Effeminate metal musicians and their female fans

I've heard that the glam image of HR/HM from the 80s in particular was done to attract or at least at some point became a point of attraction for their female fans. I don't get it but I notice this with some glam oriented groups like A Fire Inside, to name a more modern equivalent, or japanese Visual kei, that a lot of female fans are drawn to this pretty boy image but exactly why eludes me. I'm not sure whether this is true, just that I've heard it as being a draw among female fans. Does anyone know much about this phenomenon? Reminds me of the whole Fabio/Lorenzo Lamas archetype on paperback romance novels.

Wouldn't it make more sense to actually ask some females this question? A metal board populated primarily by middle-aged men doesn't really seem like a forum where you're going to find answers to this question.

Maybe 80's Metal Lady could give us some insight.

My wife loves H.I.M. and their androgynous lead singer Ville Valo.

I believe this was addressed in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Metal-Music-Culture-Revised/dp/0306809702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429306035&sr=8-1&keywords=book+on+heavy+metal+sociology

It's been a while since I read it though, but this is a sociological study of Heavy Metal.  It's out of date now, but does cover Glam Metal extensively.

Lari wrote:

My wife loves H.I.M. and their androgynous lead singer Ville Valo.

I like H.I.M. too but I have no idea what the singer looks like. I just know he sometimes does this annoying "hiccup" thing (usually with reverb) but I don't let that ruin the music for me.

I, like lots of women, find men who are very beautiful to be very attractive. I wasn't into the hair metal bands like Poison and Cinderella. I liked some of their music but not their look so much as they were a little much for me. The lead singer for White Lion or Michael Sweet of Stryper; though, I thought were very attractive and beautiful but not overly feminine. I can see women, especially pre-teens and teens who were probably the main marketing target, going ga-ga for the more glamour bands, though. For girls, fashion and hairstyles are very important and seeing a guy wearing clothes or a hairdo they would like for themselves was probably a big turn-on. Now that these girls are older and look back on it, they might get a laugh.

On another extreme, I am quite the fan of drag queens and I know a lot of straight women who are as well. RuPaul's Drag Race has a huge female following. There is something about a nice-looking man who can also be a beautiful woman (more beautiful than actual women, tbh) that is very attractive. Don't really understand the phenomenon, but it's there, LOL.

80s Metal Lady wrote:

There is something about a nice-looking man who can also be a beautiful woman (more beautiful than actual women, tbh) that is very attractive. Don't really understand the phenomenon, but it's there, LOL.

You should like Mejibray then 



All guys, I swear 

Boris2008 wrote:

80s Metal Lady wrote:

There is something about a nice-looking man who can also be a beautiful woman (more beautiful than actual women, tbh) that is very attractive. Don't really understand the phenomenon, but it's there, LOL.

You should like Mejibray then 



All guys, I swear 

Wow! Yeah, if it wasn't for the Adam's apple, I would never have guessed.

It was all part of the downfall of metal -
Everyone was looking the same - at least on MTV- girlie !
and the bands that got radio play -
Dokken ' Under Lock and Key ' what an IDIOT LP cover photo -
Even Crue ' Theatre Of Pain' - WTF - really ?
Tossing the black leather = for pink girly frilly puffy ?
Faster P*ssycat looked like they sounded ~^%$#@
Poison you could smile at - RATT you knew were tough -
But everyone seemed to be donning the make-up -perms clothes -
no beards - bands were like lemmings, in that regard -
it was sad - and of course Nirvana showed up.
And we know what they looked like -a 180' -

After reading the title to this thread I immediately thought of Steve Whiteman from Kix. I saw them live about a week ago and couldn't believe how much he "pranced" around the stage. It was a good show and he's a good frontman, but it just threw me for a moment.

I always assumed the attraction towards men who present themselves as effeminate was down to them registering on some level as "unthreatening."

Maybe it's two separate phenomena altogether, but is it really that different from a guy having a "Woah!" moment when he meets a woman who looks good in jeans and a t-shirt and who knows her way around a tool box or a soldering iron?

I think all rock stars  have huge female followings...even Lemmy (motorhead) is known to have bedded hundreds of women...I think its the bad boy image... Look around you where you live..Men with long hair, tattoos.. wearing their shades will catch the attention of the women around them..

Runicen wrote:

I always assumed the attraction towards men who present themselves as effeminate was down to them registering on some level as "unthreatening."

I've heard that explanation used to describe the whole boy-band/pop-idol phenomenon as well. Even the Simpsons got in on that...

Personally, I never cared for the glam look.

I mean chicks probably were sick of toxic masculinity from father figures reared in the 50s, so the farthest thing from that probably looks pretty good.

The Japanese know how to do this! On a musical note Versailles and their guitarists Hizaki & Teru have really gotten under my skin in the past year, I love this band!

Those are dudes?!

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Those are dudes?!

Hahaha! I don't know why but I heard a confused Homer Simpson voice in my head when I read that comment

But yes, dudes!

Speaking from first hand experience the answer was, at least for me, a resounding yes. Out west in the Seattle metro area from 86 to 90 I was confused for girl more times than not and trust me when I say the ladies loved it.

Yaaaaak...

Boris2008 wrote:

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Those are dudes?!

Hahaha! I don't know why but I heard a confused Homer Simpson voice in my head when I read that comment

But yes, dudes!

I said the same thing ages ago when an old friend was really into Moi dix Mois. Sadly we're no longer friends because he turned into an asshole. Incidentally, and I guess not surprisingly, he also turned into a girl.

Quote :

Out west in the Seattle metro area from 86 to 90 I was confused for girl more times than not

Back in my long hair days I was only mistaken for a girl twice.

Once was when I was working at K-Mart and I was kneeling down on the floor putting stuff on a bottom shelf. A customer came up behind me, saw my pony tail, and asked "Excuse me, young lady...?" ... so I stood up to my full height (did I mention I'm six-foot-six?) and said "Yyyyyeah?" in the deepest, gruffest voice I could muster. Dude practically wet himself, ha ha ha.

Another time my brother (a fellow long hair) and I were at the beach, hangin' on the boardwalk and an extremely inebriated fella walked by and sez "Are you boys or are you girls?"
...before I could come up with a witty retort my bro instantly snapped, "Why don'cha suck our @#$%'s and find out?" Fortunately, the guy was too drunk to say or do anything in response to that, he just said "Whatever, a**hole," and walked on

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

Out west in the Seattle metro area from 86 to 90 I was confused for girl more times than not

Back in my long hair days I was only mistaken for a girl twice.

Once was when I was working at K-Mart and I was kneeling down on the floor putting stuff on a bottom shelf. A customer came up behind me, saw my pony tail, and asked "Excuse me, young lady...?" ... so I stood up to my full height (did I mention I'm six-foot-six?) and said "Yyyyyeah?" in the deepest, gruffest voice I could muster. Dude practically wet himself, ha ha ha.

Another time my brother (a fellow long hair) and I were at the beach, hangin' on the boardwalk and an extremely inebriated fella walked by and sez "Are you boys or are you girls?"
...before I could come up with a witty retort my bro instantly snapped, "Why don'cha suck our @#$%'s and find out?" Fortunately, the guy was too drunk to say or do anything in response to that, he just said "Whatever, a**hole," and walked on

Ah the joys of being 6' 6" and intimidating! Unfortunately for me I was a 5' 6" 120 lb occasional make up wearing long haired goth and this happened to me quite a lot (well, when they weren't calling me a druggie or a queer) I just learned to run quite fast!

Boris2008 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

Out west in the Seattle metro area from 86 to 90 I was confused for girl more times than not

Back in my long hair days I was only mistaken for a girl twice.

Once was when I was working at K-Mart and I was kneeling down on the floor putting stuff on a bottom shelf. A customer came up behind me, saw my pony tail, and asked "Excuse me, young lady...?" ... so I stood up to my full height (did I mention I'm six-foot-six?) and said "Yyyyyeah?" in the deepest, gruffest voice I could muster. Dude practically wet himself, ha ha ha.

Another time my brother (a fellow long hair) and I were at the beach, hangin' on the boardwalk and an extremely inebriated fella walked by and sez "Are you boys or are you girls?"
...before I could come up with a witty retort my bro instantly snapped, "Why don'cha suck our @#$%'s and find out?" Fortunately, the guy was too drunk to say or do anything in response to that, he just said "Whatever, a**hole," and walked on

Ah the joys of being 6' 6" and intimidating! Unfortunately for me I was a 5' 6" 120 lb occasional make up wearing long haired goth and this happened to me quite a lot (well, when they weren't calling me a druggie or a queer) I just learned to run quite fast!  

good times and stories.

I would actually have dudes bitch me out for them assuming I was a girl. I mean really getting angry. Telling me how I should be ashamed of myself etc... I was always saying, "well, I didn't come hit on you dude..." And by the way I am still a guy and I will kick your arse and take home your sister.