Music and Gender

     Coming from a musical family and listening to a wide variety of music myself, I have some experiences with music and gender. In my opinion regarding if different genders are expected to listen to certain types of music, males are expected to listen to rap, heavy metal, rock music but if girls like genres like that, it's strange. If you're a girl and tell people from a small town you like heavy metal music, you might get looked at funny, there is different expectations depending on where a person lives. likewise, I think that girls are expected to listen to genres like pop or country music if you live in a town that has set gender expectations. Girls in some ways are expected to be a little musical sometimes, whether it be sing or play an instrument. It can be seen as the right thing to be musical if you're a female. If you are not musical, it can be seen as out of the ordinary, especially if you live in a small town. 

    I think depending on if you come from a small town, there's expectations of girls and boys in music. For example, in middle school I was in choir. It was pretty understood socially that the girls joined choir and the boys joined band or football. There were some boys in choir but all the rest of the boys in school considered it not "manly" to be in choir with us. As a result of people's expectations of boys in choir, it was constantly seen as a joke or funny that 8th grade boys would want to join choir instead of football or band. In middle school choir I was a soprano and the girls that were alto almost never got picked for a solo. Especially if you were a soprano and a teacher's favorite, you were almost guaranteed the special solos for the concert. As you can see below, I attached a picture of me in middle school before a choir concert. These outfits were a requirement, only in high school could you wear the black dresses for a choir concert. My favorite part is the cummerbund haha. :)

8th grade Megan before a choir concert :)

    My brother was in middle school band and he played the snare drum and occasionally the bass drum. I would go to his school concerts and I noticed that very rarely did girls play the drums. It was always the boys who played the big bass drums, snare drums, trumpet or trombone and the girls would play the flute or clarinet. There may have been a few girls who played instruments like the trumpet or trombone but from what I remember, it was mostly the boys. This may have been because the drum is seen as a male instrument and the flute is for a female. Gender expectations like this are not good though because it doesn't encourage being different and doing what you want to do. 

    For my last example of my experience with music and gender, it is going to be about my family. As previously talked about, my Mother's family is very musical. My Papa plays the trumpet and my Nana and Mom both play the piano, organ, and sing. My mom can also play the flute and my Aunt plays the piano and sings too. As you can see, I've always been surrounded by music whether it was at my grandparents' house, my Mom's house, or my church. They are all very talented and good at what they do.  I don't play instruments, but I do sing in my church choir and for fun. I don't play instruments because of my physical disability, Cerebral Palsy. My right hand is affected because of my disability and this means I physically cannot play instruments when most need two functional hands to play. 

My Mom and my Nana right before playing the piano together at church. 

  Being that my Nana, My Mom and Aunt all play an instrument and sing, sometimes I get disappointed I can't live up to my own personal expectations of what I wish I could do besides just sing. For clarity, no one in my family makes me feel like this, it's my own feeling. My whole life I can't tell you how many people say, "How come you don't play the piano like your mother? They all play an instrument, do you play?" This relates to gender because people think it is a passed down hobby that all the women in my family are supposed to learn an instrument and sing. Being that I just sing, I broke the norm of what others expect I do because of my family history but can't because of my disability. 

My Mom accompanying at Presbyterian college for Metropolitan Opera singer, Hugo Vera.  

    These are my stories and personal experiences of what I've witnessed or been through for music and gender. I hope you enjoyed my blog. :)