I am not a female DJ
June 20th, 2002 by freddie96
There’s a current advert for a new BBC web service called Blast, an online resource for creative youths. In the commercial, a streetwise young man pitches the concept of his new film idea. He states that the star of his film is a female DJ who plays records from the back of a pick-up. The visual images that accompany this pitch are of a youthful, unconventionally beautiful woman (think Tank Girl), posing behind the decks on the pick-up and glancing seductively at the camera.
At first you think, ‘How nice, a woman DJ on TV’, yet on second thought, the BBC ad implies the man is the one with talent, while the female DJ is relegated to being a different sort of ‘talent’. The voiceover only reinforces this by making reference to his skills and ideas (not hers); BBC Blast is ready to support and encourage our budding male filmmaker, but where’s the support for our heroine? She speaks no lines and serves only as eye-candy. Perhaps things have not come as far as we’d like to think.
Even so, the idea of women DJing has clearly hit the mainstream. Yet the BBC ad – and so many other articles, features and reviews – seem to have missed the point. Time and again, women are being inadvertently objectified by media and writers who think they are promoting ‘the cause’. They deliberately choose to focus on the ‘female’ angle, not realising that this only fuels the segregation. I mean, how many times has the term ‘male DJ’ been used in articles about Mixmaster Morris, Pete Tong or Paul Oakenfold? Not once, I’d wager.
On the other side of the coin, many women DJs themselves are just as guilty as men & the media. How many ‘all male’ DJ collectives or promotion agencies do you know? Most of them do happen to be all male, they just don’t publicise the fact, nor do they expect to gain anything by being male-only. And most aren’t purposefully exclusionary. In that sense, women-only collectives like Femi9 are defeating their own purpose. If you want to be treated as equal, don’t segregate yourself from your peers. I’m all for ‘sisters doing it for themselves’ and being supportive of one another, but the sooner we stop focusing on our differences, the sooner we can get on with just being good DJs, no matter what sex, race, religion or species we are. After all, it’s the music – not the sex of the DJ – that makes a great night out.
What strikes me about all this female DJ hype is that although plenty of people acknowledge that there should be more women in the business, no one seems to be questioning WHY there are so few female DJs in the first place. And this, I think, is the crux of the problem. No matter how much promotion, media attention or hype is showered on the concept of women DJs, there will never be an equal number if there is something inherent to the act of DJing that prevents more women from taking interest.
While many people might blame the lack of women DJs on the cut-throat nature of the club business, I think there may be something more basic and organic that has kept numbers low. Whether it’s nature or nurture, I can’t say, but what I do know is that women and men communicate differently and have different values.
In a recent article on The Big Chill website, a male DJ stated that ‘If you want to tell people who the real you is, DJ to them…Give me an hour or two on your decks, then, and I’ll play you who I really am.’ When discussing this article with another male DJ, he really struck a chord when he suggested that men need to have an activity or tool (such as DJing) to communicate, whereas women just communicate freely unaided. In most cases, a group of men in a pub will talk about football, cricket or some other concrete activity; women will talk about how something made them feel. Sure, it’s a stereotype – ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’ and all that – but there’s certainly some truth in it.
Going even further, it could be argued that young boys are more often encouraged to perform and succeed (usually in sport) than young women. While boys may view this ‘encouragement’ as support, many girls would view it as pressure. And as they get older, young women are generally more affected by peer pressure to conform than to stand out, especially in their teens.
There are plenty of other psychological differences between men and women, and these factors should be taken into account when examining ratios of men to women in anything. Why are there so few male nurses? Why aren’t there more female barristers? The point is there must certainly be something aside from the nature of the business that’s keeping women DJs at bay. A set of decks has now replaced the guitar as the most desirable Christmas present for teenage males. This in itself is telling.
Looking at these issues may make for interesting research, but my only worry is that the same old things that have prevented more women from being successful in music are also preventing more women DJs from being recognised. Of course you can name plenty of successful women in music, but how many can you name who are overweight, unattractive or non-conformist? As long as Madonna, Sugarbabes and Atomic Kitten rule the music charts, I fear DJing will follow suit. After all, no one hesitates to write about Carl Cox despite his appearance, yet the only female DJs who are garnering media attention are those who look good in a cover shot.
While I am glad to see that more women DJs are being recognised these days, I only wish it were purely for their ability to play great tunes and create a good vibe. It’s high time the media stopped singling us out for our sex – or sexiness – rather than our skills behind the decks. I don’t want to be a female DJ; I just want to be a good DJ.
Miko Coffey, June 2002
Photograph by Jayne
