I've been singing in various community/school/university choirs since I was 8. And that's just singing when I'm told. I sing when I'm NOT told all the time; in the street, in stores, walking, on the phone, in the car, in the shower, around the house, at work, cooking. . .
You get the idea. Music is amazing. I play guitar, piano and have recently picked up the banjo (HELL yes). I encourage every person on the planet to learn to play an instrument, even if you can just play that one song that you play really well, but nothing else.
I used to be a damn good sight reader, though I'm shamefully out of practice now.
This all being said, I was reading some old newspaper clippings for my job and I came across an article talking about a local, all boys' choir. Incidentally, this choir is led (and was founded) by a woman. Well, they interviewed her and, "Joyce Keil believes that boys learn to sing faster than girls because 'they are very task-oriented.'"
WHAT?!?!?! I want to scream "Traitor!" from the top of every building.
What's even more stupid is that this article is from 2007 so I totally missed the window to rampage.
Ugh. Just needed to rant about that. "Task-oriented" indeed.
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I hear you. When I was in high school I played guitar in a jazz ensemble and in a couple of musical productions. Despite proving myself in tryouts and solos I was constantly passed over in favor of really "good" guys.
One example. I did two musicals. The first one was an original written by our drama class and I had written a lot of the music for it in addition to performing the songs. The next year I was informed that they got a "really good guitarist" to be the main musical go to person. He didn't last a week. He couldn't read music and he wouldn't listen to the musical director who was trying to coordinate the sound for the production -- which included violin, mandolin, and flute. As far as this kid was concerned, if it wasn't Jimi Hendrix he wouldn't play it and he left in a snit.
I've had similar experiences in the jazz band and in the end I was always the last one left. Don't get me wrong, must guys I played with were very talented and disciplined. But I earned the place I was in and I stood to lose it just because of perceptions.
I can totally relate but with a different example. I was a member of a competitive choir during high-school (not affiliated with school though). The community is incredibly supportive of the choir and our choir-director is fantastic but I always sensed favouritism for male performers. The guys' choir got to sing boisterous, fun songs while the girl's and women's choirs were given songs that were slower and more melodic, albeit much more challenging. The audience reactions were obviously much different, and favoured the male performers.
The types of choral pieces composed for men and women's voices are very different and seem to reinforce some gender stereotypes. Which is sad, because choirs in themselves are such incredibly fun, productive and positive spaces for people, especially teens.
Yea, in high school I always noticed when we went to contests and took our boys and our girls separately, the boys' songs were almost always rowdy-sailor-type songs, and the girls were always slower and about flowers and love and whatnot. Our boys were always given extensive praise for sounding great in a boys choir, but it seemed ridiculous to us (the girls) because in full choir, they hardly paid attention and only sang out in concerts.
Sorry, that was kind of a disorganized rant. Anyway, my point is, I agree with your whole post.
True. But vagina does have a common usage referring to the whole of the female genitalia, just as penis refers to a specific part of the male genitalia but also has a common usage referring to the whole. For example, I automatically thought of the inclusion of bedroom furniture the scrotum in Velvet Acid Christ's question about drawing a penis on her or his car.