Klarinet Archive - Posting 000053.txt from 1995/08

From: David Gilman <dagilman@-----.EDU>
Subj: The Effeminate Clarinet
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 18:16:05 -0400

Just a few thoughts on this fascinating subject.... When I started music in
elementary school (mid-1970's) the distribution was like this: The brass
players were all boys, except for one or two girls on trumpet and one or two
on French horn. The sax players were all male, and the flutists all female.
The clarinet players were mostly girls, maybe 70%. The drummers were all
boys. A few years later, I started seeing a few more girls in the brass
section, on all the instruments. But essentially no boys on flute. [We
didn't have a string program.]

Today, that still is not changing. As far as I can tell, clarinet is still
perfectly acceptable for either sex. Girls have more freedom to choose what
to play than 20 years ago. This is true of sports as well. There were
practically no girls in our little league then, but there are many now.
Boys, however, are still locked into the same old stereotypes.

Like it or not, macho culture and all the insecurities that accompany it
are not going anywhere. The best we can do is to teach our children the
self-respect and independence of mind that they may do what they want to
without fear of the small minded.

Thanks for reading. My soapbox is about to cave in.

David Gilman