RE: [microsound] women not in microsound

[Christopher Sorg <csorg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> okay, sorry i gotta go tolsma on this whole thing...

You're far too rational to be going "tolsma" :)

> the very fact we're talking about women making music as
> women at all, as opposed to just composers we like means
> that we're automatically being in some way sexist,
> implying that their anatomy and or constructed gender
> roles are even an issue. it's like, oh she's good, for a

The entire listing names thing is not exactly where I was trying to take the
thread (if you read the original posts), but I think it's certainly
informative and good to know there is more listening to be done.  To be
honest, it seems a bit strange to go to IDM/Microsound concerts for a couple
of years and only see one or two women.  If there is sexism in this thread
or idea at all, I think it's most likely to be found in the treatment of
woman composers in academia and otherwise.  It has been suggested that lack
of success and attention given to women composers has very little to do with
talent and skill, but that they are typically passed over for tenure and
even overlooked when they have contributed greatly.  All this means for both
academic and non-academic music is that fewer women are encouraged to
participate in part because they are less likely to be successful regardless
of their accomplishments.  Also, it is possible that our criteria for
judging what is good and bad music is already gender-biased, so to
compensate for that is in no way placating the other gender.  We don't
necessarily judge excellent Indian or Japanese music with the same criteria
we do Western compositions, but that doesn't mean that it is ignored (well,
actually it largely has been until recently, but that's a different
argument).  So it's not some sort of affirmative action for music at all, at
least IMHO.

Unfortunately it appears that some people who are writing the history books
are not quite so enlightened about what is going on in music.  It's
heartening to see that so many of us on the list can recognize so many that
have contributed to music that we hold so dear.

__________________________________________
Christopher Sorg
Multimedia Artist and Instructor
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
http://csorg.cjb.net
csorg@xxxxxxxxx
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