Gitarrist och tjej - i dissonans? En kvalitativ studie om kvinnliga gitarristers erfarenheter av musikundervisning

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the experience of female guitar players in music education and their relationship with the instrument. 5 semi structured qualitative interviews were used to gather data. The data was then analysed from a social constructionist viewpoint through Connell et. al.’s theoretical framework of social embodiment, gender relations and hegemonic masculinity. This qualitative research aligns with previous Swedish, British and North American research.

The research shows how female guitar players construct their identity in relation to other feminine coded musical activities and how the electric guitar is constructed as a cool instrument. The study points to how female guitar players navigate their gender identity in popular music ensemble education and navigate through configurations of masculinity and femininity, both by their own internal social embodiment and expectations from fellow male peers and male teachers. They all seem to deem themselves not competent enough to play certain things, due to a comparison with male peers. This becomes most apparent in the contrast of the positive experience of the same-sex room in comparison to the co-ed music classroom. I argue that this internal comparison is dictated by the hegemonic masculinity of the ideal guitarist, which gains its power through claims of virtuosity and sport-metaphors and becomes apparent in the different popular music genres but also in the school curriculum itself.