Why do you think there are less women in music?

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Bitflakes





  • #1
  • Posted: 06/06/2016 16:07
  • Post subject: Why do you think there are less women in music?
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This is probably a pretty contentious subject for discussion but it's one that I've come into contact with quite a lot lately.

Women I think as a whole don't make music any worse or better than men so why is it we see more men making music?

There are a lot of gender issues surfacing in the media at the moment and I think it's something that people are beginning to look into in a much deeper fashion than I've ever seen before. As I currently see it there are two standpoints which I think are both very persuasive.

One of them is that the way our society has been structured is traditionally in favour of a man's freedom to explore and experiment, which encompasses writing music and creating other art-forms as well. There's no inherent difference between men and women, gender is a spectrum and women simply haven't been given a chance to express themselves.

The other is that men and women are different. Women inherently create by giving birth and it is by this physical fact that women haven't felt the same urge to create art. By this notion, as times change in our society and women are less obliged to have children, they are now looking for other means to create just as men have.

I've been exploring this issue as musician. After a conversation with my girlfriend I decided that if men and women were no different then what's to stop me from writing music as a woman?

So I tried it out and I got a lot of inspiration from the idea, I now write as my female pseudonym Many Monika full time and I find it continually liberating to write in this way. Although I'm probably further now from the answer to this question than ever.

Is there a difference between the music the sexes make? Is Bjork's music in what you might call a 'feminine mode'? Or Adele's, Kate Bush's or Beyonce's?




[Note. here's my music as Monika... https://soundcloud.com/manymonika I'd be interested to know if you think it has a masculine or a feminine quality to it]
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baystateoftheart
Neil Young as a butternut squash



Age: 29
Location: Massachusetts
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  • #2
  • Posted: 06/06/2016 20:11
  • Post subject: Re: Why do you think there are less women in music?
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Bitflakes wrote:
As I currently see it there are two standpoints which I think are both very persuasive.

...

The other is that men and women are different. Women inherently create by giving birth and it is by this physical fact that women haven't felt the same urge to create art. By this notion, as times change in our society and women are less obliged to have children, they are now looking for other means to create just as men have.


Not persuasive imo

Bitflakes wrote:
I've been exploring this issue as musician. After a conversation with my girlfriend I decided that if men and women were no different then what's to stop me from writing music as a woman?

Think

The fact that you have never identified as a woman* and thus haven't had a woman's experiences? Many advise that the best art comes from writing about what you know.




*Please correct me if I'm wrong, and if that's the case, my apologies.
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benpaco
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Age: 27
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  • #3
  • Posted: 06/06/2016 23:02
  • Post subject: Re: Why do you think there are less women in music?
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Bitflakes wrote:


One of them is that the way our society has been structured is traditionally in favour of a man's freedom to explore and experiment, which encompasses writing music and creating other art-forms as well. There's no inherent difference between men and women, gender is a spectrum and women simply haven't been given a chance to express themselves.

The other is that men and women are different. Women inherently create by giving birth and it is by this physical fact that women haven't felt the same urge to create art. By this notion, as times change in our society and women are less obliged to have children, they are now looking for other means to create just as men have.

I've been exploring this issue as musician. After a conversation with my girlfriend I decided that if men and women were no different then what's to stop me from writing music as a woman?


Alright so I can't say I agree with you but this does have me thinking, at least a little. I've talked at length on here in the past about gender as a spectrum on both a psychological and very literal biological/genetic level, so I'm with ya there. And I do think the way society is structured, for a number of reasons, straight cis white males have had I guess better opportunities to be in the public eye as musicians - this isn't to say they're the only popular ones, they're obviously not, but to be gay, female, whatever in music has long meant facing additional challenges, and as you can see from Kesha, Larkin Grimm, the entire Driftwood Records roster, etc., that hasn't changed all that much.

However, you lose me completely after that. Women don't have an urge to create art? They only create babies or music? Can you not see the vast difference between the two, or the mothers who paint, sing, dance, sculpt, what have you. That just makes no sense to me at all. A lot of early literary works from even more "traditional" times come from women - hell, Tale of Genji was ahead of anything men were up to at the time.

The rest, though, is what has me thinking. Writing as a character takes super tact and care, it's why so often novels in the first person don't work as well unless the author really works on making a believable, dynamic, and interesting character, and even then it's a real slippery slope sometimes. And while it's a bit weird to read a man write a woman's thoughts or vice versa, it can work as long as handled well.

Musics always been different for me - I can write other characters in short stories and etc, but for some reason I personally have found it largely hard to write anything other than something autobiographical. But artists obviously have been able to perform as characters - see Bowie. Somehow reading this puts a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about this situation of it. It's one thing to be transgender, agender, genderfluid, whatever, and explore that journey in music. But especially in a time where transitioning genders is such a fragile thing, and while dysphoria is still so rampant, to sort of pretend just out of curiosity (if this is what this is) feels strange.

I dunno. I don't know you, and shouldn't pretend to know your motives or anything, and if you are transitioning or anything, please know you have my support in that endeavor.
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Bitflakes





  • #4
  • Posted: 06/07/2016 10:25
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Hmm this is where it gets kind of interesting.

I totally agree that art is often best when expressing someone's personal experiences but personal experiences aren't limited to your sex. If I write a song about a breakup then that story is taken from my own experience, the fact that I'm pretending I'm a girl splitting with a boy is what makes it interesting to me. Don't men and women feel the same emotions? It hurts when someone dumps you either way.
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Puncture Repair





  • #5
  • Posted: 06/07/2016 13:55
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Women I think as a whole don't make music any worse or better than men so why is it we see more men making music?


I don't know if it's possible to ever concretely determine which gender is more 'in music'. Sure most rock bands tend to be male, but simply from the sphere of people that I know, it's much more common for girls to go into music and perform (usually singing). Female pop artists are hardly short of representation either.

Quote:
The other is that men and women are different. Women inherently create by giving birth and it is by this physical fact that women haven't felt the same urge to create art. By this notion, as times change in our society and women are less obliged to have children, they are now looking for other means to create just as men have.


I don't really like this idea, although it's certainly an interesting argument. If that's the case, it can't only apply to music, but art in any form that involves creation. I'd be hard pressed to believe that women aren't equal or even dominant in the arts as a whole today. From my experience, I've studied creative arts through most of my education and I've always been one of the few males in my class. I mean it was hardly uncommon to be made fun of for preferring the arts to, say, playing football.

I think it also implies that men aren't part of that 'creation' when it comes to childbirth and are completely detached from it. It's obviously a different level of involvement and connection, but a man can still feel as though he's created something through raising his children, I would argue.

Quote:

I've been exploring this issue as musician. After a conversation with my girlfriend I decided that if men and women were no different then what's to stop me from writing music as a woman?


I'd like to ask this to you, I'd be genuinely interested to know.

Quote:
[Note. here's my music as Monika... https://soundcloud.com/manymonika I'd be interested to know if you think it has a masculine or a feminine quality to it]


Nice one. Seems we live in the same city.
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Bomserie





  • #6
  • Posted: 11/23/2017 10:42
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Your comments make me even more experienced and talk to my friends.
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JOSweetHeart



Gender: Female
Age: 41
Location: East Tennessee

  • #7
  • Posted: 11/23/2017 18:01
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I believe that plenty of them are out there. Why we don't hear so many is a question that only the radio powers that be can answer.

God bless you always!!!

Holly
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YoungPunk





  • #8
  • Posted: 02/13/2018 01:52
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Females are making music, they just don't perform it.
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sophialeviev



Gender: Female
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  • #9
  • Posted: 05/18/2018 17:16
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Honestly, I think it's definitely based in the way society is structured. Woman like Bjork (as you mentioned) or Sinead O'Connor or Beth Gibbons (Portishead) all have a very distinct male energy about them... the way in which their vocals are strong and unrelenting, how they're re-exploring their sexuality (self-controlled; independent of the industry's desire for female sex symbols in music), etc. There are also fewer male listeners of strong female artists because many times it's stereotypically "gay" or feminine to do so. Neutral
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undefined





  • #10
  • Posted: 05/19/2018 01:02
  • Post subject: Re: Why do you think there are less women in music?
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Bitflakes wrote:
Women inherently create by giving birth and it is by this physical fact that women haven't felt the same urge to create art. By this notion, as times change in our society and women are less obliged to have children, they are now looking for other means to create just as men have.

what in the actual fuck are you on about

there are myriad reasons for the underrepresentation of women in the art world and they all have to do with misogynistic hegemonies of power that have long underscored societal structures, denying women means, access, visibility, and often the base dignity of being taken seriously. FOH with this ahistorical Jordan Peterson-ass "biologically predisposed to not make art due to childbearing" bullshit

edit: ok sorry re-reading your post it sounds more like you're just suggesting that this is a thing that people think and not so much what you yourself are advocating. My b
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