Feminist theory in music education research: grrl‐illa1

This refers to both the Guerrilla Girls, a group of women artists and activists who, while wearing gorilla masks, oppose sexism and racism in the visual art world, and Riot Grrls, a loose collection of young, aggressive, activist, feminist women who appeared in the male‐dominated punk rock scene during the early 1990s.

games as nomadic practice (or how music education fell from grace)

Abstract

Gender is inherent in all aspects of the music education profession: musical instruments, occupations, materials, pedagogies and preferences. Despite this, feminist theory has been accepted slowly, and is consequently poorly understood. Working generally outside of the profession's accepted topics and means of research in a type of grr‐illa game practiced against more established ways of knowing, feminist theorists act as nomads, carrying out research that interrogates the exclusionary practices and discourses in which music education is implicated. This philosophical analysis includes an overview of feminist critique in music education philosophy, and discusses direct and indirect responses to this research and to feminist critique in general. My discussion is framed and grounded in the concepts of feminism(s), difference, nomads and grrl‐illa games, and is interwoven with philosophical and social possibilities of taking seriously feminist critique in music education research.

Notes

* Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C5, Canada. Email: [email protected]

This refers to both the Guerrilla Girls, a group of women artists and activists who, while wearing gorilla masks, oppose sexism and racism in the visual art world, and Riot Grrls, a loose collection of young, aggressive, activist, feminist women who appeared in the male‐dominated punk rock scene during the early 1990s.

For a remarkably eloquent discussion, see Roberta Lamb (1993/1994). Lamb's work influences and inspires my own.

Harry Caray was the long‐time announcer for the Chicago Cubs baseball team. During the seventh inning stretch, with his signature gravelly voice, he would enthusiastically lead the crowd in singing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’, the last line of which is ‘At the old ball game’ (lyrics by Jack Norworth, music by Albert Von Tilzer).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Gould *

* Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C5, Canada. Email: [email protected]