Who are we?
Rhian E. Jones has written on music, politics and popular culture for The Quietus, Salon, McSweeneys Internet Tendency, Los Angeles Review of Books and the Morning Star. She is the author of Clampdown: Pop-Cultural Wars on Class and Gender (Zero Books, 2013) and a forthcoming book on Manic Street Preachers’ album The Holy Bible.
Eli Davies is a freelance writer and teacher and has written on music, politics, popular culture and literature for The Guardian, Noisey, The Quietus, Review 31 and New Left Project.
Background
Last year, Eli wrote an article about Pulp’s album Different Class which considered not only the absence of female voices in discussions of indie music, but also the contradictions and tensions involved in loving a band she has since recognised have some troubling attitudes to women. The article provoked many responses from women who felt similarly – not only about Pulp, but about sexism in music and music criticism more widely, and about the often marginalised or stereotyped experience of being a female music fan. It seemed that the article had touched a nerve, so we decided to collect the experiences and stories of other women who love music for this anthology.
Under My Thumb.... 