Dancer From Mastodon’s ‘The Motherload’ Video Defends Band Against Sexism Claims

Earlier this week, Mastodon released a bizarre and highly entertaining video for 'The Motherload,' complete with an army of twerking dancers. While the video may have playful intensions, The Guardian quickly published a piece criticizing Mastodon for what the author saw as a sexist ploy. However, one of the dancers featured in video for 'The Motherload' has just posted a lengthy defense of the metal band.

'The Motherload' pokes fun at both artsy rock and metal music videos and cookie-cutter rap videos, melding the two worlds together for a five-minute serving of absurdism. "We wanted to make sure that the women that were there were in charge and that they were having fun," drummer / vocalist Brann Dailor explained to Pitchfork. "They made the video what it is. If it wasn’t for them and their talent and going out and doing flips and splits and just bringing it, it wouldn’t be great."

Dailor went on to admit that he was "really upset" by The Guardian's "sexist" labeling, suggesting that viewers not take the video so seriously.

Two days after Dailor's interview went public, a 'Motherload' dancer by the name of Jade defended Mastodon in a Tumblr post titled, 'Mastodon 'The Motherload' and the Only Opinion That Counts':

This week has been an interesting one. At the end of August, I danced with some friends for Mastodon’s new video, “The Motherload”. We were stoked about it. Twerking in a metal video?! Unheard of! We came from varying backgrounds, classical dancers, pole dancers, strippers all nervously waiting in the common area wondering how we’d all fit in. Well that was a piece of cake. As soon as the music played, we felt jazzed—in fact, they asked us if we’d prefer to dance to some hip-hop instead and then they’d remove the sound and add their track. We declined. We all waited patiently by our machines for weeks, waiting for the video to drop. It dropped Monday.

Within minutes of the video dropping, there was a serious backlash. While most people seemed to “get” the band’s shout out to their hometown, Atlanta, others called it racist and sexist. Some people even called us dirty niggers and whores. Funny, the most sexist and racist sentiments came not from filming the actual video, but from a subset of metal fans who thought we simply didn’t belong. If anything, the video shoot was welcoming, the band clever and pleasant, and the girls bonded almost the second the music dropped. Much like the band, we weren’t concerned with thin, knee-jerk reactions to asses and twerking.

We came across from different walks of life. Real deal ATL strippers joked with me—I’m a pole dance student with a background in African American literature and cultural theory, while my ballet dancer friend laughed with the other ladies, doing pirouettes in between takes. If you read the interview in which the band says that we were having fun with each other and not for the male gaze, you should know he was totally right. My other friend who is the best conglomeration of every dancer there—pole dancer, stripper, PhD in women’s lit and African American lit focus, and a dance instructor—could be the poster child of what this was. Women having fun with each other. Praising each other.  A glimpse into what we do and that we are bigger than what we do.

One of the reasons this video, for me, is garnering so much attention is that truly the women are not just asses—and there are a lot of fantastic asses in the building—but shown as 3D people, which scares folk. Another is the concern for cultural appropriation. From us and from them. The fear of metal being “tainted”, the fear of the band using a dance form associated with black culture for their own gain. These fears boil down into my one response: we all belong. This band made it such that by the time the shoot was over, we all went home and got the track. (I’m playing it on the jukebox at my local bar as I write.) This video wasn’t a spoof or mocking or satire, in my opinion. The guys are ATL homegrown. As much as metal is in their bones, so is trap music, so is Old Fourth Ward, so is Magic City. They repped Georgia not out of exploitation, but because it resonates with them and is a part of them. This video proves that metal can reach out and can be reached out to without parody, without hierarchy, and it is a good thing.

Ask us if it was racist or sexist. We were the ones right there experiencing it. I’ll tell you from my view: no.

Best,

Jade

Beginning Oct. 15 in Boise, Idaho, Mastodon will once again tour the U.S. with Gojira and Kvelertak for a short run of dates. For the full list of shows, click here.