Music and Gender

 

 This blog took a lot of deep thought for me. Growing up in the early 2000s, personally I feel that many music genres armor inclusive of women singers, but that doest mean that there weren't any gender bias/ expectations. For example, I'm a huge pop music fan. Often, I remember reading magazines or watching MTV about some of my favorite artists, and although I didn't think about it then, I have certainly realized that the expectations of female singers versus male singers were so very different. Now, we all know I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan, and no matter how much bad publicity she got, no one can ignore how relatable her songs were to a preteen girl. Taylor Swift was often getting bad publicity about her songs and which ex-boyfriend she was referring to in them. in reality, herrings were mainly just about how she was feeling at the time. But what about male artist who did the same thing. But what about Ed Sheeran or Bruno Mars? Both of them are historically known for their fair share of love songs, but the publicity they both gained from what nothing but sweet remarks. 

Above are two beautiful songs about love, yet one is from a female artist and another, a male. Taylor Swift has take a lot of bad hits over the years for her music, but it is rare for me to read something negative about a male who writes a love song. 

However, I will contradict myself here in saying that male artists who sing about love might be called "girly" for a lack of a better term. Take for example, Justin Bieber. There were so many instances where I would be riding the bus home from school and a group of girls would but out sing his famous "Baby" song. I remember the guys of the bus groaning at the fact that there teenage male singing about love. They would use wildly offensive terms (ones that I do not feel comfortable repeating) to describe him. Socially, there is this expectation and a norm for men to hide their own feelings and act tough, where as women talk about feelings and are over all emotional beings. 

In my own personal experience with being in concert band in high school, I noticed that not many guys played the flute, and not many girls played a low brass instrument. In fact, in middle school I remember telling my parents I wanted to play trombone, and my mom said "that's not a very lady-like instrument, why don't you play the flute like I did?" I remember being a little disappointed, but as a 12 year old, I really wanted to fit in. However, in college I had the choice of either playing piccolo with 4 other piccolo players, or picking up a baritone and marching it. Because I absolutely dreaded trying to be in charge of piccolo section and figuring out how to tune them, I chose baritone...

   

I was the only female in that low brass section, and I felt so out of place sometimes The section leader always dismissed what I had to say because I was new to the section, but I also think it may have had something to do with me being a girl. I do remember a specific instance where I was supposed to bring my horn down during a rest, but I completely forgot and ended up actually holding it in  playing position the entire time. The director pointed actually pointed me out when another member of the section complained about his arms hurting. "Well Amber held her horn up the whole time, so why can't you?" In hindsight, I probably should have said that my arms were literally burning after that but I didn't. and I think a part of that was because I was trying so hard to prove that I was working harder to show that I was actually capable of being a good horn player. I was so grateful just to be learning a new instrument and not have my ears bleed from the sound of out of tune piccolos. And I think id do it again, but maybe next time with a lighter instrument!