Lock Up Your Daughters Launch
Written by: Gareth K Vile
Published: Thu 17 Apr 2008
Published: Thu 17 Apr 2008
Lock up your daughters
Event Review
| Event name | Lock Up Your Daughters Launch |
| Venue | The Flying Duck, Glasgow |
Venue details
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More info
http://www.myspace.com/lockup_yourdaughters
On the web
www.lockupyourdaughtersmagazine.co.uk/
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Even before its first issue, Lock Up Your Daughters came armed for bear: check out the breathless and antagonistic introduction on their web pages. Picking up on the queer anger that drove forward the political process that eventually transformed Scottish attitudes to sexuality, LUYD is determined not to let outrage become petulant whinging.
It was slightly disappointing that the launch night wasn’t as aggression-fuelled as the web page, lacking any ranting beat-poetry or oppositional performance art that would get the show closed for obscenity. It did feature the manic funky jazz of Doctor and the Apostles, a band so obviously febrile and imaginative that they are bound for obscurity and retrospective hagiography, as well as a busy crowd that divided between conspiratorial clusters and straight lines watching the show. The free pilot issue handed out was the highlight of the evening, during a relentless electro-disco that was somewhat awkward in the homely Flying Duck (Glasgow’s latest underground club-cum-converted basement flat).
LUYD seems to be interested in moving forward the intensely personal nature of identity politics: the pilot issue has the usual quota of cartoons, band references and mundane storytelling. There’s a certain panache and wit lurking behind the articles, an unwillingness to dwell on the obvious - a farewell to Electrelane is almost curt and perfunctory, while meditations on Ellen and internet dating refuse to get caught up in vapid generalisation. The lack of broad political engagement - no ‘not in our name’ posturing here - might be refreshing or disturbing: does it represent a rejection of tired sloganeering or a retreat into self-satisfied hedonism?
Actually, a bit more aggression wouldn’t hurt. LUYD claims a proud heritage - those angry queer fanzines that knew what they didn’t want and which inspired riot grrrl, Ladyfest, queercore, Derek Jarman: the identification of that scene’s gentrification and tokenism is a powerful starting point.
And there is plenty to get angry about: mainstream magazines that usurp the culture of zines, former alternative rock stars writing advice columns for daily newspapers, crabby journalists lecturing youngsters on the true history of ‘the scene’, the development of an unthreatening gay monoculture that reinforces stereotypes while policy-makers fail to grasp that LGBT is more than a statement of sexual preference. Lock Up Your Daughters more than deserves to survive, being a rare voice of diversity.
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I didn't hesitate to buy a copy of new "queer alt" zine Lock Up Your Daughters. It didn't take long to turn my excitement at a new energy on the Scottish queer scene, into the sheer headbanging frustration. Clearly this zine has made no effort and does not wish to engage with "alternative lesbians" outside of a certain milieu.
To back up my case, I make reference to Frida La Chufflet's reference to:
"...a disease found in impoverished societies in Africa where bits of fingers and toes fall off...".
I would like Frida to name me one corner of African society where she has witnessed the above. Or did she garner her entire perception of Africa from some sensationalist and manipulative mainstream news reporting.
The African continent today is struggling between being expected to adapt in line with the West, while the West continues to hold back Africa with such ignorant and stereotypical ideas.
As an African living in the Scottish diaspora, I find it hard enough to assert my identity without it being clouded by such uninformed notions. Such careless use of language encourages readers to continue to think of Africa as a land of impoverished, diseased savages; rather than a part of the living world, with real human beings who, god forbid, you might meet and even have to engage with.
My second gripe, and I fear that having read only the pilot issue, further reading of this publication might provoke more, is with the sole reference that I recall in this zine to any body type, being to "ugly fat chicks". The use of 'ugly' and 'fat' here is clearly intended to be synonymous, and such lack of regard for the need to eradicate the continuous reinforcement by mainstream media of a supposed link between 'ugliness' and 'fatness'. I came to LUYD as a reader who was promised something 'alternative'. In fact it's just more of the same body fascist lazy journalism. Go place yourselves on the tabloid shelves, next to Heat mag's "Cellulite shocker" jibes, and save me £2.
I would also like to correct the same "Hottie Bigtittie"'s closing words. Here, Hottie uses the word 'bimbo' to describe two imagined characters. Here your use of this sexist word implies that you can detect, from the appearance of these two women, some indication of their intelligence. Your overall tone suggests that furthermore, you assume yourself to wield some superiority over these women. Now many women are entrapped in efforts to live up to constantly shifting notions of what they are expected to be. Just because one woman's attempt to fit these social norms differs from your ideal, does not justify her being labelled so patronisingly. Everyone should be free to portray their sexuality the way that they like, and those who make such hasty value judgements are merely perpetuating the a mentality that belittles women.