Rock out with your whatever out

When it comes to guitars, I'm what you would call a "looker", as in I Like To Look, and "Looky, what a cool guitar". When I get the gumption once a few decades, I might even spring for one, which is what I did just yesterday for a bass. I'm not gonna talk about the bass because then it'll get ugly with me and you guitar enthusiast types out there. Yeah, if I had $2500 I'd get a Rickenbacker bass, which would mean I probably had another $2500 somewhere and I'd have to have two Rics then. Well, I don't have that kind of scratch so I got something new but affordable. In my travels around the internet browsing and gazing at guitars recently though, the proliferation of the Girly Guitar has officially saturated the Guitar Dewd Marts around the country. With brands like Luna, Daisy Rock, and the Les Paul Goddess the ladies now have the option of specially-sized and brightly colored axes to play. This apparently now raises new dialogue about our die-hard perceptions of The Rocker and the esthetic of the guitar to the body.

Let's face it, we have an archetype here. The Rocker is the one onstage with The Biggest Dick, and he  knows exactly what to do with it. Which is not to say a woman can't have a The Biggest Dick. Look no further than Joan Jett, Lita Ford or The Great Kat, to name a few just in the mainstream -- all temendous players who have flipped the archetype to their advantage and are accepted as formidable Rockers. The guitar in their case, though is still A Dick. Now that female consumers can opt for the cute and cuddly guitars, we're now forced to re-think exactly what the hell that shiny pink object with hearts, flowers and Hello Kitty emblems atop the pelvis is exactly, and how the hell is it going to be swung? If a Fender Strat is a phallis, then a Fender Hello Kitty for girls is what?....a Hello Kitty vibrator? Come to think of it, these new estrogen-driven guitars more resemble sex toys than the Real Thing. Talk about your Girl Power, yow!

Comments

[Krys_O.]

I'm not a guitarist nor do I play one on TV but I do admire Sister Rosetta Tharpe's axes.

Here


And here


Oh! And here too.

[Scott M.]

Reminds me of this vid on guitar and "the politics of wankery":

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WInKHEhRrvM

[Stewart]

See, I'm a dude, and I would totally play a Hello Kitty Strat. The pink one, not the black one.

And I would Rock. I might even go so far as to Rawk.

[citykitty888]

I know a dude who rocks a pink Hello Kitty Strat, at least occasionally. He is muy popular with the ladies, I might add. Jam out with your clam out!

[Pseu Braun]

Thanks, you guys for reminding me of a lost thought as I was posting -- Hot guys (or an ARMY of hot guys) rawking chick-centric guitars would be totally be-yond for me...

[Fatherflot]

The Dutchess didn't need so special girly guitar. Look at her work that man-sized, space-age Gretsch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ixaXBWtyc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBAJXyF1HVc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs8FJergjas

[Rufus J Squirrel]

Wata from Boris don't need no girly shit.

[reverto]

The Great Kat... "mainstream"?

I happen to have been sent a DVD of her's (the cover of the one pictured in your post) when I had one of those jobs where you get sent a bunch of free DVDs (you know the ones) and my copy of "Extreme Guitar Shred" is a precious jewel to me.

But it's only because of its pure outsider brilliance.

Zapateado!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KgRFAksJb8

[Todd Frye]

Eddie Van Halen's Wolfgang guitars (one of which you show him playing above) is a relatively smaller guitar that may be a nice alternative for most women. I own one, and it's a fantastic guitar, very well designed.

[Wendy del Formaggio]

Lest we forget the immor(t)al words of one Mister Henry Rollins:

KIRA'S GOT THE 10-AND-A-HALF!!!