We’ve made an important observation about the electronic music talent pool: It’s incredibly male dominated. Now, we need to arrive at another conclusion – that efforts meant to support this cause such as DJane Mag‘s Top 100 Female DJs list do more harm than good.
Alright, alright, before you make a beeline to the comments section to tell me how my having a penis disqualifies from making such a declarative statement (I know you already have), keep in mind that I’m not the first to say it.
As it turns out, one of the most well-spoken females in electronic music, Emma Hewitt, strongly feels that emphasizing the gender gap gives aspiring female artists the notion that it’s more difficult to succeed in the industry, when in her experience that has never been the case.
The DJane Mag (which, I’m sorry, is just a silly name) Top 100 Female DJs are as follows:
It’s great that there’s now a DJ list on which some of my favorite breakout acts of 2015 – like Hannah Wants, Alison Wonderland, and Mija – actually place, but at what cost? Much of the list is relatively unknown names who only place because they’re given the handicap of not having an undeniably wider proportion of male talent skew the numbers. If a list that practically likens being a female DJ to competing in the Special Olympics of EDM won’t deter females from getting involved in the first place, I don’t know what does.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that the world of dance music is devoid of sexual harassment and discrimination; all communities suffer from some degree of what feminist theorists call rape culture. When instances of human injustice occur because of gender equality issues, female DJs should absolutely speak up about it to keep them such behavior from going unnoticed by the public.
Nonetheless, I will always maintain that events, labels and awards which feature all-female talent – like DJane Mag‘s Top 100 Female DJs list – only serve to further marginalize those they intend to uplift.
Go on and tell me how evil I am for it in the comments.