Why his(her)tory is so important to women
this photo from the Huntington Library web site is not credited; click on it to go to their site
I’m not referring to the herstory they taught us in middle school, or high school, or even in college in most cases. I’m talking about the herstory in useful and truthful biographies and autobiographies, the history in stories passed down from generation to generation. When those herstories are not recorded or passed, we are doomed to keep repeating the same life and world scenarios – life loops that repeat endlessly. And we, the naive and ignorant actors, destined to repeat the lives of our mothers and our mothers’ mothers and our mothers’ mothers’ mothers . . . .for better or for worse.
We are also doomed to live in isolation, thinking ourselves unique, and alone, thinking that we are the only ones experiencing our personal struggles, terrors, joys – and epiphanic moments.
Yesterday I attended a meeting of The Women Studies Program at The Huntington Library (& museum and garden) in Pasadena. This is a wonderful gathering of women academics and the public that I have attended for more than fifteen years. In a cavernous conference room, I have learned a great deal of the history of women that was kept from me in school – where we were primarily played the infinite loop of the history of men in politics and war. As recently as 2005, my niece’s high school U.S. History book credited President Woodrow Wilson with having obtained the vote for women – a favor to them for having worked so hard while their men were off to World War I. I kid you not: the women’s suffrage movement was given no credit, and Susan B. Anthony was given one sentence in the book – for having worked with the women’s suffrage movement. The truth of women’s struggles for the vote came to me only through my eventual involvement with the League of Women Voters, the reading of various books, written by women, about the suffrage movement, and through my attendance at various Women Studies Program events. At those events, I have learned about women of multiple ethnicities and cultures, women in unions, women writers, mothers, women and marriage, women and rights, women in politics, women and religion, women and the law.
Yesterday one of the guest speakers was a woman currently studying the subject of women in music. Specifically contemporary women who play brass instruments, “like the trombone, the trumpet and the saxophone,” she said. I will dispense, for now, with the fact that the saxophone is not a brass instrument, but a woodwind, for that will come to play later in my recounting of this story.
This woman is making a film “to celebrate” contemporary women jazz players of “brass” instruments. Bless her heart for this.
But it is time for a history lesson here. And to share the epiphany I had as I listened to her speak, and watched the video clip she brought with her of six or seven youg women playing some standard jazz tunes like Killer Joe. At the start of her talk, she asked the audience to name three women players, one each of the saxophone, the trumpet, and the trombone. The audience could not. One implicit implication here was that we are just not paying attention to women jazz players, not celebrating them like we do the men; but one of the places I am going with this blog essay of mine is to focus on the fact of the dirth of women musicians, even today, and to shift our focus.
I raised my hand when this woman took questions and answers. It is the first time I have ever done that in all the years that I have attended the Women Studies Program in Pasadena. I had not planned out what I would say, but was compelled to speak after her presentation.
This is what I said:
“My sister, Tucki Bailey, is a jazz saxophonist. (round of applause – some, including the speaker, had apparently heard of her) She just turned sixty. At fifty, she said to me, ‘Terry, I never ever imagined that I would reach this age, look behind, and discover so very few women had followed me.’
I am a guitarist. I play jazz. I am very very tired of playing only with men. (more applause) While I understand and support that we need to celebrate women musicians, I feel it way more important that we convince parents to encourage their daughters to play the saxophone and the guitar. That we ask why this is not happening.”
When the session let out, many women came to speak to me. Just to thank me for my words. For speaking up. That surprised me and gave me pause.
It made me think about what had compelled me to jump up and say my piece at this meeting. And I realized that there is an element of righteous anger in me about the infinite loop of women’s exclusion from music that this meeting, that this woman presenter and aspiring filmmaker spoke to. This woman believes that she is “discovering” women “brass” jazz musicians, celebrating them, and sharing them with the world.
What she does not realize is how many times this has been done before . . . .
to be continued
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