Alumni News

The Gendered Construction of Jazz

In a piece on NPR, Michelle Mercer MFA '10 highlighted the continued sexism in the jazz world, in the light of recent comments from two top jazz figures. 

The Gendered Construction of Jazz

"To be a female jazz fan and critic is to live with a frustrating irreconcilability: I have an intellectual passion for creative, complex music and, sometimes, the musicians who make that music doubt my ability to appreciate its creativity and complexity" writes Mercer. 

"Much feminist work in jazz has focused on the noble goals of celebrating the genre's marginalized women musicians and advocating towards equal representation for them on today's bandstands. [However,] the issue of women in jazz goes deeper, into a gendered construction of the music itself. We need an intelligent public discussion [this]."