AFRAM Blog Post #1

In "Listening for Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton's Voice: The Sound of Race and Gender Transgressions in Rock and Roll," Maureen Mahon dived into the history of rock influence. "Big Mama" Thornton was notorious for wearing more masculine clothing. There were assumptions that Thornton was a lesbian, apparently based off of her clothes and how she presented herself. Although she identified herself as a blues singer, Thornton was an innovator. Her fashion and her presence captivated people, and was a major influence for the birth of rock.
Maureen Mahon was informed by many of Thornton's colleagues that "she was a lesbian" (Mahon, 5). Women of color, especially black women, are wrongfully perceived as more masculine than their white counterparts. Thornton was also a very loud woman, which was strange at the time for any woman to express themselves in that particular way. Someone's sexuality should not be automatically assumed based off of their appearance. It's incredibly toxic for that to be the norm, because it would hinder other women of color's experience and chance of success in the industry. Women should be able to freely express themselves as much as men can. Even today, women in the industry are judged much more heavily, even when men don't put in half the effort that women exude.
Moreover, in the Maylei Blackwell transcript, Michelle talked about a time that they went to a retreat with a large group of women of color. She told the story how their group was truly not being loud, but one of the faculty members "went directly to the administrative person" to report them. Rather than talking it out, like how a faculty member should do first, she immediately jumped to an extreme solution, most likely because they were people of color.
Relating to the two pieces together, women of color are typically judged immediately based off of old stereotypes. The unconscious bias that we witness in both the article and the interview exemplifies the issues we have in this industry.

Megan Thee Stallion - B.I.T.C.H. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF8TE5qsOCs

Jhene Aiko - B.S. ft. H.E.R. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXZ_B8Amy0

(Johnny Le)