From Peter Becker Sent Tue, Feb 16th 1999, 14:51
From Peter Becker Sent Tue, Feb 16th 1999, 14:51
Props to Drew for writing a very insightful ( by the way for all of you scholars on the list, particularly the ones who pay attention to spelling...its *insight* , not insite ) anyways, props to Drew for bringing up the gender issue with a strong and intelligent bent. Of course as with 99% of all intelligent posting on idm, his comments will be ignored. Time after time ( though I've only been here 2 years ) I've seen intelligent commentary fall by the wayside. Whenever soemeone realy hits an issue with focus and clarity, it is typically bombarded with 50-100 "duh, yeah, me too " retorts. Many idmers might remember Sean Cooper, or Stuart's posts from some time ago and how generally, when someone threads with a brain, they are ignored. So while we're on the gender thread FOR THE TEN THOUSAND'TH FUCKING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! , how about picking up where Drew leaves us, but first, a vocabulary contest: Be the 900th idmer who answer this correctly ( by emailing me directly ) and you will win *The *entire* Aphex Twin catalog, on vinyl, every piece autographed.* Definitions- let 'er rip! anecdotes essentialism paternalistic rhetoric transcended rhetoric socialization bourgeois populist trajectory truism manifesto Work hard idm'ers, and thanks again to Drew...= ) Peter > Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 02:35:53 -0800 From: xxxxx@xxxx.xxx Subject: (idm) This Sex Which Is Not One People on this list are letting themselves make massive generalizations about gender, and even the people citing anecdotes/personal experience are tending to use them as support for their massive generalizations about gender. It's called "essentialism", people, and it's a drag. Substitute "left-handed" or "Philipino" for "woman" and switch the music under discussion to "hip hop" or "rock" and you will realize just how unconvincing ANY of your generalizations really are. Why do you expect aesthetic pleasure to correspond neatly to social groups? What paternalistic fantasies about educating the world in the mysteries of IDM are you indulging in by way of this handwringing about how to welcome women into your community, and who have you written out of the picture in order to feel that "your" electronic music scene is originally (heterosexual) male in the first place? Given the heavy rhetoric of the "unnatural" and the "inhuman" surrounding electronic sound, shouldn't we supposedly sophisticated listeners be less eager to nail everything down in terms of the traditional Male/Female opposition? If you've already transcended the rhetoric of the natural and human when it comes to the art you make or appreciate, why can't you leave that rhetoric alone when you're interacting online/at shows/in everyday life? Maybe a discussion of how socialization has built up expectations about the correspondence of gender to sound is in order here. A good place to start is Richard Leppert's "The Sight of Sound: Music, Representation, and the History of the Body", an account of how representations of music have evolved in lockstep with the emergence of the bourgeois family, with populist, collective and festive music making eclipsed in favor of the private household model that centers around the "man of the house". Surely the lone male bedroom knob twiddler, that figure of both identification and oh-god-it's-not-me anxiety for many an IDMer, is in fact one expression of this historical trajectory. Whatever, the points to be made are simply these: Don't assume that you know something about what women as a group really want, really like, ought to like etc. When you catch yourself reaching for some time honored truism about gender ("women are soft and they want to hear soft sounds") just negate it, laugh at its inadequacy, think past it, and while you're at it, reach for a Laetitia de Compaigne-Sonami, Kaia Saariajo, Nic Endo, Kelly Hand, Neotropic, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Anderson, Scissor Girls, Diamanda Galas, Joan La Barbara (and on and on and on and on) CD . . . Do I have to mention Walter/Wendy Carlos or Terre Thaemlitz as well? Don't you people know the deal already? why won't somebody write the definitive third sex electronic manifesto, Drew NP: Pauline Oliveros "Alien Bog" some of the coldest, most inhuman electronic sound imaginable >