Activism Piece
Why Female Musicians should be able to ‘Wear Whatever the fuck they want’
Izzy Bee Phillips of indie-pop band ‘Black Honey’ talks about everything from platform heels and power dressing to misogyny in the music industry and why we should celebrate women rather than criticise them.25th April 2024
© Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Global Citizen
At first glance this snapshot of Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran performing at Global Citizen Festival in 2015 is seemingly unremarkable. Both singers look like their usual selves while performing a duet of ‘Drunk In Love’ accompanied by Sheeran on the guitar. Beyoncé is wearing a shimmery, skin-tight bodysuit paired with latex over-the-knee heeled boots and dimanté encrusted shnet tights. Ed Sheeran? Black jeans, a plaid-print shirt and his trademark mop of ginger hair. How does this image depict standards of dressing for men and women in music and what does it indicate about the wider issues of gender inequality in the music industry?
Almost a decade later many mainstream female musicians continue to dress up when performing on stage, often in revealing outfits or with an army of back-up dancers. What is concerning about this though is there seems to be a signicant majority of female musicians doing this, while for the male musicians it's an option that the minority choose. By now misogyny in music should be a thing of the past, but the ‘male gaze’ still seems to be at the very centre of the music industry from record labels to talent recognition. A 2022 study by the University of Southern California found women make up only 2.8% of music producers of 1000 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart. Additionally in 2022, a UK Parliament report discovered that ‘women represent less than a third of top-selling artists in music and only 14% of songwriters’.
So why is there such an enormous gender imbalance in the music industry? Is fashion a form of powerful feminine expression or is it the male gaze manipulating the success of women? Or is it both, is it even possible to draw a line between freedom of expression and the subconscious male gaze?
Izzy Bee Phillips wearing the Vespertine’s Lomond Blouse on stage in London. © Rosie Carne/VespertineLondon Instagram, 2024
‘I think that there are probably more women who dress up than not and I think that it's important to identify that this is a reection of the beauty standards by which society has placed on women’ describes Izzy Bee Phillips, the lead singer/songwriter of Brighton based band ‘Black Honey’. With over 165,000 monthly Spotify listeners, ‘Black Honey’ is described as ‘visceral indie and nostalgia-soaked pop’ on Spotify and they have supported musicians like Liam Gallagher, The Libertines and The Vaccines. Izzy explains that,
‘most women who are dressing up in more dressed up outfits, are doing it because historically the power that women have gleaned is through beauty, image and standards, because our worth is being held to our image’.
Many mainstream female artists are seen on stage or in music videos wearing mini skirts, bejewelled bodysuits, fishnet tights, platform heels, bikini tops, the list goes on. This in itself is not problematic like Izzy says, ‘a woman using what power she does have, be it her sexuality, her body or her image, to grow her work and explore herself in the most powerful way she can - for me that’s the answer’. But also it can’t just be that and women should be able to wear, in Izzy’s words, ‘whatever the fuck you want’ and still be successful regardless of how they dress.
When accepting the title Woman of the Year at Billboard’s Women in Music Awards 2016, Madonna said ‘if you're a girl, you have to play the game...You're allowed to be pretty and cute and sexy, but don't act too smart. Don't have an opinion. Don't have an opinion that is out of line with the status quo, at least. You're allowed to be objectied by men, and dressed like a slut, but don't own your sluttiness’. Not only does she explain the diculty of music dressing for women in the industry, but she also continues in her speech to highlight the fact men have the freedom of choice that women don’t. Women are often ‘coerced, persuaded, or pressured into their promiscuous personas to project a specic image, reach a particular demographic, or in simple adherence to the mantra ‘sex sells’’, says Lucy Garretson in an article for Laurel Anne Media, 2023.
A survey by the Music Producers Guild found that 94% of female respondents said they had either ‘witnessed or had sexist comments directed at them’ when working in the music industry. Izzy describes facing ‘fucking so much sexism’ when dealing with record labels, specically she says ‘I had a major label not sign me because they told me that I was unstable when I can think of many artists historically that are unstable, that are men, that have still been signed’.
‘I was told by a woman in the music industry that I should always wear platform heels because my legs are so short. Later I was told by a man that when I took my platform heels off that he found me less intimidating. So then obviously I just wanted to wear my platform heels all the time because it made me feel more powerful.’
This shows just how intertwined the male gaze, despite being voiced by a woman in this scenario, is with female power dressing. As Katy Close, the founder and fashion designer behind fashion label Vespertine, says ‘Izzy is such a powerhouse on stage with an incredible presence and voice’. Izzy often wears Vespertine’s blouses when performing on stage as Vespertine is all about ‘the fusion between music culture and fashion’. So why should she need to wear certain things to feel more powerful and compete with the men?
Katy Close’s label Vespertine is a favourite for many musicians from the likes of Miles Kane and Nick Allbrook to the incredible Izzy Bee Phillips. She describes ‘seeing your design on your favourite musicians is exciting’ and that ‘we all know how tough the music industry is for young artists so for us (Vespertine) to be able to lend or gift products works well’. Katy saw Izzy play with Black Honey at the Kentish Town forum in London wearing Vespertine’s ‘Lomond Blouse’, she explains ‘the Lomond is made for the stage, the way the sleeves bounced as she moved, she looked so cool’. The ultimate for Katy though is ‘knowing musicians want to wear your brand makes it even more special’ and describes Izzy performing in her music-inspired designs ‘a great Vespertine moment’.
Izzy concludes the conversation saying ‘I think we need to celebrate all women no matter what their choices are’ simply because in most industries women are still being criticised for whatever they choose to wear. But the discussion mustn't end here because it is ‘a cultural worldwide problem of beauty standards and the male gaze as a general phenomenon’ as Izzy explains. The question is how do we make a change?