Terry Sarten: Musicians La Femme

Former winner of the Whanganui Musicians' Club songwriting competition, Kate Van Elswijk, who overcame a vision impairment to compete on The Voice Australia. Photo / Stuart Munro

Let's draw a comparison between world renown Icelandic singer/ producer Bjork and Whanganui Lucky Bar sound maestro Georgie.

Both are women. Both despite their skills still find it hard to get acknowledged by males in the world of music.

Bjork has talked in interviews about composing and producing her music but finds she has to constantly push back against the assumptions that a bloke must have done all the clever bits.

From a local perspective, Georgie standing at the mixing desk at Lucky Bar, still encounters a mixture of surprise and occasionally disbelief that a woman might be doing the sound.

There has been the odd occasion when a male as assumed that she is just doodling till a 'man' arrives to take over.

To get a sample of our own amazing local women musicians come down to Lucky Bar for the La Fiesta Finale gig on Sunday night.

For $10 at the door (which goes to support the Whanganui Women's Network) you will see plenty of great musicianship.

All have donated their time and Lucky Bar the venue. Bring your best pair of clapping hands, cheering voices and dancing shoes.

Looking done the other end of the gender-scope, stories of misogynistic behaviours by the likes of Alt-Rocker Ryan Adams provides a sample of male musicians assuming that somehow their talent excuses them, allowing them to treat female musicians (and fans) badly.

Most musicians do have egos. There are the full-blown narcissistic types who believe that gods trail in their wake and there are those who have to fully inflate their ego in order to gather the courage to get up on stage.

There are Divas and Dangos right across the gender spectrum but nevertheless there is compelling evidence that women have to overcome more stereotyping, simple assumptions and basic discrimination in an industry dominated by males.

Even here at a local level it is evident. Look at most music event line-ups. They will be predominantly feature male performers.

There has been some serious soul searching by promoters following a wave of challenges to look at the imbalance in festival line-ups between male and female acts.

The question is what lies beneath this imbalance? Is there some unspoken bias at work?

Certainly, there is a wider social acceptance of lads learning to play instruments and forming bands – a sort of male bonding in which the tiny details of amplifier specs, this gear versus those effect pedals and the power of feedback are a tribal rite of passage. But women can do that too.

Is it that blokes are better at getting up and playing in front of people? Males are very motivated by the desire to perform (sometimes known by its technical term as 'showing off') has performance of many kinds is seen as a defining factor for men.

Maybe – but maybe not as there are plenty of brilliant woman performers on stages giving it their all.

Is it that women find that being harassed, treated as decorative sex objects by males in the music business puts them off?

Like other areas of the creative industries, the emphasis on appearance skews the balance, with greater pressure on women to fit into specific beauty ideals.

You must not only be an amazing singer/ drummer/ keyboard / guitarist/producer but also look great while working.

On the other hand, looking like you have just 'slept in a skip with a family of badgers' - a description once given of musician Bob Geldof' – would be regarded by most men with amusement but no shame.

Terry Sarten (aka Tel) is a musician and writer. Feedback: tgs@inspire.net.nz