From The Backyard Of The Arousal Industry Summary

In the memoir From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry, Justin Pearson sheds light on how society functions according to gender inequalities. In simple words, men are superior to women in a patriarchal society. This means that men possess more authority and power in comparison to women. The memoir explores a punk subculture, and pays particular attention to the ways in which it reinforces ideas of societal norms of male superiority. Moreover, it addresses these societal norms by highlighting the actions of woman in a punk society as references. Although many are eager to achieve equality in society through the ideology of feminism, they prevent themselves from speaking up, further emphasizing inequality between the genders. Feminism “examines

However, in this particular punk subculture women treated differently was very visible. Women were prize possessions; they were used to show off by men to others that they had a girl. Lahickey mentioned “girls were always the supporting cast, never the stars” (112). If a female were in a band with males, she would not get the same respect a male band partner would. This is due to the male dominance in the punk culture that overpowers females. Studies on women in a music subculture have highlighted the ways “ women exist in these worlds while never collectively reaching the degree and depth of participation by men” (Mullaney 387). Women are treated poorly, they are always assumed to be someone’s girlfriend, never as an equal band participant. Men were not respectful towards women and thought of them as irrelevant. In From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry Joey, a band member of Pearson’s at that time spat at a girl in the crowd (Pearson 120). Spitting in general is considered disrespectful due to the mere cultivation of ethics made by society over the progression of civilization (regardless of genders). It was particularly rude in this case, although the girl was wrong for yelling at them when in reality her boyfriend was the cause of the fight. However, instead of spitting on her, Joey could have politely asked her to stop, while taking into

They have to uphold theses ‘punk’ appearances in order to fit into the crowd. Body tattoos and piercings were common in the punk scene, which could be a representation of rejection towards social norms and expectations. Furthermore, “as many women struggle to overcome notions of passivity, compliance and naivety, for some, tattoos, piercings and wearing non-traditional clothing may signify resistance to these stereotypical or ‘natural’ notions of femininity” (Griffin 69). However, in Pearson’s memoir, Jesse, his ex-girlfriend, is a perfect representation of a woman changing in order to fit in a punk society. She broke up with Pearson because she believed that he “didn’t like her as a person and thought that [Pearson] didn’t care about her” (Pearson 50). The reason behind this is that during that time, Pearson was very focused on his music, which as a result took up all of his attention leaving none left for her, this caused Jesse to change. After the break-up she began to hang out with a different local rock band, “who had no respect for girls, or themselves” (Pearson 51). This band intrigued Jesse because they gave her the attention she deliberately wanted from Pearson but never got. Her interest in the ‘punk’ society, lead her to suppress her true feelings just to feel accepted. Although she was never fully accepted in this new band, she was