Klarinet Archive - Posting 000036.txt from 1999/02

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Women and orchestras
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 19:53:46 -0500

I was most interested in "The Women's Philharmonic makes a joyful noise" by
the Mercury News Popular Culture Writer, Mike Antonucci, who wrote,
>>They dream of creating memorable music, launching female virtuosos
to stardom and, with a little luck, knocking some of the smugness
out of their male-dominated industry.>>

>>But even more, they dream of remaking the world so that nobody
tells little girls -- not ever -- that playing the drums is for
boys.>>

>>Build a symphony, change the world. It's that basic -- and that
ambitious, as it has been throughout the San Francisco
organization's 19-year history.>>

I'm 50 and grew up all too familiar with sexism in music, so those goals sound
good to me. As a kid, I only needed one finger to count the women conductors
with serious international reputations: Nadia Boulanger, whom Harold C.
Schonberg dismissed in one sentence in _The Great Conductors_ (1966), although
at least he didn't say, as several other music critics did, that she only slid
onto the podium on the coattails of the famous men in her family's musical
dynasty. Grade school: "Girls don't play the drums. Girls don't play the
trumpet." Junior high: "Girls don't play baritone sax. No, they don't play
bass clarinet, either. Here's a nice alto clarinet." I got so sick of being
a gooood little girl. I wanted to cut loose and MAKE SOME NOISE!

Yet despite that background, I think that the idea of the Women's
Philharmonic, though well- intentioned, is wrong-headed. Go through
Antonucci's article and substitute religious or racial words for gender words
and my first reason will become squirm-producingly obvious. See what such
changes would do to the first sentence: "They dream of creating memorable
music, launching Christian virtuosos to stardom and, with a little luck,
knocking some of the smugness out of their Jewish-dominated industry." Is
that offensive enough? Hey, while we're at it, if we call an orchestra the
"Black Philharmonic," maybe that would mean we don't have to let African
Americans into the New York Philharmonic any more. I can't wait for the class
action lawsuit by the male musicians the Women's Philharmonic rejects because
of their gender. Guess the orchestra probably circumvents civil rights law by
setting itself up as a private organization, the same way the private country
clubs keep out the black golfers. The concept of this all-female orchestra is
every bit as sexist as the Vienna Philharmonic's traditionally all-male
concept. IMHO, the way to combat sexism or any other "ism" is by rejecting
it, not by perpetrating more of it.

My second reason is that all-female orchestras (formerly known as "all-girl
orchestras") are nothing new and that such orchestras have a long and
disreputable tradition of further marginalizing female musicians by turning
them into a freak show or a peep show. See them in any number of movies from
the 1930s and 1940s, coyly cross-dressed in boiled shirts and tails, or all
decked out in ball gowns, or looking extra-perky in shorts and midriff-baring
satin halters. Ooooh, what good musicians they were, for girls.

Take a look at the advertising reprinted in Paul Lindemeyer's _Celebrating the
Saxophone_ (not to pick on him; I think he did right to show the reality of
the way advertising portrayed female musicians), including 20th Century Fox's
glam-babes from the musical "Sing, Baby, Sing" on pages 8 and 9, or the saxy
lady in the pink flapper dress on the poster of "Pennsylvanians in
Syncopation" on p. 11, or, better yet, the lavender-tinted pinup on p. 52
who's wearing lace-trimmed tap-panties, stiletto heels, a great big rock of a
ring, a saxophone and nothing else. From the way she's posing, with her
fingers in an ineffectual position and only about a quarter of an inch of the
beak in her kissable lips, she looks as though she doesn't have a clue how to
play the sax. (All the sadder if she does know how and she agrees to model
like that anyway.) She's not presented as a real musician, but as a starlet
posing with a phallic object.

Changing to more dignified apparel is less of an improvement than it
superficially seems, because the wardrobe only masks the real problem. How
nice that the women in the "Women's Philharmonic" actually know how to play
music; yet, according to this article, they're still pitching their gender
appeal, not just to men now that times have changed, but to lesbians, too.
Excuse me: This is progress? The emphasis here, once again, is not on music-
making as such, but on the sex of the musicians. The idea of putting women
musicians in a women's orchestra is fundamentally demeaning, in the same
catagory with "separate but equal" and the Colored Restroom. What if a male
philanthropic group had announced, "We're so generous that we'll give you
ladies your very own orchestra." We would have suspected a subtext: "And
don't even think about barging into OUR orchestra. And be grateful, or we'll
take yours away. And, by the way, since you women have your very own Women's
Philharmonic, then what do you think you're doing, making nuisances of
yourselves by trying to compete for a real man's job that you're not good
enough to do?" If a group of men had proposed an all-female orchestra, I'll
bet we'd raise hell.

So why is it better for women to voluntarily separate ourselves from male
musicians and thus accomplish exactly the same thing? Sounds to me a whole
lot like the child ordered, "Go to your room!" who whimpers tearfully but
defiantly over her shoulder, "I'll do it because I want to and not because you
tell me to!" The women who join the Women's Philharmonic take themselves out
of the marketplace, out of open competition. I don't see this as empowerment.
I think these women are marching into the ghetto and slamming the gate closed
on themselves, and only deluding themselves that they can come back out any
time they please. A woman's place is in the Vienna Philharmonic, not the
Women's Philharmonic.

Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Imagine with your self what an unsightly matter it were to see a woman play
upon a tabor or drum, or blow in a flute or trumpet, or any like instrument:
and this because the boisterousness of them doth both cover and take away that
sweet mildness which setteth so forth every deed that a woman doth."
-- Baldassare Castiglione, _The Book of the Courtier_, 1528 (translated by
Hoby, 1561).

"Break it, break another little piece of my heart,
yyyyeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
-- Janis Joplin, ca. 1968
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org