Women in rock

Yesterday, a girlfriend and I went to a panel on women in rock that was part of the larger Red River Rock Out this weekend. (I wish I could review that, but due to ongoing colds, my boyfriend and I were unable to go out to night shows.) Alas, I left the materials they gave me in my car which went with my boyfriend to work this morning, but I'll put some of the reference sites up on the blog later for people who want further reading.

On the panel there was a mix of DJ's, musicians, and journalists. All in all, it was pretty interesting, but one panelist was driving us nuts, particularly when she interrupted another panelist and arrogantly declared that she didn't really like female musicians all that much, that she generally liked men better. At this point, I leaned over to my friend and said something rather derogatory involving a slur that implies that one sells her favors to men for money (vote for me!), but in this case I meant it to imply that one sells out other women so that men will like her better. Stuff like that and also repeated assertions by panelists that they "love men" made the whole exercise somewhat typical and frustrating, but I suppose it's inevitable.

All the same, it was educational, particularly when they began to address the role of men in their lives. Particularly telling was the discussion contrasting what female musicians can expect from their male partners and from family life versus what male musicians can expect. One older journalist lamented the numer of female musicians she knew who had to drop out of the whole scene to tend to their families, since they didn't have wives to take care of that like the men she knew. It was generally acknowledged that stresses like touring and chronic unemployment took their toll on the relationships and families of both male and female musicians, but that women particularly felt they didn't have the option to keep on with their profession when those stresses came into play. (There were also a couple jokes about infidelity, but this is probably an issue with both men and women.)

A number of panelists pointed out that these issues were not only causing women to quit earlier on, but also presented an entrance barrier. Young women who are contemplating becoming musicians, particularly as careers, understand that they are not going to have an easy time finding relationships with men who support them. Jokes were made about how men become musicians to get women but women become musicians even though they know it will scare men off. While I don't think it's likely to damage your sex life to become a musician, I am not surprised that women have a harder time finding partners who are tolerant of tours, late nights, and various other side effects of being a rock musician.

They also briefly touched on how women feel that they have a limited range of ways to present themselves on stage if they are going to be accepted and there was discussion of how the male-dominated industry deliberately caps the number of female-fronted bands that get promoted. Hopefully, it was educational for audience members who may not understand that while few people are deliberately excluding female musicians, men dominate rock not because women are inferior but because systematic sexism keeps so many women out.