"Don't get me wrong, I've seen some very excellent women musicians"
About this Quote
"Don't get me wrong" is the tell: the pre-apology that admits the speaker is about to step on a cultural landmine. Coming from Lita Ford - a guitarist who survived the '70s/'80s hard-rock machine and the boys-club gatekeeping that came with it - the line reads less like casual sexism than a defensive maneuver in a rigged conversation. She knows the default setting in rock has long been that "musician" means "man", and "women musicians" are treated as an exception category that must be justified, praised, or dismissed.
The phrase "some very excellent" does double work. On the surface, it's a compliment. Underneath, it accepts the stacked deck: excellence becomes noteworthy because it's unexpected. It's the language of the bouncer, not the bandmate - the subtle authority to grant entry. Even when the intent is supportive, the structure keeps women in the position of proving they're real, while men get presumed competence until they fail.
Ford's context matters. As one of the few prominent women shredders in mainstream metal, she's been forced into spokesperson duty, asked to explain women in music as if they're a genre. This line suggests fatigue with that role and an awareness that praise can sound like patronizing surprise. It's also a snapshot of an era when "women can play" was still framed as a debate, and even allies learned to speak with qualifiers. The quote is less about her opinion of female musicians than about the rhetorical hoops women were made to jump through - and the awkward, human ways survivors of that system sometimes reproduce its terms while trying to resist it.
The phrase "some very excellent" does double work. On the surface, it's a compliment. Underneath, it accepts the stacked deck: excellence becomes noteworthy because it's unexpected. It's the language of the bouncer, not the bandmate - the subtle authority to grant entry. Even when the intent is supportive, the structure keeps women in the position of proving they're real, while men get presumed competence until they fail.
Ford's context matters. As one of the few prominent women shredders in mainstream metal, she's been forced into spokesperson duty, asked to explain women in music as if they're a genre. This line suggests fatigue with that role and an awareness that praise can sound like patronizing surprise. It's also a snapshot of an era when "women can play" was still framed as a debate, and even allies learned to speak with qualifiers. The quote is less about her opinion of female musicians than about the rhetorical hoops women were made to jump through - and the awkward, human ways survivors of that system sometimes reproduce its terms while trying to resist it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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