Gender Inequities, Community and Change in Electronic/Dance Music - Rebekah Farrugia

This workshop will examine the everyday assumptions, language, actions and texts that situate women on the margins of electronic/dance music (E/DM) culture. Drawing on five years of interviews with female DJs and producers, Farrugia explores how their stories both structure and are structured by personal meanings and experiences in the E/DM scene. Ultimately, these meanings and experiences are bound up with larger gendered narratives and organizational practices. Of great significance is the finding that community building is an essential element to women’s ability to call themselves DJs and is a necessary next step in increasing the number and visibility of women who produce electronic music.