“Plus, you know, it’d be great ’cause you’re a girl.”
The comment was not atypical.
Sigh. I know where she was coming from. When the diversity call goes out in the new music field–when “just the usual dudes” just won’t do–we often find ourselves playing an awkward affirmative action game. Though honestly, sex, race, creed, income bracket: Know anyone who knows this world and is _______? If it’s not carrying around a Y chromosome and a light skin pigmentation, it often seems hard to find.
Now, don’t get me wrong–I enjoy being a girl. But it can get tiresome when in your head you’re just as smart and capable (if not eminently more so–we are talking about internal dialogue here) as your male counterparts, but you’re the only lily floating around in the pond. How did I get here? And where is everyone else?
Since I’ve been watching new music, the blogosphere–hell, just life in general–I’ve been depressed to note that even while riding this 116th wave of feminism we’re still crashing into breaker walls. Look at the list of bloggers on ArtsJournal. Notice anything missing? Not that I’m a saint here–my blogroll is quite light on the female touch as well. I swear I’m not discriminating, so what’s going on here? Someone else noted recently that women commenters are scarce in blogland as well. I can vouch for that. But why do we keep quiet? Too shy? Too busy? Too depressed?
The re-issue of Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville got me thinking again about how far we’ve come, and yet how deceptively far away we remain. And how often it is that when women are most successful, it seems traceable to how well they fit into Guyville, not how well they play a game you can see is definably on their own terms. And it’s particularly dangerous to me because it’s so quiet a problem at this stage. What are women in the 21st century? Can they do anything they want? Or will the best of us just follow the blockbuster lead–play the game as it is already laid down, but this time in stilettos–while the rest sit home and eat yogurt?
