A few days ago, Playboy magazine had this article about Neko Case, part praise of the songwriter, part review of her latest album,The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You’. The piece was trying to be smart about women in music, describing the personality types ‘the confident straight shooter (Beyoncé), the girlie pinup (Katy Perry) or the coquettish ingenue (Taylor Swift),…’, but pointing out that Neko Case and her new album were in a class of their own. A compliment, right? They were even refusing to categorize her music which is ‘too experimental to be called alt-country, too expansive to be pigeonholed as indie rock’ and describing her voice as ‘one of the great modern voices—sexy but also filled with longing and power—Case can sound both feminine and masculine’. Honestly, the whole piece, entitled ‘Neko Case loves you’, was so eulogistic that Playboy probably didn’t see Neko Case’s reaction coming… well they had that unfortunate tweet they sent:
‘Artist @NekoCase is breaking the mold of what women in the music industry should be’
To what Neko Case answered:
‘@PlayboyDotCom Am I? IM NOT A FUCKING “WOMAN IN MUSIC”, IM A FUCKING MUSICIAN IN MUSIC!’
@PlayboyDotCom GET WITH THE NOW, PUSSY-SHAVERS!
And she was even mad at people trying to defend the article:
‘@robomeerkat @JenKirkman @PlayboyDotCom DONT PEGGY OLSEN ME, MOTHERFUCKERS.’
@JenKirkman @robomeerkat @PlayboyDotCom Last time that shit was relevant was in 1988, which I know cause I was SCRAPING TO FIND THEM.’
They said they didn’t want to categorize her but at the same time they were talking about these ‘women in music’ and it didn’t go well with Neko who added: ‘And no, I didn’t read it. Wouldn’t be able to get past “Woman in..” if I had no idea who I was, which is the point; women NOT a niche market’…’ Also, I finished my period last week. Thanks for checking.’
That was so excellent! I wonder whether there will be a time when genders will not even mention in reviews or taken in consideration… plus if you browse the twitter feed of Playboy, all you see is asses and breasts so I totally understand where Neko’s reaction was coming from.. How dare they?!
