I guess an easy answer would be some do, but many still don't. Granted, I have only anecdotal evidence, but it doesn't surprise me while digging through some of my last.fm contacts' music libraries, I found that male artists far outweigh female ones.
(I actually did some tallying up -- because I am a nerd like that. It was around 5% at the low end, and 25% at the high.)
Of course, it's no secret that female recording artists get the shaft unless you are young, beautiful and heavily promoted.Jezebel's response to a Times Of London article on the concept of "musical genius" earlier this year:
The Times of London writer claims that Rufus Wainwright gets plied with the "genius" accolade frequently, while similarly blessed female musicians like Kate Bush, Bjork and Goldfrapp are not given the genius label. Um, Jane? Goldfrapp? You're really arguing that Goldfrapp is a "genius?" Maybe the term genius is being tossed around entirely too frequently, regardless of gender.
and
I checked out the Billboard Hot 100, and as five of the top ten albums are by women, maybe we need to lament the lack of "genius" females in music writing, not music making... Yes, 50% of the top selling artists this week are female, but they're all, to a woman (Rihanna, Natasha Beddingfield, the abhorrent Katy Perry, etc.) beautiful, under 25, and singing pop. Several of them do not write their own songs, and their popularity is largely driven by their packaging, not their music.
With image being at such a high premium, and women being being more susceptible to attacks on their image, it's easy to see why so many talented female artists fall through the cracks. But what does this all mean to those of who have long-prided ourselves on eschewing glossy, cookie-cutter pop stars for something more organic? Not much. Indie rock has long been a boy's club, and speaking from personal experience, it doesn't get much better on the fan-end. Apparently, the internet isn't the great equalizer it should be. Nancy Baym from Online Fandom says of women music fans and the online experience:
Meanwhile, music on and offline is as much of a boy’s club as it’s ever been. When I worked in a record store (the only woman who worked at that store), almost all of our customers were male, and all of the ones who came in and dropped tons of cash on large stacks of records and later CDs were. Women in bands are expected more than ever to be sex objects as well as singers (have a look at coverage of the most recent American Idol if you doubt that). But few and far between as women in bands are, fewer and further between are women behind the counters at record stores, working at record labels, acting as managers (let alone producers or engineers), and working behind the scenes at “Music 2.0” sites. We can’t expect the internet to overcome a playing field that unlevel to begin with.
The closest parallels can be drawn from the gaming world, another "old boys' club":
For those of you who haven’t been around the past few years listening to me rant about the gender issue, let’s just say that there’s been a pattern of fanboys ignoring fangirls, of male scholars dismissing and ignoring our interests or, when discussing the same material, our outlook and insights.
(ephemeral traces)
My own experiences online and off have followed the same pattern. There's always that feeling of "proving yourself worthy" before you are accepted, something most women have faced especially those who dare to enter a "boys only" zone.
I've always wanted to ask other female music fans this: do you feel talked down to or marginalized in the presence of fanboys? Has the internet been the great equalize it was supposed to be?
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