No women on stage, please…
So, one of the boys who I did geology with has a blog. Really, I should have known better than to read it. Seeing as how we once had a heated debate on whether or not women were inherently more emotional than men, it was inevitable that something should piss me off.
So, in his latest entry, he starts off talking about bands, and the nature of hit singles. Which would be all very well, except that he has to go and say this:
In a recording studio though, or just a jamming jive session, and the men are playing their instruments and making the beats together just so. And then the observing crowds of women are in moving agreement that it is a good song being played and that they are hearing.
Because bands are only ever made up of men. Us ladies just have to stay in the audience and worship. God forbid a woman should pick up a guitar, or play the piano, or ever try and create anything. No, that never happens.
And why is it only women listening to the music? If only! Then I wouldn’t have to get annoyed at tall guys who stand in front of you and get in your space. But funnily enough, heterosexual men are quite happy to listen to music created by other men. Sometimes they even dance.
The perceived musician-audience divide is pity enough without having to go and gender it. It seems to me that in doing so, you’re reducing music to a matter of courtship. The men are showing off their skills, and the women are judging them on it. And this wonderful, transcendent-immanent thing called music is reduced to being all about sex.
Sure, I appreciate it when a band has cute guys in it. I also appreciate seeing awesome women up on the stage, and funnily enough I appreciate music even when I don’t find any of the band members attractive, I appreciate it when I have no idea who they are, and I don’t care. It’s the music that moves me, not the musician.
Speaking of that non-existent entity, the female musician, Amanda Palmer played Wellington last night. It was awesome, and she totally wins at everything. But I think that will have to be another post in itself.
Isobel said,
March 24, 2009 @ 3:54 am
As co-writer of this blog I should comment.
Oh, gender in music! What a nasty can of worms! My sister (who plays in a band with two other girls, who are good, thank you) and I have had many talks about this.
But yes it’s true about being unattractive! I went to see some bands one night in Santa Barbara, and the first two bands were all very good looking guys, and they were OK. I realise a few years back I probably would have gone crazy over them. But really their music was nothing special. Then the last band gets up, Steven Steinbrink or the French Quarter (http://www.myspace.com/frenchquartermusic) and they are from Arizona and look nothing like the others. If I am honest, they look like the kids no one talks to in school next to the checked shirted sexiness of the previous acts. Steven himself bears a stunning likeness to Truman Capote. But the music they make is fantastic. The beautiful melodies have me spellbound, and I am desperate for an encore. I would travel a long way to see them again (am thinking of doing so in Arizona). So there you are.
The Eleventh Down Under Feminists’ Carnival « WhyI’mbitter’s Weblog said,
April 6, 2009 @ 10:26 am
[...] discusses the mythical existence of a female musician in No women on stage, please… at Much Better Sundays and Audrey is pissed off (you should be too!) about the depiction of a [...]
Helen said,
April 6, 2009 @ 6:08 pm
The perceived musician-audience divide is pity enough without having to go and gender it. It seems to me that in doing so, you’re reducing music to a matter of courtship. The men are showing off their skills, and the women are judging them on it. And this wonderful, transcendent-immanent thing called music is reduced to being all about sex.
Spot on.