They say people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, and at the risk of someone trawling through our archives and finding a bad review let me start this with a disclaimer: Everybody has a bad day.
But describing the latest review from ABC 774 of PJ Harvey’s performance in Perth as simply a bad day would definitely be an understatement. According the Mess+Noise the piece was written by audio engineer Ian Church, who goes to great lengths to inform us he is a man and goes on to explain that because of this he doesn’t really like the award winning singer.
The review probably would have gone unnoticed except the artist herself posted it on her Facebook wall unleashing the wrath of PJ Harvey fans around the world. Fans have reacted in outrage labelling the review as ‘misogynistic’ and ‘patently sexist’ with one urging other readers to contact the national broadcaster and register a complaint.
You can read an extract from the full review below:
I, like many of other males have been introduced to PJ Harvey by my partner. And after just two minutes of being at the concert hall, a guy and his wife pick up on our West Country English dulcet tones. We talk about her music, and how although we as men are not massive fans, we both have great respect for her and her song writing. After seeing PJ Harvey perform at festivals, I know this lass can hold her own with the boys.
Fans were a mixture of angry and bemused, with one commenting ”‘We talk about her music, and how although we AS MEN are not massive fans…’ Of course, because that would be ridiculous…”.
Another Facebook user wrote “…interesting that he wrote about the desert sessions and not about the fact that she has been writing words and music for men to perform for 20 years. Surely the world has moved beyond this Macho rock crap?” while another joked “Someone told me that women are allowed to vote now. As a man I’m not totally into it but I guess I can respect it.”
You can read the full review on ABC 774’s website. Let us know in the comments whether you think the review is sexist or not.
UPDATE 18th January 2012 @ 2:09pm : The ABC have since re-edited the review and removed the offending quotes.
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