Music & Gender
Honestly, before this blog concept, I never realized the weight gender had in what roles a person played in. Whether that be how they swayed to the music or what instruments a specific gender was more likely to play. Growing up in a Southern Baptist old school church, gender played a big role in placement of responsibilities. The pastor tended to be a male, the choir was predominately female with them in the front and males in the back rows with a female conductor, males on the bulkier low-pitched bass instruments. The church I went to did not stray from playing the normal hymns. These music choices were mainly because the church was full of older individuals who did not have the range to go to those higher notes. The songs were full of harmonies and melody's with a loud and soft dynamic. The tempo tended to stay the same with having to sing multiple different word lines over the same beat. We did not have any idiophones, but rather we had Chordophones consisting of violins and a cello. My church also had many aerophones consisting of flutes, clarinets and trumpets.
I was in the choir at my church till I was in my late teens (mainly to get the girls). Now, thinking back to the good ole days, I realize that the males in the choir did not move side to side as much as the women. The women kind of swayed with the tempo. The males tended to just stand neutrally. Having a more upright posture when it came to performing.
Back to the "gender specific instruments". Hardly, if at all, did I ever see a female on the bass guitar or a male on the violin or flute. Although times and societal views have changed with the somewhat gender qualified norms, this discussion brought up the point that I found interesting how categorized a person could be just because of their sex when I was growing up. And how these expectations were not thought to be out of the ordinary.
Some other observations of when i was younger were the sound management team for churches tended to be all male teams. I do not know why this was the norm and women were subjected to jobs such as just teaching Sunday school.
Just so y'all know, I just looked up a video of a gospel choir. I have no affiliation.
I think that it's funny that you were in the choir to get girls, but that is probably the same reason a lot of guys don't move around as much. As kids, boys are told to act right and be respectful, but they also want to look cool. So, when a lot of guys are in choirs surrounded by girls, they try look like they don't care, or that they're too cool to sing and dance. This is probably the reason why guys pick bigger and more masculine instruments to play, because the want to look cool and be seen as delicate or feminine.
ReplyDeleteAt my church our choir only sings old hymns. The older generation in our church does not want to hear any newer stuff. On the rare occasion any instrument other than the piano is played, a female actually plays the drums, which I think is great.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this I realized how true it is that the guys don’t sway as much and just stood there. Or how guys in a band will choose to play the bigger instruments and girls will choose to play the lighter ones. I think it’s funny on your reason to choose choir. I loved how you talked about your background with church choir and what you noticed with the norms of boys and girls
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