Klarinet Archive - Posting 000853.txt from 2000/04

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Music and gender
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 22:04:53 -0400

At 06:07 PM 4/19/2000 CST, Diane R. Karius wrote:
>Bill Hausmann wrote:
>
>> I would assume the comment was meant to imply that you played with
>> confidence and a strong tone, not timidly and wimpily "like a girl would."
>> It was clearly a compliment, however wrongheaded.
>
>The thing that always amazes me about that particular comment
>was that although yes, they did mean that I played with (as you
>describe it), a strong tone and confidence (and some amount of
>technical ability), the person saying this also _explicitly_ stated
>that this was a NEGATIVE (!) and that I should not play up to the
>level that I was a capable of because "women shouldn't do that". I
>wonder what this person would have made of women with _real_ talent
>at the clarinet like Sabine Meyer, Emma Johnson, etc...!
>
It's the old "double standard" at work. You must be assertive to succeed,
but to succeed is somehow "unfeminine," which makes success = failure! How
DO women manage to grow up without being hopelessly confused? The
persistence of such ideas in the face of all the evidence to the contrary
is mind-boggling.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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