How the Others sound? Understanding the intersectional relation between gender and disability in the musical context.

Enfoque

Introduction: This essay aims to promote an interdisciplinary debate between the fields of disability studies, gender studies and the sociology of music. This debate is necessary in view of multiple contributions that each intersection of these studies,, namely disability and gender, disability and music, and gender and music has impacted the views of how identities are formed, what are the limits of a body, the different contexts in which gender and disability act, and how the art worlds dialogue with their social structures. Objective: The objective of this study is to comprehend how the state of the art of the investigations that were developed aiming understanding the intersectionalities of disability and gender determines, or not, possible openings for new developments around the study of these markers of social difference in the context of musical practice and experience, comprehending the ways in which the sociology of music can be thought together with the disability studies and gender studies. Methodology: With this proposal in mind, keyword searches in Portuguese (música, deficiência, gênero), in Spanish (música, discapacidad, género), and in English (music, disability and gender) were carried out in the Scielo, LILACS, Redalyc and Google Scholar databases to find out which studies worked with the intersection of these fields of knowledge, as well as looking for complementary literature that was perceived as central to understanding this dialogue. Discussion: This work argues for the need to include disability studies and gender studies in the field of the sociology of music, since it is not possible to understand the dynamics that arise in everyday musical practice without considering the axes of differentiation that run through the lives of those who make up a given musical reality. Results: The study showed that women and persons with disabilities are generally perceived as individuals with disadvantages, being perceived without qualities that are culturally associated with men. This is related to the “intellectual” work of music composition being normally linked to the work of male compositors, while women are generally associated with the “emotional” work of the performers, generating a disparity of recognition in the art world. Disability can be associated with a generalized view of an inability to work as a musician in a standardized way, which negates other forms of musical practice and experience. The experience of disability in music is always in the context of anormality, deviating from the norm and finding success only the by being an Other, someone who “overcomes its identity and limits”, and not as someone who experiences life and music in its own way, like anyone else. Disability and gender relate to each other in ways of how power is disputed in the music experience, how roles are determined and how the “normal” is constituted. Conclusions: This essay established the need for constituting a debate between disability, gender and music in the context of the sociology of music. The comprehension of the musical experience can be enhanced by perceiving the intersectionality that constitutes the participants of a musical community.