Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 30-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
One of the reasons Mecca Normal formed was to address sexism and misogyny. “Smile Baby” was written in response to being accused of provoking men into street-level verbal harassment because of how I looked or what I wore. “Why do you want to wear something that you know is going to provoke men?”
The album art for Calico Kills The Cat is an illustration of one of the only views a woman has of herself without looking in a mirror.
While Mecca Normal developed and implemented various approaches to define and combat sexism, that work feels somewhat naive compared to the magnitude of misogyny that the internet informs us is out there.
Earlier this year, while rehearsing for a West Coast tour in July, I wrote a song called “Anguish/Misogyny” about a sense of failure based on what we thought could be achieved and where we’re at now. We’ve been playing it live recently, including during a performance on Democracy Now! after we were interviewed by Amy Goodman.
On October 21, I inadvertently learned that Mecca Normal had been referred to on Democracy Now! the day before during an interview with Anita Sarkeesian about misogyny in video-game culture. At around the 25-minute mark. Amy introduces “Anguish/Misogyny” and cuts to us performing. Then they cut to the misogynist video-game images that Sarkeesian had been talking about with the song still playing. It was a real thrill—and somewhat strange—to see the song used in a context that was not of our making.
“Smile Baby” from Calico Kills The Cat (K, 1989; Matador, 1991; Smarten Up!, 2003) (download):
