Rock Against Sexism

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Rock Against Sexism (RAS) was a political and cultural movement dedicated to challenging sexism in the rock music community, pop culture and in the world at large. It was primarily a part of the punk rock music and arts scene.

RAS started in the UK in 1978, and by the mid 1980's also had a presence in North America. It was strongly inspired and influenced by Rock Against Racism and the two movements had many of the same participants.

In the UK, it began amid controversy when a Rock Against Racism event hired some Rastafarian dub reggae bands that some participants felt were misogynistic. This resulted in a discussion of sexism in music and art. The bands (Aswad and Misty in Roots) either responded by saying it was the will of God, or that they didn't know what sexism was. The UK Rock Against Sexism often gained press coverage in the music press, such as the NME.^{[citation needed]}

In the US, RAS Boston sponsored weekly dance parties at a local gay bar, the 1270. They put out a zine and promoted art events and gigs by non-sexist bands. RAS sponsored music workshops on writing, playing and promoting events.

1 Criticism
2 Legacy
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Criticism

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In the UK, critics^{[attribution needed]} of RAS considered it to be a confused, puritanical overreaction to common themes in rock and punk.^{[citation needed]} Performance style, sexual content or other subject matter were also topics of debate. This led to bands having to sign agreements to not perform any sexist material.^{[citation needed]}

Some^{[attribution needed]} considered their message unclear, because it accused rock music of being sexist while also attempting to use rock to challenge sexism. They were accused of equating then contemporary pop music with male power.^{[citation needed]} Hence their arguments were deemed by some to be "poorly thought out".

In some cases in the UK, potential headliner and supporting acts could be, and were, turned down due to differing interpretations of a band's lyrics. This effectively lead to its downfall when it went bankrupt, which led to bickering over money when RAS accused universitiy and polytechnic student unions of overcharging to use their facilities.^{[citation needed]}

The UK movement was also criticized^{[attribution needed]} for "vetting" bands for sexist content to their songs.^{[citation needed]} They rejected many artists including Motörhead.^{[citation needed]} However, Lemmy, leader of Motörhead, was a supporter of all female hard rock act Girlschool as well as being an anarchist.

[edit] Legacy

Rock Against Sexism's musical and political legacy was many more women playing in bands, working as promoters, and an increased awareness of women's and queer perspectives in the punk rock community. Many trace the riot grrl movement in the 1990's to RAS roots. It challenged heterosexism, homophobia, sexism and elitism, while challenging stereotypes of women, and the way they are represented.

Many later punk bands challenged the machismo of rock'n'roll by diversifying into cuddlecore, as well as the less rockist side of post-punk and New wave. It could be argued that RAS may have been the catalyst, as the advent of twee pop in the mid 1980's lead to rejection of the machismo of hardcore punk at the time.