<\/p>\n

Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Industry Plants – Another Form of Sexism in Music \u2013 Amika Moser<\/strong><\/p>\n

A nice short piece by Amika Moser on how accusations of industry plants are linked with sexism.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.unpublishedzine.com\/music-1\/industry-plants-another-form-of-sexism-in-music<\/a><\/p>\n

At First, the Guitar was a \u201cWomen\u2019s Instrument\u201d \u2013 Ashawnta Jackson<\/strong><\/p>\n

A short article from Ashawnta Jackson on the historical relationship between women and the guitar, which served as the inspiration for this blog post<\/p>\n

At First, the Guitar Was a “Women’s Instrument”<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n