Music and Gender

This is the first time I haven’t had a clue what to write, so I’m just going to go through and answer some of the questions Mrs. Dr. Vaneman posed on her blog:

While participation in music is not determined by gender in twenty-first century America, there are certain instruments that each gender tends to lean towards. Most of these reasons are practical. For example, a bassist tends to be male because you don’t find many tall, well-built girls running around. The same concept holds true for the tuba. This is not to say, however, that you will never find a girl playing the tuba. I have a friend back home who does. Although, why she decides to march five miles with it in Mardi Gras parades will always be a mystery to me.

Besides this logical gender imbalance, my high school’s marching band had a fairly even number of boys and girls for every instrument – flute, saxophone, clarinet, you name it. As for whether certain sections acted differently, I am not the best source to determine that. I’ve never been in a band or an orchestra, and the other students with me in choir were only there for a fine arts graduation credit. Most of them didn’t give a flying hoot about singing, or performing for that matter. So, I’d never even heard about personality distinctions, like “soprano” jokes, until I came here. I’m used to compartmentalizing people into ones who put in the effort to sing and ones who don’t. And that’s really all that matters in the end, isn’t it? 

Now, I’m going to travel farther back in time . . . to middle school. Remember those days? Boys listened to male rap artists, and girls listened to pop sensations like Brittany Spears and Christina Aguilera. That was definitely something gender-specific. However, most pre-teens are trying to form an identity, and one way to be more secure in that was by taking these musicians as models. And what young boy or girl really wants a role model of the opposite sex? Part of growing up is realizing that you don’t have to limit yourself by trying to fit a mold. That’s one of the great things about Converse. You are introduced to so many different experiences from the most unlikely people, and that includes music. Honestly, how many of you thought Emma Johnson listened to hard-core rock? (There is lots of love in my heart for you, Emma!) While girls and boys tend to prefer certain instruments and music over others, in America, we are not limited by our gender. And that is a beautiful freedom!