St. Vincent's 'Guitar World' cover is a sly nod to the magazine's sexist history
St. Vincent forgives, but she does not forget.
The Grammy-winning musician called out sexist guitar magazines while appearing for the first time on the cover of Guitar World.
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Image: guitar world
St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, widely considered to be one of the greatest modern guitarists, takes the magazine to task inside the issue, too.
“I did a quick Google search of women on the cover, and all I really saw was girls in bikinis holding guitars like they’ve never held a guitar before," Clark tells the magazine in the January 2017 issue. "I started thinking about that and just wanted to make my own absurdist comment on it. I couldn’t really let it slide without poking a bit of fun and taking the piss a little!”
Guitar magazines rarely put women on the cover unless they're bikini models.
Props to St. Vincent for rubbing Guitar World's face in it. pic.twitter.com/ONDOr0SzxP— Russ Bynum (@russbynum) December 17, 2016
Earlier this year, NewBay Media LLC, which publishes Guitar World and several other magazines about guitars, vowed to end the practice of having scantily clad women pose with guitars in lieu of featuring actual female musicians.
“The main driver of this decision was economic, but bikini models were outdated, and we didn’t want to associate the brand with what could easily be viewed as sexist, as a misrepresentation of women guitar players, or that women in general may find offensive," Bill Amstutz, VP and general manager of the music group, told Reverb in March.
Guitar World didn't feature any women on its cover this year — their last female cover star was Joan Jett for the May 2015 issue.
Earlier this year she teamed up with Ernie Ball to design a guitar specifically for the female form because boobs can get in the way when you're, you know, actually playing the guitar — as Guitar World is finally learning in 2016.
H/T The Cut
