I might like you better if we slept together
Someone recently pointed me to the above Romeo Void video, featuring Debora Iyall, who reminds me quite a bit of Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, in part because she’s in your face fat, and in part because hey, her band has a saxophone in it. Iyall is a Cowlitz Indian, which is a rarity in a music scene largely dominated by people perhaps best described as “gangly white guys.” I mean, Romeo Void wasn’t really hurting for gangly white guys, but Iyall was a truly inspired frontwoman. According to her MySpace page, Iyall is now teaching art in Portland, and continuing to work on musical projects.
Iyall and Styrene remain two of a very small number of larger women who have fronted indie/alternative/college radio-type acts. Beth Ditto of the Gossip is one notable exception, but for every Ditto, there seem to be a couple dozen Karen Os. The body politics of musical performance — particularly as it pertains to women — is troubling and treacherous territory. Certain genres seem to have more wiggle room for women, celebrating more female performers and offering relatively broad definitions of what makes them desirable and successful. These issues may likely tie directly back to issues of class and race — the “big mama” blues/jazz singer has become a cultural trope, for instance.