Record stores can be great places, filled with a sense of pride and community when you support them. Unfortunately, they can also be a dinosaur museum for backwards thought with old fossil dudes running things. Thankfully, there are rockers like Kate Nash who are ready to shut this sh*t down when they see it. The “Good Summer” singer visited a local record shop in the UK and was dismayed to find that her record wouldn’t be filed under the “Rock” or “Indie” sections, but rather “Females of All Description.”
This kinda shit drives me insane. The genre 'females of all description' is not a music genre. It's sexist pic.twitter.com/3u0FGCQIbM
— Kate Nash (@katenash) August 29, 2016
As you can imagine, that’s just not gonna fly. And Kate let everyone know that.
There would never be a "males of all description" section. Because the rest of the shop and all other music genres are considered male
— Kate Nash (@katenash) August 29, 2016
It's a reminder to me that most ppl don't even know they are sexist. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Female is not a genre
— Kate Nash (@katenash) August 29, 2016
Don't categorize my sex #femalesofalldescription
— Kate Nash (@katenash) August 29, 2016
For all the trouble that record stores have, why would they aim to alienate half of their potential clientele? MusicWatch says that as of 2015, 44% of vinyl purchasers are women. It stands to reason that if you want to stay afloat, it’s probably worth not sectioning off their output in such a strange way.
While Nash didn’t call out the store by name — she spared them the embarrassment — hopefully this can be a quick lesson to any shop owner: Treat all your customers equally. Or you know, go out of business, either or works, really.
