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Reviews
What are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal by Laina Dawes, Skin
tricapra's review against another edition
4.0
I know what it's like to be an "outsider" fan, so this was an interesting look at what a different intersection of women faces in the scene. The book was definitely interesting, although the editing left something to be desired.
pastaylor's review against another edition
4.0
The perspective of black women in metal was interesting and powerful to read about. However, the editing on this was a little off. It read like a series of blog posts rather than a cohesive book, and was kinda all over the place. Still, it's worth reading for a perspective that is too often ignored.
sumayyah_t's review against another edition
5.0
As someone who has spent most of her life as the "weird kid" in many, many different places, I must first thank Laina Dawes for writing this book. "What Are You Doing Here?" offers a glimpse of what it is like to be a Black, female metalhead in this (very often) racist and sexist sphere of music. Including information gleaned from interviews and personal experiences, this book also includes historical tidbits about the music industry, as well as facts about the punk and metal scene that you probably never knew. I highly recommend "What Are You Doing Here?" to any who has been asked that question from anyone, including themselves.
n8duke's review against another edition
3.0
A good book. I only wish I’d been able to read it ten years ago when it first came out.
kevingentilcore's review against another edition
3.0
Going into this book I thought it was going to be about racism in metal as a whole, particularly from a black woman's point of view, which I assumed, was not a pleasant experience. It is about that, but there's so many ins and outs about this book and topic I found the whole thing just utterly heartbreaking and illuminating, and inspiring all at once.
The book covers racism in metal, punk, rock, from a larger perspective. The author doesn't get bogged down in niche, fringe elements, or micro scene politics so much as examines why there's a larger problem with a general nonacceptance of black people playing heavier music or being involved in those scenes. There's much discussion about the American music industry and overall treatment of black people and how they're marketed in music differently and how theres come to be a very specific idea of what black people should enjoy and champion, entertainment wise, that comes from both black and white communities. One of the things I was not prepared for was how many of the black women interviewed in this book were essentially shunned or abandoned by their family and community for being into heavy metal or punk, or more extreme forms of entertainment. There's the idea that they're abandoning their culture, something black people strived so hard to attain in America. But all they wanted is to express themselves, and what is punk and metal if not a way to give a voice to the challenged and the angry?
The book isn't about how metal is racist, it's about how there is racism in metal, but it's really about how everybody is and should be welcomed there and how if you're passionate about something you fight for it.
The book covers racism in metal, punk, rock, from a larger perspective. The author doesn't get bogged down in niche, fringe elements, or micro scene politics so much as examines why there's a larger problem with a general nonacceptance of black people playing heavier music or being involved in those scenes. There's much discussion about the American music industry and overall treatment of black people and how they're marketed in music differently and how theres come to be a very specific idea of what black people should enjoy and champion, entertainment wise, that comes from both black and white communities. One of the things I was not prepared for was how many of the black women interviewed in this book were essentially shunned or abandoned by their family and community for being into heavy metal or punk, or more extreme forms of entertainment. There's the idea that they're abandoning their culture, something black people strived so hard to attain in America. But all they wanted is to express themselves, and what is punk and metal if not a way to give a voice to the challenged and the angry?
The book isn't about how metal is racist, it's about how there is racism in metal, but it's really about how everybody is and should be welcomed there and how if you're passionate about something you fight for it.
thistle_and_verse's review
slow-paced
2.0
Very disappointed in this book. It felt like it was trying to do a lot with very limited space, and I thought Dawson spent too much time on the 'black kids thought it was weird that I was into metal' storyline. It felt like there was 2 chapters of that before the book even picked up steam, and that point still got revisited without much nuance later in the book. Organizationally, it was confusing because black American's experiences and histories were conflated with black Canadians', and there wasn't an explanation of why Dawson felt confident doing that when it seemed like the demographics and history were completely different. Basics aren't really explained (what is metal? what does it take to be considered a metalhead? what are the different ways to be involved in the metal scene? etc.), so I was unsure how she came to certain conclusions. There were informative snippets (marketing advice, history of the genres, etc.), but they were few and far between (at this point, I think I knew everything about the 60s rock history just from reading articles people post yearly during Black History Month). The biggest disappointment was the repeated contradictions and soft-peddling of racism within metal. Dawson would praise performers like Memphis Minnie for their sexuality and say that women shouldn't be judged and then say that Lil Kim and Foxy Brown were singlehandedly holding back women in rap with their sexual personas. Dawson implied that black people questioning the safety of hard rock shows were profiling, then compared the creation of punk music to ethnic cleansing (backlash to disco), talked about the history of metal icons using racist slurs with little pushback and mistreatment at shows, and even some of the black people interviewed described very racist behavior from their white metalhead friends. Theoretically I should've been an easy sell for this book (was friends with metalheads, casually listened to hard rock), but overall the read was alienating and didn't hold my attention. Not rigorous and very lacking in analysis.
cgoiris's review
4.0
Star detracted mostly because of "both" genders mention, although this book may need an update anyway since some of the music pages are MySpace pages which... Yeah.
Anyway aside from that, anyone and everyone should read this book. It touches on a lot of social issues that are broader than the metal community and also paints a pretty good music history lesson in the process, all from a black female FoR, which is refreshing because it is so rarely seen.
Despite the fact that I'm not black and our experiences differ, through intersectional experiences I can still relate. There's a good reason my local punk scene is very adamant on the "no racism, no sexism, no homo-/queerphobia" rule (although the addition "no ableism" would be welcome but that's not even tangentially related). Even being vocal about it, the crowds are still (well, pre-covid anyway) mostly white and often mostly male unless the target audience is clearly indicated differently. Issues with some types of men in metal also clearly resonated with me.
But even if you're not into metal or punk at all, go read this anyway.
Anyway aside from that, anyone and everyone should read this book. It touches on a lot of social issues that are broader than the metal community and also paints a pretty good music history lesson in the process, all from a black female FoR, which is refreshing because it is so rarely seen.
Despite the fact that I'm not black and our experiences differ, through intersectional experiences I can still relate. There's a good reason my local punk scene is very adamant on the "no racism, no sexism, no homo-/queerphobia" rule (although the addition "no ableism" would be welcome but that's not even tangentially related). Even being vocal about it, the crowds are still (well, pre-covid anyway) mostly white and often mostly male unless the target audience is clearly indicated differently. Issues with some types of men in metal also clearly resonated with me.
But even if you're not into metal or punk at all, go read this anyway.