Madness and witchery as well as bestiality are conditions commonly associated with the use of the female voice in public, in ancient as well as modern contexts. Consider how many female celebrities of classical mythology, literature, and cult make themselves objectionable by the way they use their voice. For example there is the heartchilling groan of the Gorgon, whose name is derived from a Sanskrit word garg meaning "a guttural animal howl that issues as a great wind from the back of the throat through a hugely distended mouth." (8)
There are the Furies whose highpitched and horrendous voices are compared by Aiskhylos to howling dogs or sounds of people being tortured in hell (Eumenides).(9) There is the deadly voice of the Sirens and the dangerous ventriloquism of Helen (Odyssey) (10) and the incredible babbling of Kassandra (Aiskhylos, Agamemnon) (11) and the fearsome hullabaloo of Artemis as she charges through the woods (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite). (12) There is the seductive discourse of Aphrodite which is so concrete an aspect of her power that she can wear it on her belt as a physical object or lend it to other women (Iliad).(13) There is the old woman of Eleusinian legend Iambe who shrinks obscenities and throws her skirt up over her head to expose her genitalia.(14)
There is the haunting garrulity of the nymph Echo (daughter of Iambe in Athenian legend) who is described by Sophokles as “the girl with no door on her mouth” (Philoktetes) (15) Putting a door on the female mouth has been an important project of patriarchal culture from antiquity to the present day. Its chief tactic is an ideological association of female sound with monstrosity, disorder, and death.

— Anne Carson, The Gender of Sound

So many of us have felt that we could win male love by showing we were willing to bear the pain, that we were willing to live our lives affirming that the maleness deemed truly manly because it withholds, withdraws, refuses is the maleness we desire. We learn to love men more because they will not love us. If they dared to love us, in patriarchal culture they would cease to be real “men.”

There is only one emotion that patriarchy values when expressed by men; that emotion is anger. Real men get mad.

― bell hooks, The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

Track Listing:

Mavis Staples - The Chokin’ Kind
Young Marble Giants - Credit in the Straight World
Norma Tanega - Treat Me Right
Aretha Franklin - Good to Me as I Am to You
Pylon - Working Is No Problem
The Cranberries - Pretty
Bratmobile - Bitch Theme
Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground
Lil’ Kim - Not Tonight
Blonde Redhead - Hated Because of Great Qualities
Björk - Isobel
Mr. Airplane Man - Commit a Crime
Hole - Violet
Krimewatch - No Sympathy
G.L.O.S.S. - Lined Lips and Spiked Bats
Tori Amos - Pancake
Neko Case - Winnie
Sheryl Crow - A Change Would Do You Good
Lisa Loeb - Furious Rose
PJ Harvey - Dress
Ms. Lauryn Hill - Lost Ones
Cat Power - Nude As the News
Garbage - Stupid Girl
Fiona Apple - Letter From an Unknown Girlfriend
Karen Dalton - Katie Cruel
Joan Baez - Silver Dagger
Jessica Pratt - Empires Never Know
Liz Phair - Mesmerizing
Pretenders - Precious
Girlschool - Nothing to Lose
Quay Dash - U.A.F.W.M.
Bikini Kill - Don’t Need You
The Space Lady - Major Tom
Portishead - We Carry On
Nina Simone - Ain’t Got No / I Got Life

Justice is Woman with a Sword

Two Winters Long