American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers made her Saturday Night Live debut performing her tracks "Kyoto" and "I Know The End" from her album Punisher.
Backed by her band, the singer took to the stage twice with a particularly impassioned second performance that has got people talking.
Towards the end of the song, the performance became especially intense with Bridgers screaming and taking off her guitar to smash it against a speaker.
Some took it as a chance to voice sexist views about a woman smashing a guitar on stage – something that has been done by male rock musicians for decades. But fans came to the singer's defence calling out the sexist backlash.
One Twitter user wrote: "Why did this woman, Phoebe Bridgers, destroy her guitar on SNL?", to which another user replied: “It really does come across as misogynistic when it’s basically just hating when a woman does something that tons of men have consistently done with cheers, not just even in the far past.”
@MaraWilson @mmpadellan It really does come across as misogynistic when it’s basically just hating when a woman doe… https://t.co/Xg6Zl256Qk— Kat andromeda (@Kat andromeda) 1612685734
This outrage at Phoebe Bridgers smashing a guitar is sexist as shit. You don’t care about the guitar, no one does, shut the fuck up— Andy Cizek (@Andy Cizek) 1612740758
As well as calling out the double standard of a woman doing something that men have done throughout musical history, others found it ironic that people who grew up in the era of bands like The Who and The Clash, who have all smashed instruments, were now disapproving of Bridgers for doing the exact same thing.
@theneedledrop @mmpadellan Imagine the generation that grew up with “my generation” by The Who complaining about a… https://t.co/psmqyWSQzV— Wagon (@Wagon) 1612732305
Some seemed genuinely confused as to how the act provoked so much discussion
if phoebe bridgers lightly denting a cheap guitar on SNL can provoke this level of discourse, we absolutely need to… https://t.co/A7Oy79X4eR— carl 🥦 (@carl 🥦) 1612728823
It's safe to say the overwhelming majority loved it.
me watching phoebe bridgers destroy her guitar #SNL https://t.co/oPYUbqLJ1f— kathleen (@kathleen) 1612677329
You do you, Phoebe.
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