Musical feminism and “Ariadne et Barbe-Bleue”

The emerging field of musical sociology is achieving a great impact among those who are specialists and lovers of excellent music and are also excellent sociologists. Although sociology of music has produced very good contributions, other authors have made very strong statements without knowing almost anything about music. All of us I know who have spent more than twenty years studying music at conservatories are amazed when we see what Bourdieu wrote about music—even though he had never studied it and lacked even the slightest appreciation for great music.

Musical feminism is developed by authors who are simultaneously outstanding specialists and lovers of feminism and also outstanding specialists and lovers of music. This approach complements the best creations of feminism of music and overcomes basic mistakes made by those who do not know and do not love the music they are writing about.

One example is the wonderful opera Ariadne et Barbe-Bleue. Musical feminists have outlined the excellent musical beauty of this opera and the excellent feminist attitude of Ariadne. Unfortunately, some authors that know, listen to and go to concerts of commercial music and know almost nothing about opera talk and write about it in a way that provokes rejection and discredits them among women who are actually specialists and lovers of classical music. For some of them, the only music they listen to is commercial music with disgustingly sexist lyrics, and they take it out on operas and those who, having gained their expertise through many years of dedication, write about them.

In the social sciences, this attitude has become so widespread that there is even a hugely successful book titled “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read”. Those of us who support and practice feminism should avoid adopting this attitude.