I think this is actually a very complicated topic, but only if we were to dive into the human psychology and the many factors that influence us such as the culture. Lets leave that to all the professionals and researchers.
I remember when I went to my band class in middle school for the first time ever. All the flute players were girls, the clarinet players were a mixture of boys and girls, and the majority of the percussion and brass players were boys. I didn't really think too much about it, until I transferred to a different middle school. There was one boy who played the flute. He was very good on it, but unfortunately he quit because many of my classmates made fun of him for playing such a “girly” instrument. It was like an “unspoken law” in the band room that girls should stick with the smaller soprano instruments and that boys should play the bigger and louder instruments. Although you got to make the choice of what instrument you wanted to play, it was like a internal rule about what instruments a middle school student should play. In high school, we all played whatever instrument we played in middle school, but when occasional students decided they wanted to join band it was a mixture. As our maturity grew too, students who joined or wanted to change instruments, just went with the instrument they wanted to play, whether it was a tuba or an oboe. Nobody would say anything about it.
In the 8th grade, my violin teacher thought that I should join PYO, the youth orchestra the Alia Lawson Pre-College offered until recently. I remember that majority of the violins were made up of girls, but there were always one or two boys. The viola section was made up of mainly boys, but there were some girls in it. The cello section was a complete mixture of both genders, but the basses were all boys.
It really seemed as though the bigger and louder the instrument, the more likely that males are to play that instrument, but if we were to emphasize the cons and pros of each instrument I think we can destroy the “unspoken rule.” I mean I have found that female horn players or male flautists to be proficient at what they do.
Please don't take this personally as I only took this from experience, and I think anyone can be good at their instrument as long as they practice :)
Mari, amen to that! Your chromosomes don't dictate how well suited or how well you play an instrument! Only your work on it! :) It makes me sad to read about yet another male flute player who was basically driven out because of silly gender-instrument sterotypes - Men can be fantastic on the flute. Look at James Galway!
ReplyDeleteI can understand some corralation between gender and instrument, like with the string bass. I mean, men tend to be taller, so they're physically more suited for the instrument, but then again, to counter that point, there are some tall women in the world too. I think everyone should just play what ever they want to play and to heck with the dumb stero types!
Don't worry, Mari--you have only your own experiences to draw from here. And they're very similar to many who've grown up in the South. Band instruments are a bit less gender-specific in other parts of the country, but only somewhat so.
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