If there’s one quote I frequently recite as a feminist to remind myself of our continuing fight, it is this: “Any woman whose name has survived history has done so against a backdrop of male power.”
It was written in 2019 by New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino, in her best-selling book of essay, Trick Mirror. The quote explains so many narratives in the world about women and non-binary folks who are ostracised, marginalised, belittled, and disrespected.
I’ve been thinking about this quote in the past week after Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner’s extreme views on women and people of colour went viral. You may have seen his name in the headlines.
So what happened, what did he say, and why are his comments getting such traction?
What happened?
In an interview with the New York Times published last Friday, Wenner discussed his upcoming book The Masters — a 300 plus page book of interviews he conducted with rock legends he selected over the years, including Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, and Bruce Springsteen.
Wenner was asked by the NYT interviewer, David Marchese – a man who used to work at Rolling Stone, why he had chosen seven white guys in a book titled The Masters. Marchese also pointed out that in his introduction to the book, Wenner acknowledges that musicians of colour and female artists were “just not in [his] zeitgeist.”
Wenner then further explained:
“The selection was not a deliberate selection. It was kind of intuitive over the years; it just fell together that way. The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them. Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.”
Let’s just repeat that… ” Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.”
When Marchese hit back, saying “Oh, stop it. You’re telling me Joni Mitchell is not articulate enough on an intellectual level?” Wenner managed to actually double down on his original comment.
“Joni was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did. The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.”
Wenner went on to say that Black artists, such as Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield – also “…just didn’t articulate at that level.”
Unsurprisingly, the internet went wild. Celebrities and music critics called Wenner’s comments racist and sexist.
Hip-hop historian Nelson George said the remarks were ”condescending and stupid” and “reflect a continuum of thought” that shaped the magazine’s music coverage.
Gender and Journalism professor Evelyn McDonnell said on Facebook that Wenner’s “decades of sexism and racism” have “resulted in so many false ‘master’ narratives about music history.”
Members of the funk-metal band Living Colour took to their socials to criticise the comments, calling them “absurd on its face.”
“For someone who has chronicled the musical landscape for over 50 years, it is an insult to those of us who sit at the feet of these overlooked geniuses,” they expressed.
“To hear that he believes Stevie Wonder isn’t articulate enough to express his thoughts on any given subject is quite frankly, insulting. To hear that Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Tina Turner, or any of the many Woman artists that he chooses not to mention, are not worthy of the status of “Master“, smacks of sexist gatekeeping, and exclusionary behaviour.”
In the thirty-six years Wenner has ruled over the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, only 7.7 per cent of new inductees have been women. In an interview with The Times in 2019, Wenner said he didn’t think those numbers were a “real issue,” and added: “People are inducted for their achievements. Musical achievements have got to be race-neutral and gender-neutral in terms of judging them” – translation: I don’t see race. I am unaware of the unequal treatment of Black, trans, disabled, women, persons of colour. I am impartial.
So let me just now translate his most recent comments, so we can understand and unpack the insidious bigotry and prejudice this powerful man has cast upon the music industry since 1967.
Wenner said: “The selection [of the seven male artists] was not a deliberate selection.”
What he meant: I have never once sat down and thought about my biases. I have none. I like what I like and I’ve never questioned the political undertones of my tastes. My tastes are the centrist and universal. I am not influenced by my politics.
Wenner said: “The selection was intuitive.”
What he meant: I didn’t think about my blindspots. I just went with what I like and know.
Wenner said: “The people had to meet a couple criteria.”
What he meant: The people had to meet my criteria.
Wenner said: “Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.”
What he meant: Women artists don’t speak in a way that I understand. They don’t use the same language as me, as men I know, as what I am familiar and comfortable with. Women artists don’t represent my version of the universal truth, therefore they are not worthy of being included in this book, which I have called, “The Masters”.
Women who don’t use the same lexicon are therefore, in my view, not articulate. For me (and many other men like me in positions of cultural power), we equate being articulate to being intelligent. And so, women who are not able to speak our language, are therefore, not intelligent.
Wenner said: “Joni [Mitchell] was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll.”
What he meant: Joni [Mitchell] didn’t have a penis.
Wenner said: “Joni [Mitchell] didn’t, in my mind, meet that test.”
What he meant: Joni [Mitchell] didn’t meet a test I created.
Wenner said: “The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.”
What he meant: The people I interviewed spoke to me and my experience as an able-bodied straight white cis-male.
Wenner said: “Pete Townshend or Jagger, was writing about…deep things about a particular generation, a particular spirit and a particular attitude about rock ’n’ roll. Not that the others weren’t, but these were the ones that could really articulate it.”
What he meant: Pete Townshend or Jagger, wrote music that confirmed my experience as an able-bodied straight white cis-male. I saw myself in their music.
Wenner said: “You know, just for public relations’ sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism.”
What he meant: Black and women artists are sub-par, in my opinion. But maybe I should have just tokenistically added them in so I’m not seen as a racist or sexist.
Wenner said: “Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a [expletive] or whatever.”
What he meant: I grew up in the good ol’ days when people weren’t cancelled for saying things that are racist and sexist. I grew up in a world that allowed me, no, even encouraged me, to raucously celebrate white patriarchal ideologies.
Marchese asked Wenner, What are valid criticisms of your generation? Wenner replied: “I have no fundamental, deep criticisms.”
What he meant: My generation was perfect.
So what has happened since Wenner shared those quotes?
The day after the interview was published, Wenner released an official apology on his socials.
“In my interview with The New York Times I made comments that diminished the contributions, genius, and impact of Black and women artists and I apologise wholeheartedly for those remarks,” he said in the statement.
“[My book is] not meant to represent the whole of music and it’s diverse and important originators but to reflect the high points of my career and interviews I felt illustrated the breadth and experience in that career.”
“I totally understand the inflammatory nature of badly chosen words and deeply apologise and accept the consequences,” he added.
Sadly for Wenner, it was too late — on Saturday afternoon, just over a day after his brutal comments were first published, Wenner was ousted from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation board.
Several excellent think-pieces have popped up online since this news first set the internet on fire, including one from Craig Seymour, a Black, gay music critic, who said that the world needs “a complete rethinking of the criteria by which artists are deemed important, influential, and relevant, especially since many of the critics and editors who were trained by or influenced by Wenner are still working in journalism and book publishing.”
Me? I’m returning to the words of Tolentino, who in the same essay as the line I quoted at the start of this article, said, so fittingly: “We are all defined by our historical terms and conditions and these terms and conditions have mostly been written by and for men.”
What a perfect explanation for the downfall of Jenn Wenner.