>I have also come from drum n bass and hip hop which also seems to have that >distinct male / female divide - although Hip Hop seems to embrace females >more openly >than the aggressive nature of the darker styles of drum n bass.
There is heaps of sexism in hip-hop, even in the underground, more 'conscious' scene, and it's really overt! Last week I was asked to judge an MC comp at Revolver MC Championship 2000. The standard of battle MCs was amazing! But out of 57 entrants there were just three female MCs - all very good. But even I couldn't believe the poor behavior shown by the guys towards them. These girls were treated as little more than cute 'n' sexy little hip-hop bunnies - asked to pull names out of the hat for the battle rounds once they were excluded from the first heat. In techno and drum 'n' bass, it's less overt. When I went to buy The Real Jaguar from a leading underground Melbourne record store the guy scoffed, "You mean the trance one?" Now I don't think he'd say that to a guy somehow.
