I CAN EXPLAIN THAT
Now Playing: Heart - Passionworks
Topic: Guitar
I came across an interesting article online tonight. In the article, a writer at The Washington Post puzzles over why there has still never been any truly formidable, ground-breaking, pioneering, innovative, boundary-pushing female guitarists. Guitarists long remembered in music history for taking the instrument in a whole new direction. I'm sure I would rarely find myself in the position of being able to explain something to the mighty minds at The Washington Post, but actually this one I can explain.
The article goes on for three pages looking for reasons why women have failed to be influential on the instrument. A handful of famous female guitarists are interviewed in trying to unravel the mystery.
The full article can be found here:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19175-2004Aug20.html
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Here's an excerpt:
"Where are all the guitar heroines? Where are all the female guitarists who can light it up in some original, groundbreaking and influential way? Can you name any? Come to think of it, have you ever heard the phrase "guitar heroine"?
Probably not, and for good reason. This won't win you friends and maybe it can't be said out loud, but here's the hard and horrible truth: Fifty years after Elvis Presley recorded "That's All Right Mama," the grand total of pantheon-worthy female rock guitarists is zero.
There isn't a single one."
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This isn't as hard to figure out as the article would have you believe. And not surprisingly, the answer isn't musical at all, it's sociological. Everybody knows that women in rock -- on any instrument -- face the tired old "girls can't rock", "girls can't play", "it takes balls" bit. The lack of female guitar innovators isn't about that, either, but it does come from the same place. It's about attitudes.
To be an innovator, you can't just be good and original. Other people have to recognize that originality, acknowledge it...and ultimately imitate it. Then you're an innovator. So a female guitarist might be brilliant, original, and ground-breaking, but if no one is willing to acknowledge that, or follow her lead, she'll never be recognized as such. And the macho nature of rock guitar playing just doesn't lead to males citing female guitarists as influences, or following their lead.
Nor is the playing field very level. The more original a female guitarist's playing is, the less likely she is to get recognition, because the basis of comparison generally used to determine whether or not a woman "can play" is whether she can play like the typical male rock guitarist. That's not exactly the road to originality, is it? And female guitarists who try to do something original with their playing aren't necessarily rewarded for their efforts.
Here's the Catch-22 that each female guitarist faces. If she plays like the guys, she's dismissed for not being original. ("Oh, if she was a dude, no one would think her playing is special".) But if she goes her own way and does play in a totally original way, then she's dismissed as playing that way because she "can't" play like the guys, "doesn't have the ability". Damned if you do...
So that sums up why there are no acknowledged female guitar innovators.
Elementary, my dear Wa-- shington Post. 
(Of course it's me.)
Wait! Come baaaack....
