Premier Rock Forum

laslo wrote:Most people just do what they see other people doing. It's like that job is just not on the person's radar. It's not that someone says "I can't do it". They just don't necessarily think of themselves doing it.

Very well said.

i think it's just more socially acceptable for guys to be geeks than girls, for whatever reason. it sets in during high school.

as certain realms of geekiness become more mainstream, like blogs and web stuff, y'can see more women getting involved in that. but certain realms, like audio geekery for example, are still really manpowered.

that's my theory.

laslo wrote:

sndo wrote:I just don't think that in this day in age women can say "gee, I'd really like to become a recording engineer but there are lots of guys doing it so therefore I must not be able to?" That makes no sense.

Most people just do what they see other people doing. It's like that job is just not on the person's radar. It's not that someone says "I can't do it". They just don't necessarily think of themselves doing it.

The funny thing is that I don't think recording engineering is really on _anybody's_ radar when they think about what they want to do with their lives. In high school when it came time to pick colleges no one ever told me "hey, you should get into audio production."
I had no intention of going into recording when I started playing music. It just became a natural extension as our band got more interested in sound experiments than actual songs. Then I started recording bands to two track and trying to master them with the multi-band compressor in Soundforge. But then my parents said I had to get out of the house and do something with my life.
First I went off to graphic design, never once thinking that it would be mostly girls, I just happened to have a knack for it. But I later dropped that program when I heard about the recording engineering program at the college I was going to because I was getting pretty good at the audio production stuff which all arose out of trying to record my band in grade 9. Not because it's a "good career for men", which is the inverse of women never considering the job due to the lack of female role models. I had no recording engineer role models, I just thought (foolishly at the time) that I would rather have a day job making commercial music over commerical art. If I'd stuck with the graphics I'd have a decent job by now.

Sorry for grouching at you back there waitingroom. T'was uncalled for in that instance.



Faiz

Isn't the premise of this thread a little like going onto a crocheting or needlepoint board and whining about the the lack of guys on it? I know that can sound condescending and trivializing as to the content of feminine pursuit in general and I really don't mean it that way. It just seems that the whole concern seems to be a wasted one. Most people'd probably just think you're that much cooler.

Do crocheting or needlepoint boards actually exist?

bah, audiorecording is just waiting to open up behind a set of female pioneers. It looks there are already a few in the works. It does seem to be a very gender-skewed profession, but of course it needn't be.

I'm going to have to disagree with the whole "guys are better at ____ and girls are better at _____" not because i don't think there might be inherent differences between men and women, but because i think it's too thorny an issue to sum up in one simple statement that explains why there aren't more women in the recording industry. But any task of knowledge or discipline should be treated as equally amenable to men or women, just because it should, and end of story.

Why does the recording industry contain a lot of misogyny? Because it's full of dudes, duh. When more women move in, the assholes will learn that they're assholes. Unfortunately, it's a slow process.
As long as men are an overwhelming majority, there won't be anyone around to censure any chauvinism.

Why is the recording industry full of dudes? I'd say tradition more than anything else. I'll agree with statements of the historical prevalence of the patriarchy. But I'd say as long as women are interested in becoming engineers, and then proceed to become engineers, the flood will begin. Right now it seems more like a trickle.

by the way, i can sew a whip-stitch that'll slay/melt your face.

Delia Derbyshire had all the right moves.