Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Magicians Speculate on Profession's Gender Imbalance
Smart Journalism. Real Solutions.| Miller-McCune Online Magazine: "In the early 1900s, Adelaide Herrmann was one of the most famous magicians of her day. She inherited her husband Alexander’s magic show upon his death in 1896 and performed internationally for 30 years."
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4 comments:
I have to be honest that I never really gave much thought to the fact that most magicians are male. But upon being brought to my attention, its really rather striking. And saying that the men have the more masculine aspect with swords and such, and women the more feminine with palm readings also fits the stereotype in my mund because I could not see a man reading tea leaves or something. I am not proclaiming to be a feminist by any means, but ouch this answer was a little ignorant '[women]are not competitive and are best suited (physically, emotionally) to assisting magicians''Women don’t take command of the performing arena the way a man does'. Even still I think that some of the women were right in that more and more women are infiltrating math and science related fields and it will only be a matter of time before magic is right there. Oh and PS when I was 9-10 years old, I wanted to be a magician more than anything and had the whole shebang to go with it.
Like Sonia I never really realized most magicians are of the male gender but have noticed all the assistants are female. They always get cut in half or knives thrown at them. But is all of this because of society's gender roles? I am sure it is to blame but not the total reason like the article strongly seems to suggest. Rather it is women just arent interested in magic? How many women wanna even go see a magic show let alone study it. Most women don't find it stylish while their husbands are over eager to attend. Unless it is some event it is a no go for women. I guess this has to do with particular interests of genders- and can be related to gender roles, but magic is something many men arent into learning and from there a limited number of women are. I will happily support any woman in becoming a magician- how great would that be- but the possibility of finding a woman to do that is slim to nothing. Sure gender roles affect this but thats not the only reason.
I think magic is a lot different than a lot of other things that were traditionally "boys clubs". In general, it doesn't seem to have quite as much appeal as things like law, medicine, etc. There is less motivation for women to break down this barrier. I really would have to agree with some of the arguments presented, particularly the physicality one. Society expects a male/female relationship between magicians and their assistants. Men are much larger and less suited for many tricks that require flexibility and hiding. I once watched a youtube video of a "drill of death" performed by a female magician. However, despite it being her act, her [male] assistants put her into the trick, instead of the traditional assistant's role of being the "victim".
That is a interesting question... The 7 categories suggested as the keywords are all convincible. A few of them especially resonates through my memory where I had seen the similar discussion of the nature of gender.
"They can perform the greatest miracle of all-" Yes, women has a whole universe and power in themselves, which was not given to men. In the human society, it can be seen that the population has been the critical issue for the establishment of a country. The number is a key to the strength of a nation. The battles need soldiers. Giving birth to children was even used as political strategies. Having a heir born to the King was also important matter. To control women, the men could only use their physical force.
"Historically identified with witchcraft." I am not sure how this impression has been built, but there is the same concept as seen in the medieval literature-a woman were often afraid as a devil. I think people treated as a devil in awe because of woman's indescribable power. People could only push women's social status to the lower level in fear of women's ultimate prevailing power to people.
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