Avril Lavigne keeps landing those magazine covers. And they keep placing her at the forefront of the vague Anti-Britney movement. Of course, this is nothing more than Women & Songs Volume 7: The Teenage Years. Music fans, not to mention all free-thinking women, should be deeply insulted every time such things happen.

Consider these comments my tribute to International Women's day. The music industry seems to run through cycles where they come to the startling (to them), overtly sexist revelation that women are capable of writing and performing songs just like men, manufacture a bogus musical womens movement in a blatant attempt to shift product, and then forget it all. Lather, rinse, repeat five years later.

In most industries, once something different "breaks through", it ceases to become novel and is subsequently a non-issue. Take the NFL. Stereotypes have long persisted about certain positions. So, when black quarterbacks began making a splash in the league, their race was a notable facet of their performance. Now, there are many excellent black quarterbacks, and despite the position still being dominated by whites, it was no longer a race issue when, say, Michael Vick started making the highlight reels. He's not considered a distinguished black quarterback, he's just a distinguished quarterback.

Women have been a dominant songwriting force in popular music for decades, yet they're constantly pigeonholed into some stupidly named breakthrough movement and treated like novelty items, i.e. "lookie here, that Avril babe it cute and she can write a song unlike that Barbie doll Britney, well ain't that the darndest thing", until the movement dies just like any other movement and they're forced to prove themselves yet again.