A big part of a woman’s struggle to be heard—literally and figuratively—starts with sound equipment designed by men for men, and then engineered by more men.
, and speaker I’ve done hundreds of sound checks. Sometimes I’m on a stage, basking in the warm glow of really good lighting with perfectly contoured cheekbones; my microphone safely nestled beneath my wig and neatly taped to the middle of my forehead. Sometimes I’m in a hotel ballroom, hiding behind the projection screen, attempting to wedge a mic pack under the band of my bra and run the cord up my back without giving the audience a show they did not pay to see.
, Dr. Helen Reddington uses the term “gender ventriloquism.” According to Reddington, “gender ventriloquism” is when male producers speak through the music of the female artists they produce. In this way, even the most fiercely female voices are delivered to their audiences via what composer Pia Palme calls, “the male ear.”
The battle over how women’s voices are supposed to sound and how that sound is delivered to an audience isn’t a new one, and it isn’t limited to the music industry. In the 1920s, when radio technology was all the rage, Congress put a limit on the bandwidth allotted to each radio station. As a result, stations limited their signals to the bare minimum frequency thought to be needed to transmit speech.
The reality is that stereotypes around what power and authority sound like exist, and the benchmark for success is often very white, and very male. Not only do women have to combat those stereotypes, but they also often have to do it while speaking on equipment made for male voices. Not only is it ridiculously difficult for women to find success in the music industry but when they do, their songs, from the lyrics to the beat to the way their voices sound, are often controlled by men.
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