Friday, April 20, 2012

Gender and Sexuality in our Performances

For this last post on musical theatre, I will answer the age old question: How does musical performance mirror the gender and sexuality of our society?

According to Pirkko Moisala scholarly article “Musical Gender in Performance”, “The bodily nature of music intertwines deeply with human sexuality”.  In a sense, performance embodies an audience’s interests and desires.  Sexuality (in its wide variety) is explicitly conveyed on stage in a variety of ways.  The article went on to say, “Music seems to be a site where we not only free ourselves from gender limitations but also from the limitations of conventional sexuality.”  Music and performance provide a canvas for expression and a diversity of moods.  This variety can help us a society better understand each other and our wide spectrum of perspectives.  Moisala reinforces this idea in her article.  “As a unique human expression that combines our bodily and cultural identity with idiosyncratic creativity, music provides an interesting setting for gender performance and negotiation in all sociohistorical and cultural contexts”.  Altogether, Moisala is hopeful for a future of equality and sees art as the vessel for egalitarianism in our modern world.  “The performative nature of music…allow for an interesting and possibly radical, if not revolutionary, site in which new kinds of gender performances and gender identities can evolve and which, eventually, may transgress the gender boundaries of any society. The concept of "musical gender," I hope, will help us to move away from looking at what "men" or "women" do with music to an investigation of how music acts in the practices of gender signification and resignification. Music and musical gender can and should be used to deconstruct gender dichotomies and to appreciate all gender differences and variations.”

 This pairing with sexuality, gender, music, and dance is often so explicit that the performance becomes controversial.  Judith Lynne Hanna’s article “Dance and Sexuality: Many Moves” addresses this very concept.  Her article addressed religion’s view of dance as “immoral”.  Hanna’s article views dance, sexuality, and musical performance and a union of strength and free expression.  “Dance and sexuality (are) a source of power (and) manifestations of sexuality in Western theater art and social dance, plus ritual and non-Western social dance. Expressions of gender, sexual orientation, asexuality, ambiguity, and adult entertainment exotic dance are presented.”  Hanna argues that because of such traditionalist judgments toward dance, the gap between free expression and conservativeness will only widen in our futures.  Nevertheless throughout this debate, the connection between performance and sexuality only grows closer.  At the extreme end of dance, exotic dancers literally connect their specific type of performance with sexuality and gender.  Everywhere in between sex workers and church choirs, sexuality and gender are addressed through performance.

 Altogether, musical performance directly relates to gender and sexuality.  From musical theatre to strip tease to opera, gender and sexuality are addressed.  Audience members make quick judgments biased on context clues about characters and categorize them instantly.  This gender and sexuality framing is ever-present in our lives and it is directly reflected in our entertainment.



Works Cited

Hanna, Judith Lynne.  “Dance and Sexuality: Many Moves”.  Journal of Sex Research. 


Moisala, Pirkko.  Musical Gender in Performance”.  Woman & Music 1999: 1-30.  Web

article.  University of Nebraska Press.  http://search.proquest.com/docview/223659907


-Written by Michael Herman

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