Music and Gender–Current State of Research

Call for Papers for the Conference:
Music and Gender–Current State of Research
MUSIDANSE (Université Paris 8)
December 3-4, 2015
PROGRAM
This conference aims to bring together scholars from both the local and international
communities to address issues related to music and gender that remain relatively under-researched
in France. Although France has been a pionneer in the field of feminist literary studies, including
works by author Hélène Cixous1, it seems to stay on the sideline in comparison with the
developments of these issues in English-speaking countries–including some of the research
associated with approaches loosely called “new musicology” (USA) or “critical musicology” (UK).
And yet, there’s been a growing interest in these issues lately in France with the contributions of a
certain number of french-speaking researchers2. We also note that Susan McClary's 1991 classic
book has recently been translated into french3.
Despite their diversity, the musicological approaches loosely grouped together under
appelations such as “feminist musicology” or “musicological gender studies” often analyze the
different manners by which social constructions and modes of representations touching on the
distribution of gender roles can affect the practice and the musical content as well as music's
discourses and modes of perception. They also study the process by which these practices can
participate in the construction of sex and gender identities within a social system of androcentric
and heteronormative domination. These approaches often question a certain number of
epistemological assumptions upon which traditional musicology had relied.
The musicological gender studies related to the above-mentioned movements of
musicological approaches appeared in the 1980s/1990s and aimed to shed light on musical content
with issues touching on social and political significations. These approaches take issue with
traditional discourses that tend to view music as a pure, autonomous object free of any social or
political agency, and mainly reserved for analytical and historiographical research. In many
1 CIXOUS Hélène, Le Rire de la Méduse (1975), in Le Rire de la méduse et autres ironies, Paris, Galilée, 2010.
Hélène Cixous created the Centre d'études féminines (Université Paris 8) in 1974.
2 Here are a few references: CESSAC Catherine, Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, une femme compositeur sous le
règne de Louis XIV, Arles, Actes Sud, 1995; CLEMENT Catherine, L’Opéra ou la défaite des femmes, Paris,
Grasset 1979; Collectif, Pascale Criton, Ensemble 2e2m, 2000; ESCAL Françoise, ROUSSEAU-DUJARDIN
Jacqueline, Musique et différence des sexes, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1999; LAUNEY Florence, Les compositrices en
France au XIXème siècle, Paris, Fayard, 2006; PREVOST-THOMAS Cécile, RAVET Hyacinthe, RUDENT
Catherine (éd.), Le féminin, le masculin et la musique populaire d’aujourd’hui, Paris, Observatoire Musical
Français, 2005; LEGRAND Raphaëlle, « Libertines et femmes vertueuses: l'image des chanteuses d'opéra et
d'opéra–comique en France au XVIIIe siècle », in MARQUIÉ Hélène, BURCH Noël (éd.), Émancipation sexuelle
ou contrainte des corps ?, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2006, p. 157-175; LYON Marianne, HUOT Guy (éd.), Les Femmes et
la création musicale, Paris, Conseil International de la Musique/Centre de Documentation de la Musique
Contemporaine, 2002; RAVET Hyacinthe, Musiciennes: Enquête sur les femmes et la musique, Paris, Éditions
Autrement, 2011.
3 McCLARY Susan, Feminine Endings, Music, Gender and Sexuality, University of Minnesota Press, 1991.
French translation: Ouverture féministe : musique, genre, sexualité, translated by Catherine Deutsch and Stéphane
Roth, Paris, Philharmonie de Paris/La rue musicale, 2015.
respects, these approaches may intersect social analyse like those found in Bourdieu’s studies4 of
the social determinism that penetrates artistic practices and modes of consumption.
We intend to organize this conference to not only establish a picture of the current state of
research on the subject, but also give an impetus and an increased visibility to this area of research
in France and french-speaking countries. Among the different paths we propose to explore, the
following axes will be considered:
1. Gender and musical content. This first axis will focus on the issues of gendered and
sexist representations in music. When this type of issue is addressed, it is frequently to analyze the
most salient aspects of it : lyrics, video clips, discourses on music, the style of dress, or the social
behaviors noticed in the considered musical scene and/or culture. It is in this sense that many
sociological works have addressed the issue. However, these representations can also be encoded in
the musical material itself. Indeed, although the issues of gender can be observed in the diverse
behaviours surrounding music, they also can penetrate in the musical practice itself and influence it,
including its expressive dimension. This section of the conference will consider the diverse ways in
which gendered significations can be conveyed in the musical content through diverse
compositional parameters such as timbre, rhythm, pitch, chords, etc. or more complex semiotic
combinations.
2. Gender and processes of subjectification. Music often generates sensations, emotional
responses, images, and so on. It channels forces and streams of intensity and conveys a constellation
of significations (expressive, social, political, etc.) , which can participate in the construction of
identities, and relationships with the body, with feelings, with desire, etc. In this respect, one cannot
neglect the impact that gender constructions in music can have on the manner in which listeners and
musicians build their relationships with the world. As a matter of fact, music can influence and even
participate in the manner in which the listeners construct and define their most intimate sensations 5.
Understanding how the channeling and the normalization of the process of construction touching
gender, sexuality, and desire are instrumental in maintaining the hegemonic structures of social
dominations and marginalization, it is necessary to explore the ways in which music can actively
participate in the formation of gendered and sexual experiences or identities, whether they conform
to or diverge from social expectations. This axis will address the various ways in which music may
influence these experiences and participate in the identity construction.
3. The place of women and of sexual and gender diversities in music. In regard to the
music of the past, many works of feminist musicology have considered issues of the established
historical canons of classical music to determine to what extent women have largely been excluded
from musical historiography and from musicological studies in general. Beyond historical
considerations, issues touching women's visibility as composers or performers are still topical.
Although women's status has obviously evolved since the ninetheenth century, issues concerning
visibility and access to positions of power or prestige remain subject to interrogation and concern.
This third axis of reflection will consequently focus on the place and visibility of women in
musical practice, the history of music, musical institutions, and music education. The perspectives
of this axis may be extended to issues touching the field of queer studies, concerning the visibility
and place of gender and sexual diversities.
4. Gender and epistemology. In a metadiscursive and autoreflexive perspective, this fourth
axis proposes to examine the different positionings and discourses regarding musical practices.
Indeed, the epistemological reflections introduced by gender studies imply a necessary critical
analysis of the tools, concepts, and modes of representations on which the different discourses
4 BOURDIEU Pierre, La Distinction. Critique sociale du jugement, Paris, Minuit, 1979.
5 McCLARY Susan, op.cit., pp.112-113.
concerning music and its contextual environment depend. These reflexions imply an awareness of
the historically and socially situated positioning of the researcher or theoretician. It cannot be
disregarded that constructions of the sexual and gendered identities of the authors can affect their
dispositions, their outlooks, their discourses, and even their tools for analysis. For instance, many
works, including theoretical works, are known for using gendered images or terminologies
(masculine/feminine themes or endings, for example). This axis of study intends to examine, inter
alia, the use of gendered terms in the technical, theoretical, and aesthetic descriptions of music
found in scholarly or musicographic discourses. It will question how social constructions of
masculinity and femininity have pervaded the ways of thinking about or of describing music, as
well as the manners by which these constructions can participate more globally in the sustainability
of gender representations on the social level.
ORGANISATION
Scientific direction: Frédérick Duhautpas
Scientific committee: Frédérick Duhautpas (Musidanse), Hélène Marquié (Legs, Université Paris
8), Makis Solomos (Musidanse), Joël Heuillon (Musidanse)
The conference will take place at the Paris 8 University. It will receive communications from
keynote speakers as well as selected proposals based for this call to papers.
The conference registration is free.
Proceedings will be published.
PROCEDURES FOR THE PAPER SUBMISSIONS
Proposals addressing issues related to one or more of the above-mentioned axes should be
sent before October 15, 2015 to the following adress: duhautpas_frederick AT hotmail (dot) com.
Proposals must include:
- an abstract in French or in English that may not exceed 5000 characters including spaces.
- a brief biographical sketch that may not exceed 1500 characters including spaces.
Applicants will receive a response to their proposals by October 31. Notices and instructions
will be sent to the e-mail address provided at the time of abstract submission.