At first listen, a song with violent and sexual imagery seems like an unlikely anthem for women who dressed up to see the Barbie movie. But many on TikTok are claiming Custer, by the nu metal band Slipknot, as a feminist anthem.
In TikTok videos, “girly pop” creators who celebrate dressing up, doing their makeup, and enjoying the fluffiness of girlhood are twerking along to the loud and aggressive metal track.
The videos are part thirst trap, part protest, as the women move provocatively to the music. Videos that use the song have been viewed over 94m times on TikTok, and the new popularity has hit Spotify, too, where Custer has over 166m streams, making it one of the band’s five most-played tracks.
Mash-up videos pair the song with the Macarena, or Barbie Girl, Aqua’s 1997 dance-pop hit, to add to the girlish irreverence. Nu metal may have long been associated with lonely young white men, but these songs of alienation and depression have since become beloved by gen Z fans of all kinds.
“We’ve been called ‘posers’, ‘pick me’s’, ‘thots’ and ‘hoes’,” Blossom and Nela, the two sisters who make up the Miami-based indie band ELAZ, told the Guardian. “Women who present themselves in a hyper-feminine manner while enjoying alternative music are often targeted with hate.”
So in March, the sisters danced around their practice space while blasting the song Custer, their moves less moshing and more Miley Cyrus. It was a message to male gatekeepers that they posted on TikTok: girls can like Slipknot, too.
“Given the current climate of incels and the manosphere, we thought that dancing femininely to a metal song was the most ‘metal’ thing we could do,” the pair wrote in an email interview.
In a caption to the video, the sisters wrote “Slipknot is so girly pop, omg,” referencing gen Z parlance for people who enjoy the performance of hyper-femininity. (Ten years ago, the girly pops might have been called “basic”.)
The sisters did not invent the TikTok trend – women have been dancing to Slipknot on the app for about a year – but their video inspired others to follow suit.
“I love the Custer meme because for me, it’s a way at hitting back at all the negative comments of ‘you can’t like heavy music because you look too girly’,” Katie Pepper, a 24-year-old from north-west England, said. “This trend proves that music is for everyone, no matter what you look, dress, or even dance like.”
This summer, Pepper posted a video taken in her bedroom while dancing to a Custer/Barbie mashup. She wore her long blonde hair in curls that matched the doll’s ubiquitous waves, pairing her pink denim skirt with a black top and chain belt.
“You’ll definitely catch me going to a Slipknot concert in a pink mini skirt,” Pepper added. “This trend has proven that a lot of us who don’t fit the usual stereotype listen to Slipknot.”
Kyra Robinson, a 23-year-old from Newcastle, UK, loves metal shows. She’s usually found moshing in the pit. While watching Slipknot headline this year’s Download festival, Robinson and friends found themselves further back in the crowd. They had room to film a dance video, so the three women threw their hands in the air, swaying their hips side to side with the beat. Robinson later posted a TikTok with the song playing over their moves.
“To me, this dance is just fun,” Robinson said. “We aren’t any less fans for doing a silly dance. We want to show people this band and invite them to what hopefully will one day be a welcoming community.”
Gen Z’s Slipknot rebrand comes as a surprising redemption story for the band. In 2013, NME called nu metal the worst genre of all time. “Try listening to Slipknot these days without vomiting,” wrote Lucy Jones.
Slipknot drew more serious attention after its songs were connected to real-world acts of violence. In 2003, two young killers from California stabbed their friend 20 times while singing violent lyrics from their track Disasterpiece.
Five years later, a samurai sword-wielding high school student in South Africa killed a pupil and seriously injured three others while wearing a mask inspired by the band.
All of the women who spoke to the Guardian said that the harassment they had faced from misogynistic Slipknot fans was outweighed by the support they had received from their fellow girly pops.
“I think it’s really important for the younger girls in the community to see that we can have a good time and ignore the hate,” Robinson said. “It will help people flourish in the scene even though the hate is hard to deal with.”
Does Slipknot know about this? The band did not respond for a request for comment. The sisters who make up the band ELAZ have not heard directly from Slipknot, though a follower told them that the lead singer’s son, Griffin Taylor, had reposted one of their videos.
“While it would have been great to hear from Slipknot, they are massive rockstars and probably do not even spend a minute of their day on TikTok,” the sisters wrote.
The sisters say what matters more is the amount of women who are making their own TikToks and feel free to express themselves. As they put it: “It’s important for girls and women to feel seen in the metal scene so that they can fully embrace their love for the music without feeling like outsiders.”
• This article was amended on 18 September 2023 to remove an incorrect reference that Slipknot did not play Custer at this year’s Download festival.
