The European music industry is home to many talented and successful FLINTA* (female, lesbian, intergender, non-binary, trans, agender) musicians, who have made a significant contribution to the world of music. Despite their artistic achievements, these musicians continue to face numerous challenges in the industry, ranging from gender discrimination, to lack of representation and visibility. FLINTA* musicians have to fight for equality and equity every single day of their lives. Some do it loudly and openly, some do it on a narrower level.
Organisations and associations such as Keychange, MEWEM, and shesaid.so support these fights. Today, March 8, is dedicated to the fight for equality for all genders, so, with the help of some European FLINTA* musicians and Keychange, let’s have a look at the status quo: where are the crucial problems and how can we improve the overall situation?
Let’s start with the obvious: Gender Discrimination
Gender discrimination remains a significant challenge FLINTA* musicians have to face within the European music industry. Many of these musicians face discrimination in various areas, including by record labels, radio stations, and live performances. “In Croatia, we are initially seen through the prism of our lifestyle, gender, and sexuality, and only secondarily as musicians,” says Sara Ercegović of the Croatian rock band Žen, one of the many European bands that address queer-feminist issues in their music. This ties in with what Austrian surf-garage-rock band DIVES have to say: “We need to end the othering of FLINTA* people. We are not our own genre.” While we need to acknowledge the existence of non-cis-male musicians, we should not put them all together in the same pot – there’s huge variety within the FLINTA* music community.
Žen
Cash Cash Money: Financial discrimination
Another issue is that FLINTA* musicians are often not given the same opportunities as their cis-male counterparts, including access to record deals, airplay, and – most importantly – funding. This leads to FLINTA* people having less financial security, and thus, understandably, a smaller willingness to take risks, DIVES explain.
Remaining on the topic of money: the gender pay gap still remains an issue in the music industry, with FLINTA* musicians often being paid significantly less than their cis-male counterparts. This is due in part to FLINTA* musicians being less likely to be booked to perform at major events and festivals. Not earning enough money to support yourself means working other jobs next to your creative one, but, as Romanian New-Wave band ZIMBRU scoff: “It’s silly to think that somebody has that creative will and drive to write music after 8 hours of work.”
The situation is even worse for musicians from minority communities, including FLINTA* people of colour, who face double discrimination based on both their gender and race. ZIMBRU underlines the importance of intersectionality: “We should focus on these links and how to centre non-white, non-European, and non-human narratives.”
Representation: (in)visible discrimination
“Representation matters,” DIVES declare – rightly so. The industry is largely male dominated, with most of the top executives, managers, and promoters being cis men. This lack of representation at the top level often leads to a lack of visibility for FLINTA* musicians, who are often sidelined or ignored altogether. This lack of visibility makes it difficult for these musicians to gain recognition and build their fan base, limiting their ability to succeed in the industry.
DIVES
A little less discrimination, a little more action, please! (or a lot, actually)
Keychange is one of the organisations that promote gender equality using an intersectional approach on a systemic level. To the question “where should we be focusing our energy right now?”, Francine Gorman, project manager at Keychange, answers: “We need targeted action to ensure that the music industry is creating equal opportunities for all genders and reducing the number of barriers faced by women and gender expansive creators and professionals.”
A simple solution to lessen gender discrimination would be to implement quotas. As DIVES explain: “Music by FLINTA* persons is often marketed as its own genre and promoted only in specific events. On the one hand, this results in music made/represented by men being postulated as “normal” (male = norm), while music by FLINTA*s forms its own category, which at the same time also reinforces the impression that they form an exception and minority. On the other hand, problematic categories like “girl band”, “women’s music” etc. and events under such a theme also make disadvantaged and underrepresented inter, trans and non-binary people invisible (or misgender them, which is also not ok or useful).”
Mentioning quotas can often lead to exasperated sighs and comments like, “I’d love to book more FLINTA*s musicians, but there simply aren’t enough in [enter whatever genre]!” Once again, this leads back to a lack of representation: there are definitely enough FLINTA* musicians in every genre to create gender balanced line-ups, but since they do not get the same amount of visibility through algorithms and media, people have to do extra work to find them. And nobody likes to do extra work.
Counterbalancing this problem could be done by connecting funding to quotas: Don’t have a gender balanced line-up? No money for you, then. In Francine Gorman’s words, “funding bodies can insist upon seeing evidence of action being taken towards gender equity in any proposals to be considered for funding, and can be role models by ensuring that their own staff and decision making teams are gender diverse.”
Education and training can also play a significant role in addressing the challenges FLINTA* musicians face in the music industry. This can provide training and mentoring programmes to help musicians develop their skills and navigate the industry successfully. The European project MEWEM, for example, is a programme that not only offers mentorships, but also workshops and trainings for FLINTA* people in the music industry who are just getting started.
Sexual Harassment and Assault
Sexual harassment and assault remain significant problems in the music industry, particularly for FLINTA* musicians. Many musicians have spoken out about their experiences, often at the hands of powerful men in the industry. This has led to a culture of fear and silence, with many musicians afraid to speak out for fear of losing their careers.
ZIMBRU: “This morning I was skimming through ILGA’s (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) annual review of the LGBTI situation in Europe and Central Asia and it’s bad. Last year was the most violent for LGBTI people in the last DECADE. I need to use caps lock because I feel like sometimes people (especially in the west) are tired of this topic and think that homophobia is over, and we don’t need activism or feminism anymore. I invite them to look at statistics of domestic violence as well.”
ZIMBRU
One of the most crucial solutions to battle sexual harassment and assault is to create more safe spaces. The German association Safe The Dance is one of the few working hard to raise awareness and educate people on such topics by doing workshops, talks, and evaluations.
Francine Gorman also sees opportunities for governments to take action: “On a governmental level, policies can be implemented to combat harassment and discrimination in the workplace, which is a big barrier confronting women and gender expansive professionals in the creative industries.”
But what can be done on an individual level?
Keychange’s Francine Gorman further explains: “To create change, the first step is to look at who you work with, what opportunities you have available, and for whom. So, for example, if you run a showcase night at a small venue, you can look at the gender balance of the artists that you book to perform, and also the gender representation within the technicians and the rest of team that are hired to work on the shows. If you’re a record label, you can look at the gender representation of artists signed to your roster and commit to seeking out women and gender expansive talent for future signings, if they’re currently underrepresented in your work. You can also look at the gender balance within your team, your senior staff, and your board members, as well as the representation of artists performing at any of your events – making sure that gender diverse voices are present, and heard, at every single level.”
Francine Gorman
There are numerous ways and opportunities to get active and promote change, on an individual, cultural, and governmental level. The only thing we should not do is nothing.
To leave you on a slightly positive note, and a little bit of hope for the future, here are the answers of the three bands gave to the question:
What is your greatest achievement so far?
DIVES: “Child fans who, detached from our gender-appearance, simply find us great because of our music and whose perception we could also positively influence in this respect.”
ZIMBRU: “Making friends. As I get older, my greatest achievement would be keeping and maintaining those friendships through changes.”
Sara Ercegović from Žen: “Living our lives loud and proud without fear of not being accepted, and staying true to ourselves through all these years.”
