I wrote a while back about "Fetish Nights" in which goth and/or industrial music is melded with pseudo-kink themes and how it harms both communities in the process.
I found myself digging through the vault of my mind today, listening to Die Form on the bus on the way home from work. It had been years since I listened to them.
Die Form represents a time when the marriage of industrial music and S/M was something to be proud of, rather than something to be embarrassed about. They didn't have jello wrestling or cat ears and thongs. They beat themselves on stage and celebrated the grotesque, the sexual, the taboo, the shocking things that excited us, or scared us, or got us off.
That's what it was always about.
One may be surprised that I'm not tearing apart the use of naked women in their videos. That's because I think there is a time and place for showing the body that helps rather than harms, that liberates rather than oppresses. Die Form uses their bodies as various forms of performance art, rather than a focus of the male gaze. Also, I tend to see Phillippe Fichot shirtless nearly as much as Eliane P. or other women anyways, though I know that's not always the same. I think he gets props just for being able to play with this weird mask on his head.
Anyways, I'm open to hearing other opinions. Or anything I don't know about Die Form that may change my mind.
I'm glad I rediscovered you, Die Form.
thanks for writing this. I love industrial music but am getting so fed up with all the misogyny, racism and other bollocks in the industrial scene. The latest thing I was annoyed about was Die Sektor calling their album "the final electro solution" and having dodgy lyrics about the holocaust. no.
ReplyDeletekeep up the good work!