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Side Ponytail (music blog)

'Woman' is not a genre of music: de-novelizing the female musician

garconniere:

rebelrebelbatcat:

Relevant to my life.

THAAAAAAANK YOU

I feel like my thoughts on this walk a fine, yet confusing, line. I mean, when I read stuff like, “So should we never speak about ‘women in music’? Rather, let’s speak about music. Let’s discuss talented artists and bands that are impressive because of what they’re doing, not because a woman is involved” (quoted from the article linked above.) I have knee-jerk reaction of “Ugh!” because, honestly, as enticing as a gender-blind world of music criticism where no one ever talks about how beautiful Annie Clark is in conjunction with a review of her latest album, I also have to say as a girl learning (always with the learning!) to play the guitar, it has been helpful and inspiring to me when women in music are highlighted. As much as I harp on riot grrrl, I think it’s important to remember that bands like Bikini Kill invited women to the front of the crowd not just so they could reclaim that space, but so that women could see other women up on stage ACTUALLY PLAYING INSTRUMENTS. In a world where people, oftentimes women, are told, “You can’t do this” — and sometimes it doesn’t sound like “You can’t do this,” but instead like, “Don’t girls usually play the bass?” or “Is that your boyfriend’s guitar?” or “Do you even know how to change the fuse in that amp?” it can be helpful and empowering to know that other women are out there doing the same thing & doing it well & to their own satisfaction.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate crappy “women in music” journalism too, but I do think it’s important to talk about the fact that women make music — especially because they often face a different set of barriers than men do. I just think we need to change the way that we talk about women who make music.

(Source: guccigoth)

  1. okorogariist reblogged this from loveyourchaos
  2. cathodenarcissus reblogged this from lookuplookup and added:
    Very interesting article, and a good point. It reminds me of the very strange thing that happened about two years ago...
  3. theoreticalgirl reblogged this from lookuplookup and added:
    It boils down to gender visibility, which matters more than ever (I think). Talking about musicianship and all that it...
  4. pushinghoopswithsticks reblogged this from duhdoydorothy
  5. uberhipster reblogged this from lookuplookup and added:
    I’m a male guitar player and I have no fucking clue how to repair and/or maintain an amp.
  6. beetroots reblogged this from garconniere and added:
    HOESNTLY i wrote an essay sort of like this in high school. so tired of getting gendered when i play music.
  7. sovegnavos reblogged this from garconniere and added:
    i guess this is semi related, but it reminded me of this: whenever there is a book about...
  8. lookuplookup reblogged this from garconniere and added:
    I feel like my thoughts on this walk a fine, yet confusing, line. I mean, when I read stuff like, “So should we never...
  9. duhdoydorothy reblogged this from garconniere
  10. sociolab reblogged this from goodreasonnews
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  12. goodreasonnews reblogged this from popmuzik
  13. popmuzik reblogged this from loveyourchaos
  14. seanaf reblogged this from loveyourchaos and added:
    I wrote a whole rant but then deleted it because I’m pretty sure it was incoherent. this article is good. Last year...
  15. birdonwing reblogged this from guccigoth
  16. backwardsnforwards reblogged this from loveyourchaos
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