Re: kol isha

[Eliezer Kaplan <zelwel...>]

...make that www.radcliffe.edu/quarterly/199804/suits_me.html




----- Original Message -----
From: "Eliezer Kaplan" <zelwel (at) earthlink(dot)net>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 8:24 PM
Subject: Re: kol isha


> Billy Tipton's cross dressing was about a whole lot more than 'getting
> gigs'- see www.radcliffe.edu/quarterly/199804/suits-me.html, for
example...
>                                         EK
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Margotlev (at) aol(dot)com>
> To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 7:11 PM
> Subject: Re: kol isha
>
>
> > Just for perspective -
> >   I'm reading Billy Tipton's biography about a woman who had to
> cross-dress
> > and pass as a man to get any gigs at all as recently as the 50's.  Just
to
> > make the point that discrimination against female musicians is by no
means
> > limited to orthodox Jews - the issues and reasons given may differ in
part
> > for liberal Jews and non-Jews, but the effect of the discrimination is
> > exactly the same..  It is only in this generation that female
> > instrumentalists have begun to get any significant gigs in klezmer
music.
> Kol
> > Isha adds talmudic insult to injury but the injury is the same.
> >
> > The reason we get angry about it, and the reason we can't just live and
> let
> > live, is that discrimination limits working opportunities for female
> > musicians.  If you are not a musician you might not realize that gigs
pay
> > bills, gigs give us opportunities to play with other musicians who can
> help
> > us improve our skills, gigs put us in front of audiences that challenge
> us,
> > gigs make musicians.  Without gigs we can't be musicians.  Every
Hassidic
> or
> > Orthodox gig that my male colleagues get that I don't get to play on is
a
> day
> > I have to figure out another way to make a living, it's a day away from
my
> > horn, it's a lost opportunity to sharpen my skills and get a step up in
my
> > career.  And I'm an instrumentalist - believe me, I sing only under
> duress.
> >
> > I've attended workshops where the discussion is about discrimination
> against
> > women in jazz - where the exclusion is equally blatant. What can we do?
> The
> > ideas they came up with included playing in the schools, being a role
> model
> > for little girls who want to play music - there are growing numbers of
us,
> > and we are getting better.  I am going to play and play and play, every
> place
> > and every chance I get, so that by the time those little girl musicians
> grow
> > up and are ready for their first gig, no one think there's anything
> unusual
> > about women playing music.
> >
> > And I realize this seems like a digression from Kol Isha, I've departed
> from
> > the talmudic issue, but in many ways it still is the same issue.  A rose
> by
> > any other name...
> >
> > Margot Leverett
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>

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