Sunday, March 17, 2013
Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn
I have studied music since I was little and recently remembered learning about Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix's sister. While Felix gets most of the attention, a fair amount of musicologists argue that Fanny was the more talented of the two. Who was the more gifted composer makes no difference; what does is that Fanny was discouraged from pursing a career in music from her father. As this link Fanny Mendelssohn describes, Fanny's dad told her that women had no role in a music career, and that their place was in the home. What is sad is that Fanny was extremely gifted in her craft and she produced several "great works". Had she been able to pursue a career in composition, she may have created many other pieces. Thankfully her husband did encourage her to compose music, and thus we still have some of these today. Clearly we see a double-standard, as a father tells his daughter what her role should be, and encourages her brother to pursue the opposite. Sadly this is still present in today's society as there are "clearly marked" roles and occupations "suitable" for men and women.
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A friend of mine was in technical school for mechanical engineering. Since she was a woman, the instructors for several of her classes dismissed her when she asked for help and essentially told her that the reason she was having trouble wasn't because she didn't or couldn't learn, it was that she was a woman. On top of all of that, she was continually objectified by her peers and even the instructors. She ended up never getting help, but she did well. To her, it was a moment where she could say, "yes I can".
ReplyDeleteThat's really sad to be reminded how much women are told they cannot pursue a career because it has been deemed "a man's job". Then I see even if a woman does achieve a high career rank, such as a CEO or boss, she is ususally criticized for being cold and heartlss. If the role was reversed I feel some people would look upon the male CEO as only doing his job. There is a severe negative image of a successful woman in a high level career, that she is not fulfilling her role as nuturer or child raising. However, as we have talked about in class, there is no balance. If a woman stays home with the children she is considered lazy for not having at least a small career.
ReplyDeleteSomehow we need to share with other women that they should follow their dreams, not matter what the outcome will be. In the world there are so many cases of women who do not, and have fantastic talents. I think it's terrible that even some instuctors are blaming things on gender, and this has such a damaging effects.
We talked about this in class today and while we view this as very oppressive behavior from the parents behalf, i think their biggest concern is to avoid their children to feel or experience negative repercussions from society for not following the status quo. Times are changing and women are allowed in most fields, and perhaps instead of protecting our children by instilling "you can't/shouldn't" thoughts we need to encourage them to take risks and challenge boundaries and norms and claim their agency in the world.
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