Not Just Men
“Hello—we’re “Not Just Men”!” One of the world’s great band names. I don’t know what happened to this band. I searched for them on the internet with no success. I heard them several years ago on the Bowdoin Quad, a student band that consisted of men and women playing instruments. These weren’t my students; I wish they had been (for my sake). I was glad to hear they were well-educated in such matters and willing to scream out the obvious. From your local high schoolers getting their first restaurant gigs to world class jazz festivals, most bands are made up of Just Men on instruments. This tends to go as unremarked as an all-male NFL team. When it comes to popular music and jazz: Men play instruments. Women do not.
How is this? Girls and boys make music together as children. There is no physical argument to make about the exclusivity of men and musical instruments (though some still make these arguments). In fact, the performance of musical instruments in popular music and jazz is more male dominated than the military, science, technology, engineering, and math, industries that have taken active steps to include women. In the field of music, male dominance is so pervasive that whenever a woman instrumentalist is on the bandstand she is “shattering the glass ceiling,” a metaphor made for our “one and done” society that loves the individual but ignores the structure. Because this structure is made with self-repairing glass. It repairs as fast as those prank birthday candles that reignite and won’t blow out.
I can’t fully enjoy a jazz performance when the band is Just White Men. I know too much about the history that has made this the norm. Hey, white guys: if you graduated from a college jazz program or went to a lot of jazz camps, ask yourself this question? “Was I taught that it is normal for jazz instrumentalists to be all white men? Did I learn to be comfortable in a place of exclusivity, so that it is difficult for me to be in or actively create a diverse band?” If you answer yes, this was a failing in your jazz education. Rather than jazz as a culture of inclusion—a call and response that invites people in—you have learned jazz as a culture of exclusion. Each year a new wave of 65-year-old white men joins the jazz scene in their 20-something bodies, oblivious and comfortable in a space that includes only them.
Having just one woman or just one person of color in an organization is usually described as tokenism (and it is). But what a breakthrough if we could get to this stage on the bandstand! If the 95% of bands that are Just Men added their token woman instrumentalist, this would be a fantastic advance for everybody. Maybe fewer young women would quit playing in college or after. Maybe more men would learn how to connect with others on instruments rather than live in a cocoon of exclusivity. With variety and different vantage points the music is better. And the audience craves bands that are Not Just Men. Most importantly, you’ll get a sticker!
If you find this impossible to do, then please name your band. Hello! We’re Just White Men!
Next blog post: Not Just White
