| Instrument Discrimination |
| Sunday, 04 March 2007 | |
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Gender is essentially a social construction. The term ‘sex’ is referred to here as the form that the physical body takes, its biological predetermination. However, gender as a role is, according to sexologist John Money (1955), “used to signify all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself or herself as having the status of boy or man, girl or woman, respectively.” Elements of such a role include clothing, speech patterns, movement and other factors not solely limited to biological sex. These mannerisms are learned, part of “socioculturally adapted traits.” They could also extend to musical instruments. Indeed, music has many different “gender roles.” In western music theory, keys, chords and scales are often described as having major or minor tonality, sometimes related to masculine and feminine. By analogy, the major scales are masculine (clear, open, extroverted), while the minor scales are given feminine qualities (dark, soft, introverted). German uses the word Tongeschlecht ("Tone gender") for tonality, and the words Dur (from latin durus, hard) for major and moll (from latin mollis, soft) for minor. So how does this translate into perception/judgment of sexuality as concerns what instrument you play? I asked 9 men and 6 women on the street, in bars, and other social places which gender or set of masculine/feminine qualities they would assign to the following instruments: trumpet, tuba, violin, flute, harp, piano, piccolo, cello, and drums. The results were relatively unsurprising. The feminine instruments were harp, piccolo, and flute. The masculine instruments were trumpet, tuba, cello, and drums. The gender neutral instruments were violin and piano. That is, participants seemed unable to categorize the instruments, although more people conceded that violin was slightly more feminine and piano was slightly more masculine. The next question was why they associated the specific gender with the instrument. The answers were divided between the sounds of the instrument (i.e. whether it had a loud, weighty, heavy sound versus a light, airy or “pretty” sound), and the look of the instrument. If the instrument looked heavy or awkward, it was given a masculine stamp. If it looked graceful, or the performer was made to look elegant instead of clumsy whilst playing it, it was given the feminine stamp. This is understandable to a certain degree. Pianists from Beethoven to Beethoven-inspired Peanuts character, Schroeder  Schroeder performs It should be noted that women were less likely to say that they wouldn’t play an instrument based on their perception of its “gender.” Most participants simply never considered it, perhaps as a result of not seeing very many female tubists, or perhaps not being given the option in their youth based on socially constructed ideals of who plays what. (Stay tuned for future conversations about socioeconomic status as a determinant of musical instrument and genre choices.) I wondered how important role models are when choosing an instrument. Men, on the other hand, seemed fully aware of the gender perceptions associated with the instruments. It is this perception that determined whether or not they wanted to be associated with the instrument. The surveyed men didn’t want to sound “pretty” or look feminine. This became clear during a conversation about my instrument, the harp, with one male participant. Man: “What’s it sound like?” Me: “It’s nice. Angelic.” Man: “Nah, nah,” he shook his head. “Does it always sound pretty or can you, you know, like, rock wit it?” Me: “Yeah, sure. You can do anything with it!” I confirmed. “Wouldn’t you want to play it? It’s not hard. I mean, the strings are color-coded!” Man: “Wha? Do men actually PLAY the harp?” Me: "Yeah, at one time, more men than women played the harp. I mean, it’s just an instrument.” I shrugged. He seemed astounded. Man: “Yeah, but do BLACK men play the harp?” Me: “Of course they do.” Long pause. Man: “Are they gay?” His question was sadly familiar to me. I told him about gospel/classical harpist Jeff Majors Me: “Who cares what his sexual preference is. He was on Oprah!” He seemed nonplussed. Man: “Nah, I don’t wanna play no harp.” I stood there wondering how Black male harpists handle conversations like this one… My thoughts were interrupted. Man: “He looks like a harp player.” I turned to see to whom my survey-partaker was referring. A thin, light-skinned brother with a petite nose, high cheekbones and the front of his hair in cornrows was singing about something on stage. Me: “Why is that?” I asked my seemingly homophobic conversationalist. Man: “I dunno. He just does,” he replied with a smirk. That ended our conversation. Was it simply the fear of society questioning his sexuality that deterred this man from playing a “feminine” instrument? I for one have seen masculine men play harp, and some feminine women play, say, trumpet. In the same vein, I’ve seen hard-looking flutists, and effeminate drummers. A friend pointed out to me that this gender issue, as concerns the qualities of and the judgment surrounding who plays what, is more of an issue in America. The reification of this perception keeps men and women confined to certain instruments, and disallows deviance from accepted social norms. The result is displacement and feeling anomalous... Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender) Share your thoughts.
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