Diversity Isn't A Trend. Stop Talking About It And Do Something

"It's usually the first question of the interview. Like, 'How does it feel being a woman?' And I'm like, 'I dunno, how does it feel wearing underpants?'" Sally Coleman has just hit the elephant in the room on the head during our interview for feminist music celebration Sad Grrrls Fest. For half an hour, in the spirit of the festival, we've been discussing questions surrounding the gendered music industry: why aren't women as well represented as men in music? How do we change it? Whose responsibility is it? Should we even be talking about it? 

Gendered identification is rife in music journalism, whereby an artist will be introduced or described on the basis of their sex or sexual orientation - the catch: it's something that is unique to women and non-binary musicians. It's Sarah Fenn - who you know as Le Pie - who first raises the topic while we're joking about their experiences with bad interview questions: "What do you feel like being called a 'female musician', 'cuz I know that debate's coming up at the moment?" she asks the table.

"'How does it feel being a woman?' And I'm like, 'I dunno, how does it feel wearing underpants?'" 

"I think the only test would be like - would you say 'male musician' in the same context? If you wouldn't, why is that necessary?" suggests Coleman. "But some females would like to be defined as that because that's their image," suggests Erica Mallett. "But 'femcee' - femcee is the worst term," she cringes. "But that's the thing," Coleman says, "If someone wants to use it, power to them. If you wanna call yourself a bitch or a hoe or whatever, use it. That's fine, that's your decision".

Fenn is on the fence. "I don't know how I feel about it... I feel like the use of 'female musician', or not using that term, is in some ways kinda just semantics or something. If you really care about that being the cause and you want that not to be a thing anymore, then maybe stop going on about the word choice and just do what you can to make that not be an abnormal thing."

"I mean everyone's tired of talking about it, females and males combined. Obviously there's a problem, obviously there's a conversation that we're all having and it's in the public consciousness, but I think what will really raise it up is everyone agreeing that it's a problem and then doing something about it and making those efforts," Coleman enthuses. "And not making the problem a problem that women need to solve. It's everybody's responsibility," Fenn agrees.

"[We need] people who dress differently, speak differently, look different, talk about different things, so you don't have this one superstar diva mould of what it means to be a female musician."

That's where Sad Grrrls Fest comes in. 2016's sophomore event is Australia's biggest female-fronted line-up, promoting gender diversity and fighting against the under-representation of female and non-binary musicians at festivals. In March, triple j's Hack found that only 26% of acts on festival line-ups sported at least one non-male member. The same report found that only one in five APRA members were women, and yet girls make up the larger proportion of students pursuing music in high school. "To be honest, [growing up] I found most of the women in music were superstars. They were divas, they were glamorous, they were exotic and it was something that... in a way it made them completely unrelatable because they were so perfect all the time," explains Coleman. "I think what's really important in music at the moment is seeing not just women in music but also a really diverse range of women in music - people who dress differently, speak differently, look different, talk about different things, so you don't have this one superstar diva mould of what it means to be a female musician.

"What I'd like to see is — obviously festivals like [Sad Grrrls] that create space for women and promote women are really great and really essential — but on the flip side I'd like to see spaces that encourage men to talk to women and encourage men to come on board and feel like they're included. I feel like a lot of the time guys want to help but they're really scared of putting their foot in their mouth, they don't know what to do, they just put their hands up and step back and in a way that doesn't necessarily help because you want those guys on your side."

The barrier we often face is the stigma surround the feminism tag: "The 'F' word," Fenn laughs. "I think because it has connotations of women being opposed to men, which is not what the feminist movement is even about - obviously it's about inclusivity and gender equality - but it's a term that [can be] known as a threatening sort of thing; women trying to get in front of men or get power over men. Which is not accurate," she muses. "That's so true," Mallett agrees. "I hate the fact that it has such man-hating connotations. And I have met a few people who define themselves as a feminist who do hate men, and that's not it at all. I think that's such a common misconception."

"We need a balance of those two kinds of feminism - the one that's like 'women need a space as well, guys have had their own space for so long', and the type of feminism that's like 'hey, we're all in this together'," Coleman sums up. "And by that token, I'm super aware that we're young, skinny white girls and we have a perspective as well that's super informed by another kinda privilege, and I think the conversation that's happening at the moment in the industry isn't just about gender - it's about fostering diversity. Always [be] conscious: whether it's your line-ups or your playlists, if you're a curator, if you're a music producer, if you have anything to do with the industry you just have to be aware of where you're coming from as an individual and how your own perceptions influence the people you choose to engage with."

Taking care in creating broad-spectrums line-ups is important, and the burden of responsibility is divided between industry bigwigs and "punters [who] have the power of outrage," says Mallett. "If people are not picking up what these industry people are putting down, then it's not going to go ahead. I think it's probably the responsibility of the punter at this point to begin it, to call it out... Once things like that happen a promoter is not going to book a festival and not put a female on because they're scared of being called out by the punter - that's the power of the punter."

We're slowly seeing an increase in the number of women billed for festivals and receiving high rotation airplay, as well as a movement within individual genres. "Yeah, are there many other women in your genre?" Fenn asks Coda Conduct. "Thirty years ago there were more women in hip hop than there are now. It can always go backwards," Coleman answers. "I think the culture changed; people got complacent about it and it got to the point where it wasn't cool anymore. And I think we have to get to the point where it's not about being cool or trendy, it's just normal. And it's still at the point where I feel like being female is a hip trendy cool thing you can tack on your name, and until we get to that point where it's really normalised, it's always got the potential to go backwards. We're kinda at the whim of the industry right now - people want female line-ups, people want females on their radio shows, it's a trendy thing to do, but it can't just be a trend."