Almqvist and Hentschel 2019

DOI: 10.35699/2317-6377.2019.
5288
eISSN 2317-6377
The (female) situated musical body: aspects of caring

Cecilia Fem Almqvist. Södertörn University College. [email protected]
Linn Hentschel. Umeå University. [email protected]
SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE. Submitted date: 10 Dec 2018. Final approval date: 11 Apr 2019
Abstract: The starting point for the study presented in this article is constituted by experiences of using Simone de
Beauvoir’s philosophy and Iris Marion Young theories aiming to describe and understand the becoming of musical
women in Swedish schools. Earlier research conducted outside the area of music shows that Beauvoir’s theories can
help to explain – and provide means of change for – situations where there is a risk that traditional gender roles will
be conserved. A majority of gender studies in the field of music education are based on the performativity theory of
Judith Butler. In comparison, de Beauvoir states that repetitions and habits are stratified in the body as experiences,
and that human beings are able to make choices in a situation. The aim of the study is to explore how caring is
nurtured among girls in Swedish music educational settings. Material generated through two phenomenological
studies conducted within specialist music programs in lower respectively higher secondary education in Sweden,
constituted the empirical base for conducting re-analysis. This re-analysis followed a hermeneutical
phenomenological analytical model. Examples of how caring seemed to be nurtured among girls in music education
appeared at different levels and in different situations. It concerns actions made by the girls aiming to make the
social and musical setting function in agreed upon ways, namely in the form of taking initiatives, filling “gaps”, and
being flexible. Finally we reflect upon causes and changes in relation to actions that seem to establish and maintain
female students as immanent, and non-able to run their own projects.
Keywords: Gender in music; caring; music education; de Beauvoir; gender structures.
O CORPO MUSICAL (FEMININO) ESTABELECIDO: ASPECTOS DO CUIDADO

Resumo: O ponto de partida para o estudo apresentado neste artigo é constituído por experiências do uso da
filosofia de Simone de Beauvoir e das teorias de Iris Marion Young com o objetivo de descrever e compreender o
tornarem-se mulheres musicais nas escolas suecas. Pesquisas anteriores conduzidas fora da área da música mostram
que as teorias de Beauvoir podem ajudar a explicar – e fornecer meios de mudança para – situações em que há o
risco de que as funções tradicionais de gênero sejam preservadas. A maioria dos estudos de gênero no campo da
educação musical baseia-se na teoria da performatividade de Judith Butler. Em comparação, Beauvoir afirma que as
repetições e os hábitos são estratificados no corpo como experiências, e que os seres humanos são capazes de fazer
escolhas em uma situação. O objetivo deste estudo é explorar como o cuidado é nutrido entre as meninas nos
contextos educacionais da música sueca. O material gerado por meio de dois estudos fenomenológicos, conduzidos
em programas especializados de música respectivamente nos níveis básico e médio na Suécia, constituiu a base
empírica para conduzir a reanálise. Essa reanálise seguiu um modelo analítico fenomenológico hermenêutico.
Exemplos de como o cuidado parecia ser nutrido entre as garotas na educação musical apareciam em diferentes
níveis e em diferentes situações. Referem-se a ações feitas pelas meninas com o objetivo de fazer o ambiente social
e musical funcionar de formas acordadas, a saber, na forma de tomar iniciativas, preencher lacunas e ser flexível. Por
fim, refletimos sobre as causas e mudanças em relação às ações que parecem estabelecer e manter as alunas como
imanentes, e incapazes de executar seus próprios projetos.
Palavras-chave: Gênero em música; cuidado; educação musical; de Beauvoir; estruturas de gênero.
Per Musi, no. 39, Music and Gender, e193905, 2019
[Digite texto] [Digite texto] [Digite texto]

Almqvist, Cecilia Ferm, and Linn Hentschel. 2019. “The (female) situated musical body: aspects of caring”.
Per Musi no. 39, Music and Gender: 1-16, e193905. DOI 10.35699/2317-6377.2019.5288. 2
The (female) situated musical body:

aspects of caring
Cecilia Ferm Almqvist, Södertörn University College, [email protected]
Linn Hentschel, Umeå University, [email protected]
1. Introduction
Previous research shows that music, seen from a wider societal perspective, is considered equally
important for men and women in Sweden, while the music community produces and reproduces gender
structures that lead to an unequal situation for men and women (Ganetz et. al 2009). According to
previous research, overall gender structures in the music community are created and maintained by over-
representing men at the expense of women in the professional music industry (Green 2002; McClary
1991). Within popular music genres, the music industry is clearly segregated with the exception of the
“singer” position which, by a large majority, is seen as belonging to women (Bayton 1998; Björck 2011;
Frith and Mcrobbie 1991). Singing is defined as strongly coded feminine, or as something more for girls in
research and evaluations of Western education primarily based on instrument and activity choices, where
girls primarily sing and boys play other instruments (Bayton 1998; Björck 2011, Borgström-Källén, 2014;
Ganetz 2008; Green, 1997, 2002, 2010; Kvarnhall, 2015; Koza, 1993-1994; Onsrud, 2013). Singing, and
especially singing in a high register, are considered as either feminine or feminine and related to
homosexual behaviour, and is seen as one of the reasons to why boys and men rarely choose to sing
(Adler, 2002; Borgström-Källén 2014; Freer, 2009; Kvarnhall 2015; O'toole 1998). Depending on the
cultural, historical and musical contexts where boys sing, singing can also be regarded as an act of
masculine behaviour (for example in the rock/rap/jazz/popular music industry see Hall, 2005). Playing
instruments in popular music bands, on the other hand, is seen as a traditionally ‘male’ activity (Abramo
2011; Borgström-Källén 2014; Ferm Almqvist 2017a, 2017b, 2018). Earlier research also suggests that when
boys chose to sing, they often obtain more privileges than girls such as appreciation for their singing
performances, because of the unbalance regarding amount of girls versus boys who actually sing. In choir
settings, this is reinforced by a strong emphasis on balance in between the different harmony parts in choir
(SATB) which creates a situation where the few boys who chose to participate are valued higher than the
girls (O'Toole 1998).
In Western cultures, specifically in opinions and preferences in relation to music, women are often
considered ‘passive’ and as such have fewer opportunities to participate in musical activities, compared to
men who are considered to be ‘active’ (Dibben 2002). Previous research shows, that uneven gender
structures in Western music communities appear within the popular music industry, as well as in school's
popular music education, where boys are given access and girls are prevented from obtaining access
(Bergman 2009; Björck 2011; Borgström-Källén 2014; Green 2002). The societal gender norms that create
inequality can be reproduced within music education in schools (Green 2002). Examples of such processes
can be how boys and girls are treated differently by teachers (Borgström-Källén 2014; Karlsson 2002;
O`Toole 1998), or through music education being organised through the “rock-band principle” (Bergman,
2009). This suggests that boys with a greater degree of previous knowledge in playing in rock bands
outside of school environments achieve better in music education, whilst girls tend to downplay their skills.
Another tendency is that girls who chose to incorporate traditional “male” genres, get better possibilities
to develop than the once who do not (Ferm Almqvist 2017). Earlier research has also shown a gendered
polarised view of musical genres in music educational settings, when it comes to conceptions of who is
seen “suitable” to play certain instruments or certain genres (Asp 2015; Borgström-Källén, 2014; Karlsson
2002). Earlier research has also shown that girls can structure their musical performances according to “the
male gaze”, meaning that they try to act in ways that men find attractive in musical settings (Bayton 1998).
Björck (2011) argues that the increased interest in popular music in Swedish schools requires that music
education research investigate possibilities and limitations of popular music itself. Similarly, Borgström-
Källén (2014) states that there is a lack of studies of pupils' constructions of gender and musical action in
educational sciences, describing that music education could be challenged and re-examined through
developed understanding. This article aims to shed light on aspects of how music education in Swedish
schools might encourage girls to take on a higher responsibility of caring for others in musical situations,
and, in so doing, risk becoming “the second musical sex” (Ferm Almqvist 2017). To be able to understand
aspects of caring as becoming a musical woman, we are using de Beauvoir’s philosophy developed in “The
second sex” ([1949] 2012) and Youngs (2002) thoughts on caring as a part of “gendered structures”,
structures that partly condition how humans interact in and with the world. By presenting examples that
show risks for girls taking a higher responsibility of caring in musical learning settings, we hope to make a
music educational contribution to the field of gender and music studies. This article consists of a re-analysis
of material from two cases shared by girls between the ages of 15 and 26, as well as one (grown up) music
teacher. The participants in the two cases are not from the same school. By revealing similarities within the
results from the re-analysis in between these two cases, this article can be seen as an example of how
caring girls in music educational settings transcend both school forms and social structures within a
particular school. By specifically using theories of de Beauvoir and Young in order to do this, we also hope
that our contribution can be seen as an addition to a field where a majority of gender studies in music
education uses theories of J. Butler and R.W. Connell.
First, we present the philosophy of de Beauvoir ([1949] 2012), partly developed by Young (2002).
Thereafter, two empirical studies will be presented in order to illustrate the case, followed by the results of
a re-analysis of chosen parts of the material where aspects of caring appear. Finally we share some further
thoughts, relations to the philosophical concepts, and consequences for practice, based upon the results of
the re-analysis.
The philosophical base for this article is an existential philosophical phenomenological assumption that
humans experience the world with their body, which makes their perspective of the world subjectively
given and impossible to leave. The human body is seen as a whole, not as divided into body and soul.
Hence, the body establishes human experience in the world (de Beauvoir [1949] 2012; Merleau-Ponty,
[1945] 1997). Based on this way of thinking, humans are free to create themselves and their life through
the projects they assume, and accordingly, human existence does not have a predetermined fixed essence.
Instead, humans are seen as responsible subjects with freedom to make active choices (Sampson 2008).
Human projects are therefore seen as inevitable consequences of taking responsibility for these active
choices. Humans are always engaged in transcending projects, to exceed or develop their current
situations. The bodily experience of the world is connected to human projects within in the world, and the
experience of these projects is connected to the human body. The conditions that constitute humans
experiences of freedom affect their projects and consist of different situations –the body is seen as both a
situation and in situations (de Beauvoir [1949] 2012). Situations are not seen as absolute; they change
when people and the world change, and they contain things that can serve as opportunities or barriers in
human projects. Building a theoretical perspective, with the body seen as a situation in situations, involves
placing human living experience into a social context. To see the world described in this way constitutes a
premise that human existence consists of what humans do, and not what humans are. Accordingly, this
article is based on an assumption that aspects of sex and gender are seen as inextricably interwoven, since
the body is viewed both as a situation and in situations.
In de Beauvoir´s ([1949] 2012) thinking, immanence and transcendence are used as theoretical concepts to
explain how humans live their lives. In the lived world, humans are given opportunities and obstacles to
transcend in their projects through factualities, within given situations. When humans perceive themselves
as hindered, referred to not transcending in their projects, they become immanent. ‘Transcendence’ can
be defined as active action in relation to ‘immanence’, defined as passive repetition. Every human
existence includes both transcendence and immanence. For de Beauvoir, transcendence is synonymous
with human freedom. This means that since humans are seen as basically free but constrained by
factualites within different situations, some humans experience more freedom or more opportunities to
transcend in their projects than others. According to de Beauvoir, women in general have become
immanent to a higher degree than men, through power structures which subordinate women and superior
men. The very concept of ‘woman’, de Beauvoir argues, is a male concept: woman is always ‘other’
because the male is the ‘seer’: he is the subject and she the object – the meaning of what it is to be a
woman is given by men, through the “male gaze”. Thereby, women can be seen as complicit in their own
oppression. In existentialist terms, women internalize the male gaze, and by that the expectations of the
gender. They are conscious about how they are observed, and women's own thinking assimilates this
awareness. One risk is that women then strive to live up to this model of the ‘eternal feminine’, and
become just what they are expected to become.
‘Caring’, to concern about others, is a skill that humans learn to develop throughout life. In other words,
caring is nothing human beings are (an innate essence), but learn to do, and according to de Beauvoir
([1949] 2012), caring is more often expected of girls. Caring, to prepare for or take on the mother’s and
wife’s role, was something young women were largely expected to do at the time of de Beauvoir’s writing
in 20th Century France. Her thoughts of caring as written in The Second Sex, can be understood as an effect
of such structures. Women are consequently not expected to nurture specific “nerdy” narrow interests nor
hobbies, but rather to be broadly skilled and flexible.
In Young´s (2002) development of de Beauvoir's ([1949] 2012) theories, she describes caring within a
working environment as part of a gendered structure where women often do unpaid care work. In her
description of how the maintenance of gender hierarchies is done by repetition in social situations, Young
(2002) presents the concept of gender structures which she divides into three: sexual division of labour,
normative heterosexuality and gendered power hierarchies. These are used to explain the processes by
which women are subordinated to men in society. According to Young, a structure is a flow of institutional
rules and practices, mobilization of resources and physical structures, which are stable over time,
constituting historical attributes in relation to human actions, that give social consequences to humans.
These structures position people:
In relations of labor and production, power and subordination, desire and sexuality,
prestige and status. The way a person is positioned in structures is as much a function of
how other people treat him or her within various institutional settings, as it is the attitude
a person takes to him or herself. Any individual occupies multiple positions in structure,
and these positioning become differently salient depending on the institutional setting
and the position of others there (Young 2002, 420-421).
Gender structures are historically given and condition actions and consciousness of individuals, and in
addition they are experienced by humans as factualities that must be addressed (Young 2002). Even
though humans do not have great choices in assuming factualities, they assume them regardless. However
they do so in different ways. For instance the girls in the interview study are well aware of the structures
that steer what they as female guitarists are expected to do or not, but they relate to that in different
ways, some accept and concentrate on their musical learning within the “manly” frames, and others make
clear stands, as for example make things clear for the teacher, or wear skirts when they perform. This is
done through shaping of habits from gender structures, by opposing them or by changing them, in
intersubjective interplay.
Sexual division of labour represents a fundamental gender structure in all modern societies based on the
division between private and public work (Young 2002). Private care-work includes caring for people, often
occurring in private homes, often unpaid, and is primarily performed by women. By using this concept in a
theoretical survey, it becomes possible to investigate whether there are tasks performed by one specific
gender group, and if social norms and cultural products represent information that is seen as more or less
“suitable” for one group or another. It is also possible to look at the professions that appear gendered. The
ideologies that legitimize such professions, as well as which consequences a gendered division of labor,
entails for the allocation of resources between people, their status, and the obstacles and opportunities
that frame their lives.
Normative heterosexuality refers to a multitude of institutional and ideological facts that privilege humans
living as heterosexual couples (Young 2002). These facts, for example, consist of laws, rules and policies,
how school structures and media relate to them, as well as performances that appear in everyday
interactions between people. The system of heterosexual privileges limits humans, as it rewards those who
choose to adapt to the system and create exclusion and invisibility of those who do not, for example, LGB-
identifying individuals. One example of how normative heterosexuality can structure how humans live is
the concept of the male gaze, as before mentioned.
Gendered power hierarchies are constituted by various beliefs about masculinity, and masculinity creates
power hierarchies that prevent human action (Young 2002). Within this structure, some men are given
freedom and privilege of having the power and status to make decisions, while at the same time hindering
and subordinate others, both women and men. The structure is supported by contexts that legitimize
institutionalize and organize violence, such as military and police systems. The structure, together with the
two above-mentioned structures, partly reproduces an overall view that men are entitled to women's
services, and partly that heterosexual masculinity is associated with violence and commandment.
2. Method
Material generated through two phenomenological gender studies conducted within specialist music
programs in lower (Hentschel 2017) respectively higher (Ferm Almqvist 2018) secondary education in
Sweden, constitute an empirical base for the re-analysis. The motive to use material from these two cases
was based on a discovery of several similarities between the results of the studies, regarding girls
experiences in Swedish music education. The re-analysis followed a hermeneutical phenomenological
analytical model (Van Manen 1997). Ethical assumptions considered were based on credibility and
generalizability, and the study follows the Swedish Research Council's ethical guidelines on information
requirements, consent requirements, confidentiality requirements and usage requirements (Swedish
Research Council 2002).
2.1. Case 1
The first study of the two that contribute with material for the re-analysis, took place within a music
specialist program in one lower secondary school. It was performed amongst pupils and music teachers in
9th grade classes and focused solely on “singing situations” –situations in which singing appeared in the
participants' experiences in different ways. Singing was chosen as the research topic since it is described as
a gendered phenomenon in earlier studies. Case 1 was originally included in a study where pupils in 7th
grade classes also participated. Both individual and group interviews with the pupils and individual
interviews with the teachers were performed, as well as observations of lessons, meetings with teachers
and other situations where singing was performed or discussed. Some of the observations and all the
interviews were recorded and transcribed to text, and also used as a tool to trigger the researchers
memories of what happened. In this study, material from case 1 has been chosen to be re-analysed
together with material from case 2.
2.2. Case 2
In order to be able to grasp experiences of being a female electric guitarist in ensemble education,
associative interviews (Christophersen & Ferm Thorgersen 2015) was chosen, as a way to encourage
engaged stories based on different aspects of the specific education. Five female electric guitar playing
students who were, or had been, enrolled in upper secondary music specialist programs were interviewed.
The instrument as well as the ensemble education context was chosen as the both are traditionally
connected to male behaviour and traditions, which made the female experiences specifically interesting.
The students were situated in the North as well as in the middle of Sweden, and were aged between 16
and 25 years at the time of the investigation. The interviews were inspired by a mind map where earlier
experiences of ensemble playing, the role of the teacher, learning outcomes, different ensemble roles, and
thoughts about the future were connected to the phenomenon of the study; experiences of ensemble
playing education at upper secondary level. The interviews lasted for about one hour, were recorded and
transcribed.
2.3. Re-analysis
The material was analyzed in a phenomenological hermeneutic manner (Van Manen 1997). This process
comprised of naïve “reading”, structured analysis, comprehensive understanding, and a formulation of
holistic results. In other words the produced texts were firstly “read” several times in order to come closer
to common problem areas in the two case studies, by the two researchers respectively. Caring showed to
be one of the most prominent ones, which were chosen to be investigated further, and a new round of
naïve reading was conducted, in order to grasp the phenomenon of caring. This naïve reading was followed
by a phase of structural analysis, which can be seen as a way of identifying and formulating themes, eg
different aspects of caring that emerged from the material, and how they related to each other. In other
words, the structural analysis, made in cooperation, provided opportunities for testing emerged concepts,
for example if “filling gaps” could be established as a theme of caring. A theme is a thread of meaning that
penetrates parts of a text in the process of conveying the essential meaning of lived experience, in this
case of caring. The process was finished when the themes validated and deepened the naive reading. Then
the main themes and constituting aspects were summarized and reflected upon in relation to the aim and
the contexts of the cases, as well as in relation to the theoretical concepts connected to caring; immanence
and transcendence (de Beauvoir [1949] 2012), sexual division of labour, normative heterosexuality and
gendered power hierarchies (Young 2002). Finally the last step, aiming to take experiences seriously,
concerned formulating the results in a language, where theoretical concepts were used in a way which
provided experiences used by the participants themselves. The following section presents the results of the
re-analysis, where descriptions of themes are completed with quotes from interviews as well as field notes
from observations.
3. Music education nurturing caring among girls

Examples of how caring was nurtured among girls in music education appeared at different levels and in
different situations through the re-analysis of the research material, produced in the two studies. The re-
analysis of the aforementioned material shows that caring in the form of taking initiatives, filling “gaps”,
and being flexible constituted the phenomenon of caring among girls in music educational settings. In the
following the themes are presented with the help of the mentioned theoretical concepts: caring,
immanence and transcendence, sexual division of labour, normative heterosexuality and gendered power
hierarchies, completed by exemplifying quotes from interviews and field notes.
3.1. Caring as taking initiatives
In the material, it became obvious that when the teacher stepped back, responsibility for the musical
process and product in shared music ensemble situations was more often or always put on the girls. In the
study of singing in school, results show that girls took, and were expected to take, more initiatives to care
for both the musical process and product. This became visible for example in their performances of a
number of Swedish traditional choir-based musical tradition “Luciatåg”1. Girls carry and care for the
1 The Lucia celebration is a traditional singing performance the 13th of December in Sweden, where
children dress up in white gowns and carry lit candles in their hands while singing songs of light. The roles
of the Luciatåg most often includes girls as “maidens” (tärnor) and boys as “star boys”, and most often a
girl, posing as the front figure “Lucia”. The three roles are separated from each other by head attributes,
where the Lucia carry lit candles in a crown on her head (https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/lucia/).
equipment they and others wear in the Luciatåg (the crown, candles and a red ribbon), while the boys in
the study are never thought of as suitable to share this task with the girls. This can be seen as a
consequence of the fact that their music teacher wasn't responsible for most of the Luciatåg
performances; the pupils were. A possible explanation to this is that the girls perceived that they (and not
the boys) were responsible for making sure that the equipment and performance was guaranteed to meet
the expectations. It is also possible that since the girls were expected to initiate practicing situations of the
Lucia performance, the gendered structure of girls in the Luciatåg overall, might have already been pre-
established through tradition. Yet the girls expressed a clear perception of responsibility in relation to this
tradition:
Meja: We often practice a lot because we are a very small Luciatåg, so we have come
closer to each other, and we dare to sing and take own initiatives.
Hanna: You have to sing louder as an individual…
Meja: And maybe all of us don’t know the all harmony parts, one of the altos maybe only
knows her harmony part, and then we have to teach her the rest.
These caring acts of taking responsibility for both the musical process and product seemed regulated by a
traditional view on the Luciatåg as a performance, and as a consequence, the girls seemed to become
immanent reproducers of this tradition. Such a gendered pattern of girls taking more initiatives of caring
for the musical process and product was also made visible in other choir related school activities, strongly
related to another theme that emerged in the re-analysis; ‘caring as being flexible’, which will be presented
later in the article.
On average the girls in the upper secondary ensemble courses showed themselves to be ‘driven’ by making
the musical whole function. For example they arranged songs, because they didn’t want to perform
anything that didn't sound good, which was partly also motivated by possibilities to get good grades. They
expressed that they developed leader competence in the ensemble courses, maybe to a higher degree
than specific musical skills, mentioned in the curricula.
I don’t want to stand on stage and play something that doesn’t sound good.
But I didn’t want to be the one who organized things. I had to do it anyway.
To some extent the girls grew into roles that implied taking initiatives in relation to the musical whole, in
the classroom, and in preparation for a concert or similar performances. Often girls were assigned a role
where they had greater responsibility and it was stressed that it was impossible for a girl to just ‘hang in
there’, if she was not “super skilled”.
But even the super skilled girls, they were more clever, they understood that everyone
has to engage. Even if they were skilled instrumentalists, so...I don’t know, they were
smarter and understood that “I can’t rely on my skillfulness”.
This analysis reveals that these caring actions didn't automatically lead to musical credibility for the girls. It
seems like that the actions were taken for granted, not reflected upon among the teachers, or, in some
cases, even encouraged, possibly in unconscious ways. The question is, whose projects were the girls
driving? And as these actions in a way were invisible, they can be defined as immanent. The extensions of
the girls’ bodies, nor their projects per se, were viewable. Their actions were leading to functional musical
results, but they did not run their own projects. Additionally, what kind of freedom were these girls given?
On the other hand, there were also clear signs that teachers’ engagement contributed to equally shared
responsibility. In some settings the teachers brought self-instructive musical sheets, and clearly shared the
tasks between the students. The girls also told that there was some openness for common discussions and
ideas in relation to the frames, for example when it came to choosing songs, and how the song should be
arranged. Less obviously, though, it became clear that the girls took initiatives towards a result that gave
the impression of being equal, even when the teacher was present, for example when it came to share
tasks between guitarists.
I think that’s embarrassing. For me it’s not just to put something together, but it should
sound good. So, even if I hadn’t done anything, it should have become something. I think
it became like.... people could relax because they knew that we would do everything. And
it was not like that just in the subject music. In other subjects I didn’t care so much about
the result of the group work though.
The girls experienced that their way of behaving, and caring, also made the guys able to relax, knowing
that things would be in order in time, and in relation to quality.
3.2. Caring as filling the gaps
In both cases, the re-analysis showed girls caring as filling in the gaps between boys’ actions, meaning girls
behaving as firstly complementary or supporting to the boys transcending in their musical projects.
In upper secondary ensemble playing, the students in some cases perceived that they were expected to
take more responsibility for organizing and turn taking, than they were used to in similar earlier
educational contexts. However it became clear that the boys, instrumentalists mainly, took responsibility
for their own musical development and performance. All five of the electric guitar playing girls mentioned
how boys took the chance to train scales and licks in common places, in rehearsal rooms, sound-checks,
and in breaks of different kinds. They told about how the boys claimed or got space for their own musical
activities, and as they formulated it, to “show off”, instead of cooperate with the music class. One of the
interviewed girls expressed it like the following.
But then, there were the ones who wanted to be heard even more, with their playing and
who are not, as you can imagine, what I also had, I wanted to lift others. They thought
more about their own kind of, to be heard themselves.
It was also expressed that the boys were less self critical, for example showed by that they had strong
volume on amplifiers, even if they played in wrong tune. It was told that the boys were experienced to
have greater self-esteem.
I know for example that NQ is better than two of the boys, I think, at playing, but they
play really loud anyway. They can sit and play in the wrong key, a whole song, but still
very loudly, because they have another self esteem.
Several girls in the lower secondary study chose to sing solo in school. They were seldom given opportunity
to be heard singing solo though, since they outnumbered the boys by majority. Even so, the small amount
of boys who chose to sing solo were seen as more skilled than the majority of the singing girls. The boys
seemed to get more cred for their singing performances, as one girl expressed in interview:
And this with gender and all –it's more common for girls to sing in ensemble but when a
boy sings, he gets a lot of attention, he can take space, boys are used to singing loudly,
and many here think it's cool. They can joke around and people can be like "Yeah!"
Boys who sang within the norms of what was seen as acceptable singing behavior for singing boys in this
particular school (see more of this in the next section about flexibility and singing ideals) were also
privileged, seen as different in a positive way and regarded as particularly talented singers. In view of the
fact that boys took less responsibility than girls in communal singing, the structures appear as a gendered
power hierarchy in which boys are privileged. The girls seemed more hindered in transcending in their
singing by the fact that they didn't have the same opportunities to perform solo singing as the boys did.
Most of the girls in the upper secondary study, had experience from lower secondary specialist programs
in music, where all ensemble tasks were equally shared and circulated. In upper secondary, a larger
amount of the boys had a “garage-band” background, which gave them more space, which encouraged
traditional gender roles. In garage bands, traditionally, girls are expected to sing the melody, sing harmony
parts, or possibly play piano, whilst boys play instruments, not least electric guitar, play solos, and do “their
own thing”. It seemed, according to the interviewees, that such roles to some extent were encouraged in
upper secondary ensemble courses, which also contributed to musical gaps that had to be filled.
The gaps that appeared which made the expected musical result impossible to reach, could be filled by
that the female students, played either other instruments than their chosen one, or background
accompaniment on the guitar, instead of taking turns in lead parts or solos. One of the girls told that she
stood in and played the bass part that were missing which the male guitarist never did. The girls care taking
in ensemble was also made visible in their preparations in beforehand, aiming at avoiding to make
mistakes in front of the boys, and by that filling musical gaps.
3.3. Caring as being flexible
The material clearly shows a paradox between girls’ desires and expectations on them, towards which they
adapted by becoming flexible, by negotiating and compromising in a caring way. It seems that one impetus
was to be good; to get the chance to deepen specific musical skills. On the other hand the girls expressed
that they felt that they were to be good at several things, to adapt, to gather the horde, to be friends with
everyone, to help others, and to have good relations to their classmates.
As mentioned before, girls in the lower secondary school cared for the musical process and product in the
Luciatåg to a greater extent than the boys. This also connects to caring as being flexible, in the sense that
the girls learn to sing up to three harmony parts (S, A, T) in order to be able to change harmony part when
needed. The teacher regulated these changes based on a traditional Western societal ideal of choir singing
as balanced and homogenous. In practice, this meant that the girls learned more harmony parts than the
boys since there were more girls than boys in the choir. It is possible that girls’ greater responsibility for
the Luciatåg enabled them to develop certain vocal skills and boys other vocal skills, because girls and boys
weren't offered the same learning opportunities in the Luciatåg situations. While girls were offered to
learn several harmony parts, and were trained to be able to change between these parts in a flexible way,
boys sang only one harmony part and could focus solely on developing their skills related to singing that
part.
In the lower secondary study it also became clear that gendered singing ideals governed how girls (and
boys) were expected to sing. While expectations on boys singing seemed structured by a few ‘rules’,
singing ideals for girls showed themselves as more diverse and contradictory. Boys seemed to be generally
given more free ‘space’ in their singing choices. What defined the space that framed boys’ singing, could in
short be summarized by what one of the girls expressed: “Guys are allowed to do whatever they want”,
with the addition, “as long as it's not opera or musical”. Boys’ singing ideals within this particular school
included high pitch singing (in falsetto voice). Girls singing ideals on the other hand, where based on what
they thought boys were ”attracted to” (the male gaze) as well as on gendered popular music singer ideals.
The prominent aspects constituting the governing ideals for girls singing based on popular music tradition,
where abilities to sing in tune, sing “loud but not too loud”, to sing like Adele (a pop singer), and to
perform vocal ad libs. Contrary to this description of governing pop singing ideals, one pupils description
entails of a humming, more ‘easy’ singing ideal for girls:
So I have noticed that it is quite common for the guys to frame their thoughts on what
they think, and that girls are very good if they ... girls who often sit in the corridor with a
guitar and hum. They usually sing, they don´t sing in their chest voice, they sing very
common, in their head voice. Fairly easy, a little brighter sometimes, that's something I
noticed that attracts a lot of them (i.e. the boys, authors note).
The quotation can be seen as a representation of how expectations regarding girls’ singing relate to what
attracts boys (the male gaze). The feeling of experiencing and adjusting to boys' expectations of singing
girls, shows a relationship with girls' ways of relating to themselves as objects in boys' gazes. The girls
inevitably had to learn to sing in relation to traditional Western societal ideal of choir singing (balanced and
homogenous), the male gaze (humming in bright head voice) as well as to ideals within popular music
tradition (in tune, medium volume, with vocal ad libs, like Adele). To be able to be seen as good singers,
girls had to evolve a flexibility to sing according to these partly contradictory singing ideals. In the upper
secondary school study the girls also noted that it was hard to show skills as the expectations on them
were that they should be good at several things. They should be broad and flexible.
But it is really like that, both among teachers and students in general, that girls are skilled
at several different things, but not totally in to one thing. And then it is like no one really
sees that. Because you can't just grab a guitar and rrrrrrrr.
It was expressed in the material that even though girls want to be nerdy, to run their own projects and
extend their musical bodies, demands to “gather the horde”, be flexible, supportive and a good friend,
seemed to hinder such behaviors. This was also visible in the lower secondary school, in a situation where
girls chose to be loyal to the girl group, rather than ‘showing off’ their musical skills. The situation included
two girls (Vera and Sigrid) who previously had showed significant interest in singing and were seen as good
singers, together with one girl (Johanna) who refused to sing and continuously showed a lack of interest in
trying. When their music teacher observed Johanna sitting quiet, he tried to encourage her to sing together
with Vera and Sigrid. When she kept quiet, the two skilled girls tried to convince her (from fieldnotes):
Vera to Johanna: (a little bit irritated but maybe also a bit humorous) So the next time we
play the song you will sing. Seriously, I can´t handle this! (excessively dramatic)
Sigrid to Johanna: It's embarrassing, I know, but you have no choice.
Vera: I also hate to sing.

The above example can be seen as an example of how girls choose to downplay their singing skills in order
to maintain hetero-normativity in their girl group. It can represent a way of caring by being flexible with
what kind of singing skills they possess, or how skilled a singer shows herself in front of others. It seems
more important to be loyal to friends, than to have opposing opinions within a girl group. It's possible that
Johanna choose not to sing based on fear of exposing herself as ignorant, or on a wish to avoid the risk of
having to compare herself to the other more skilled girls. To refuse to sing may therefore appear as a
choice to refuse to show (bad) vocal skills for girls.
4. Final considerations
Through the process of re-analysing the empirical data, we have shown that expectations regarding
encouraging girls’ caring, seem to be crucial aspects when it comes to how music education risks nurturing
female students becoming situated musical bodies focusing on aspects of caring. Caring is visible as taking
initiative, filling “gaps”, and being flexible. In accordance with de Beauvoir´s ([1949] 2012) approach, the
girls’ actions seem to establish and maintain female music students’ behaviour as immanent, and non-able
to run their own projects. Young’s (2002) view of gendering structures offers a particularly important way
of reflecting upon the reasons for why caring is nurtured amongst girls and young women particularly. In
the following section, we discuss the results of the re-analysis in relation to the theoretical concepts
presented in the article, as well as to earlier research.
1. Sexual division of labour (Young 2002). A fundamental gender structure in all modern societies
based on the division between private and public work, is visible in the material. In each of the
cases, even among the music teachers, caring role-models are present, which might influence what
the female students perceive what they are expected to do, and what the teachers actually expect
them to do. This can be seen in relation to previous research that indicates that girls are treated
differently than boys in musical settings (Borgström-Källén 2014; Karlsson 2002; O`Toole 1998). At
the same time the gendered “public” roles, such as “showing off” and being “superduper-skilled” at
one thing, are modeled by men, in school, and in society. The examples of girls downplaying their
skills in order to be supportive of boys transcending in their individual projects, can be seen as a
consequence of the girls trying to adapt to a form of sexual division of labour within musical
settings. Girls tasks within this gender structure would consist of caring for what is needed in the
situation in order to let boys show their individual skills, whether it is to downplay their own skills
or to take initiatives and responsibility for the musical process and product. The strong gendered
connotations that follow singing as feminine or as “more for girls”, and guitar-playing as masculine,
can also be seen at play here (Bayton 1998; Björck 2011; Frith and McRobbie 1991). Girls might
perceive the act of singing and taking care of related arrangements within the situation as mainly
their task to fulfill rather than the boys, for instance in the case of the Luciatåg. In the upper
secondary case the girls leave the possibility to play electric guitar to care for the whole musical
performance, which could be stated as another example related to division of labour.
2. Normative heterosexuality (Young 2002). A multitude of institutional and ideological facts that
privilege humans living as heterosexual couples, also appear in the result of the re-analysis. The
system of heterosexual privileges limits humans, according to Young, as it rewards those who
choose to adapt to the system and create an exclusion and invisibility of those who do not. In the
re-analysis a form of normative heterosexuality appeared in the situations where girls actions are
structured by the male gaze (Bayton 1998; Björck 2011), which is exemplified by how the guitar
playing girls refuse to make mistakes in front of the boys. In the examples of girls and boys singing
ideals, it is visible that the expectations on singing girls and boys highly differ from each other.
Whereas boys only needed to relate to the present singing ideals for the particular school (avoiding
to sing in opera or musical genres), singing ideals for girls related more strongly to gendered
expectations based on professional women popular music singers and on what boys were attracted
to.
3. Gendered power hierarchies (Young 2002). Various beliefs about masculinity and femininity create
power hierarchies that prevents human action, are possible to see as well. Within the school
structure, some male students are given freedom and privilege of having the power and status to
make decisions, not least regarding their own individual development. Even if such behaviours
seem to hinder and subordinate others, both women and men, it is encouraged by the teachers. As
mentioned before, earlier research suggests that teachers risk to treat girls differently than boys in
musical settings (Borgström-Källén 2014; Karlsson 2002; O`Toole 1998). Gendered power
hierarchies are supported by chosen genres and teaching forms that legitimize institutionalize and
organize inequality, within the school systems. Visible examples of this in the re-analysis are for
instance how girls fill gaps in order to help boys transcending in their individual projects or how girls
choose to downplay their skills in relation to the boy’s development (results which intersects with
the first of YOUNG’s gender structures, sexual division of labour). Such behaviours can be seen in
the light of earlier research that shows how women often are considered as ‘passive’ and given
fewer opportunities than men to participate in musical activities (Dibben 2002), as well as in
relation to research suggesting that boys are given access and girls are prevented from obtaining
access within the popular music industry as well as in school's popular music education (Bergman
2009; Björck 2011; Borgström-Källén 2014; Green 2002). Other studies suggest that singing boys are
offered more privileges than girls (O`Toole 1998), which was also visible in the re-analysis in the
example of boys gaining more cred and space for their singing, and guitar playing, performances
than the girls. This third gender structure, together with the two above-mentioned structures,
partly reproduces an overall view that men are entitled to women's services which nurture care,
and processes that make female music students to become the second musical sex.
De Beauvoir’s ([1949] 2012) monumental work on women described in detail the countless ways women
experience limitations of femininity. She opened ways for women all over the world to recognize the social
and political import of their personal experiences. Such limitations are visible in the current analysis of
musicking girls as well. “The second sex” makes women ’s social, familial, bodily, political, and cultural
experiences public, which is the aim with this article as well, and to show a path towards transcendence
and subjectivity among girls in music education. De Beauvoir ([1949] 2012) also gives some hope, when it
comes to women’s possibilities to become themselves through accepting and using their bodies and
transcending their situations in the common world. On a genre level she suggests that women should go to
work, participate in intellectual activities, and strive to transform society into a socialist society, seeking for
economic liberation. Transformed into the time and setting for the current investigation, this means that
girls are to play electric guitar, go to ensemble classes, and participate in classroom music on equal
grounds and there have the possibility to run their projects. It means that they should give and take
responses equally, and that they should strive for being and becoming independent, in relation to
structural values performed by males.
The question is how music educational settings in the 21st century, could be organized as social
environments, where female bodies can be used for transcendence, or as vehicles for freedom, in a third
space (Borgström-Källén 2013) or an alternate room (Hentschel 2017), where female musicians have a
sense of freedom in their musical bodies. Another question is whose responsibility it is to create such a
space, the teacher’s or the female students (cf Björck 2008). De Beauvoir ([1949] 2012) stresses
responsibility for another's freedom, it should be taken care of and made possible (Pettersen 2006).
We consider it a prerequisite for music teachers to consciously enable alternative spaces to be created in
music education; that teachers develop both a reflected awareness of structural aspects that pupils are
surrounded by inside and outside school, and an interest for pupils as individuals with lived experiences.
Seeing pupils as individuals with both: bodily and emotionally and cognitive experiences, making up their
lived situations, creates meaningful relationships between pupils and teachers which enable learning (Lilja
2015). Singing and ensemble education constitute intersubjective meetings, and sharing of experiences,
between pupils and teachers, musical situations that enable creation of musical meaning and aesthetic
experience (Ferm Thorgersen 2013). Therefore, in order to avoid nurturing caring girls in music education,
music education should nurture equal musical sexes, who care for both own and common musical
development.
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DOI: 10.35699/2317-6377.2019.

The (female) situated musical body: aspects of caring

O CORPO MUSICAL (FEMININO) ESTABELECIDO: ASPECTOS DO CUIDADO

[Digite texto] [Digite texto] [Digite texto]

The (female) situated musical body:

3. Music education nurturing caring among girls

3.1. Caring as taking initiatives

Hanna: You have to sing louder as an individual…

3.2. Caring as filling the gaps

3.3. Caring as being flexible

Sigrid to Johanna: It's embarrassing, I know, but you have no choice.

Vera: I also hate to sing.

Hentschel, Linn. 2017. Sångsituationer. En fenomenologisk studie av sång i musikämnet under

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. (1945) 1997. Kroppens fenomenologi. Göteborg: Daidalos.

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