Aliah Ajamoughli

How can a genre of music both perpetuate toxic masculinity and create spaces in its performance for those outside of normative gender expectations? In 1999, Joan Morgan confronted this question by describing her feminism as a hip-hop feminism, or a feminism that does not sit ?comfortably in the black and white of things.? In this course, we will expand on Morgan?s conceptualization of hip-hop feminism to more broadly examine how expressions of gender intersect with various musical performance practices. Our discussions will explore topics such as asserting masculinity in Japanese taiko performances to reorienting femininity in early American blues to reclaiming pre-colonialization conceptualizations of gender outside the Western gender binary in Indian hijra musical communities. This course will draw from a variety of feminist movements?including transnational, Chicana, Third World, and Black feminisms?to understand how musical performance practices are not only dependent on expressions of gender but also dependent on expressions of other identities such as race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and ability. Course work will include writing assignments and class presentations that focus on raising the audibility of musicians casted to the margins because of their gender identity.