Subject:Verb:Object

The conflation of masculinity and femininity resulting in divers manifestations of androgyny.

Specific example number one: Angela Gossow - Lead Vocalist for the Swedish Death-Metal group Arch Enemy.
Arch Enemy formed in 1996 with Johan Liiva (formerly of the Death-Metal band Carnage) as the original lead vocalist. The musical style, performance, and lyrical content of Arch Enemy's first two albums released in 1996 and 1998 was fast, aggressive, violent, and explicitly Satanic in nature. Gossow was asked to join after Liiva was kicked out of the band in 2000 because his theatricality or "stage-presence" was not "dynamic" enough in the eyes of the other four, male band members. The fact that Gossow was deemed more suited to be the "face" of an extreme-metal group wanting to embody brutality, (satanic) individuality, and aggression - all overtly masculine traits - in their live performance makes her a candidate for representing an atypical form of feminine sexuality and androgyny.
In performance Gossow sartorially and theatrically conflates the traditional image of the female body with the über-masculine style and attitude of the male Death-Metal "frontman". The prime example of this conflation can be heard in Gossow's vocal ability and style. The Death-Metal "growl" has developed as an almost exclusively masculine form of singing. The harsh, deep and abrasive nature of this vocal technique has made its use by female vocalists few and far between. Gossow however has developed and employed this technique almost exclusively over un-growled or "clean" vocals on the four Arch Enemy albums on which she has sang.

At the start, when Gossow is addressing the crowd, I believe she says "GraraghRaghrt! I want to see the fuckin' place burn..."

On page 172 of Susan Bordo's "Unbearable Weight", recovering anorexic nervosa diagnosee Aimee Liu states, "I need nothing and no one else... I will be master of my own body, if nothing else, I vow..."
This statement could be Metal lyrics.

Subject: Verb: Object.
Women historically have been put into the position of object.
When a woman exercises agency and become a subject acting on an object, specifically in regard to her own life or body it sounds revolutionary, inflammatory, or extreme.
Bordo defines the schism in femininity as the requirement "...that women must develop a totally other-oriented emotional economy." She forwards that this emotional asceticism - focus on "feeding" others and denying the self - is a result of the historic control of "...Female hunger - for public power, for independence, for sexual gratification [etc.]..."
Historically women have been expected to preform, and confined to subservient roles. As women win/gain rights from power/discourse, older forms of femininity and feminine sexuality shift to take into account these new freedoms and venues for agency. The differential between what femininity was, what femininity is, and what it is becoming leaves room for the proliferation of socially rooted disorders like agoraphobia and anorexia nervosa.

Specific example number two: Lydia Lunch - Specifically - "The Cancer Has Finally Become Contagious" off of the 1987 compilation "Tellus #18: Experimental Theater".
"I hate all men... who play god, because god was the first cop"(1:00), "I don't want to see nothing I don't want to see [sic]. You wouldn't know the fucking truth if it slapped you in the fucking face, and I might just slap you in the fucking face... keep talking ass-hole" (7:45), "You're starting to sound like my mother! You sound just like my mother; well if you didn't act like such a goddamn fucking baby I wouldn't have to sound like your goddamn mother" (8:27).


Lydia lunch presents a conflation of masculinity and femininity in her artwork, music, performance and lifestyle. It makes me wince when I think about analyzing her or her work. Like she is going to reach through the words in the book or my speakers and punch me in the face.

Cultural artifact of contention number one - The internet/television advertising campaign for women's "EasyTone" Reebok™ sneakers.

Transcription of commercial:
Close up of a woman's chest, woman is wearing white brasier.
Right Breast: "Hey did you see? Nobody is staring at us anymore."
Left Breast: "Aren't we still hot?"
Right breast: "Cah-learly [sic]. You know what, it's all because of that stupid butt down there."
Left Breast: "Yeah, stupid butt, it gets all the attention now."
Cut to: panning shot of the woman's cleavage from stage left.
Right Breast: "She's so tight now, so round, so pretty."
Left Breast: "So... stupid!"
Cut to: Panning shot, left to right of the woman leaning forward.
Voice over: Mans' voice: "Make your boobs jellous with the shoe proven to tone your butt more than regual sneakers."
Cut to: Close up of the woman's butt, woman is wearing white underwear. Woman bends over, runs finger under elastic of underwear, and sticks butt towards camera.
Voice over: Man's Voice: "Reebok easy tone with balance ball inspired technology, better legs and a better butt with every step."

Subject: Verb: Object.
Commenting on this shit is so...
I mean these are SHOES... ...FOR women.
Do women personify their tits and fantasize about how they talk to their butt? Ever?
It's like the people that make this shit should...
They should already know that...
Gargh, it is fucking mind boggling.
Fuck. Shit. Piss. Fer' real.
There are a-million-and-one ways to sell sneakers.
Make something else, it's fucking simple.