As the stereotypical words associated with woodwinds tended to be feminine words, so the words associated with brass and percussion tended to be masculine. Words like egotistical, immature, tough, loud and intimidating were mentioned by brass and percussion payers.
The most common theme among brass and percussion women seems to be the issue of respect, either not getting enough from certain parties, or getting more of it from others. Positive experiences often sounded like this:
The ultimate question I have to ask though, is this: Why should it be any big deal that a woman plays a masculine instrument? Does she really deserve cheers for doing what she does? Playing the trumpet is not that big of a deal for men, so why should it be for women? The problem is that we are stuck in between two time periods. In one period, gender equity does need to be talked about, and women should be cheered and supported for helping to break down barriers, as should men. The other is a world where we should not give anyone special attention or extra credit for doing something any of the rest of us could have done as well. In an ideal world, where gender equity has been achieved, anyone would truly be free to choose whatever instrument he or she wanted, and no one would deserve cheers or special admiration for going against the grain.
On the other hand, respect was also talked about in much different ways, and this proves to me that, for right now, we do need to be very supportive of women (and men) who are in the process of breaking down social stereotypes.
For all of the “perks” that one might have as a female in an all male section, there are certainly a lot of problems as well. Brass and percussion are not areas of typical feminine scholarship, therefore there are always some walls and preconceived notions that need to be broken down. These issues are certainly in the process of improving, but it is still often difficult for a woman to find her place in these male dominated areas.
We must also explore the fact that brass and percussion players of both sexes are also generally playing the role of antagonist.
It appears as though it is these sections of the band, ones of power and prestige, who are perpetuating and supporting the dominance structures that are already in place in the band. Now, we must also make note of three more issues for the female brass or percussion player, before we can draw any final conclusions.
For one, women in these sections often still tend to take on traditional feminine roles, such as mother, sister or baby-sitter. As mother and baby-sitter, they often keep the raucous males in the section from getting too out of control. As little sister, they are often guarded and protected from whatever opposition may arise.
If a woman in these sections does not fit this archetype, she might fit this one:
There is also this issue:
In each of these situations, the woman’s femininity is essentially stripped away from her. She is treated as somewhat asexual, or at best, gender neutral, which is not altogether negative but can be frustrating. Women in this situation often find themselves in an impossible tug of war. Sometimes they want to fulfill feminine stereotypes, at least socially, but they are often cornered into a position where they cannot be sexual and powerful as musicians.
A woman might find herself participating in the degradation of other women (through the degradation of feminine sections), not only to gain acceptance among her male peers, but also as a way of acting out a subconscious form of jealousy. Despite what can be considered the downfalls of being in a feminine section, the female flute player has at least retained a certain standard of femininity, albeit a stereotypical one. Most females in masculine sections have not been able to do this, so there may quite possibly be a hint of jealousy involved. For the woman in the masculine section, her sexuality is actually sometimes questioned as is that of the male flute player, though probably less stringently. She has violated the norms and therefore she often cannot retain her sense of femininity.
However, in some situations, the femininity is gladly retained.
Once again, though, these are exceptional cases. If there are other women in these sections who also do a lot of dating within their own section, they did not mention it when taking this survey. Usually, standard femininity was not emphasized by the women in these sections as either openly desired or completely intact, but rather it was emphasized by a certain lack thereof.
Jealousy also rears its head in one more way. Instead of being supportive of other females in our sections, sometimes they are a worse enemy than the men.
Generally, finding our niche as women in a male section has been a somewhat painstaking process. We were probably not doing it specifically to break down barriers for other women, but rather we were probably doing it for ourselves, because that is what we wanted to do. It has often been a very personal, private journey and to see other women entering the territory that we had so painfully staked out ourselves, can be a little aggravating. Not only are we vying for male attention socially, but we have also been working to prove ourselves professionally. These are natural reactions, but hopefully someday they will not be an issue, as playing an instrument will be neither a masculine or feminine event.