Keeping Women Down: The Perfect Mother Ploy

From an article in today's New York Times about barriers to success for women scientists:

Even today, Dr. Heilman said, the idea that women are somehow unsuited to science is widespread and tenacious. Because people judge others in terms of these unconscious prejudices, she said, the same behavior that would suggest a man is collaborative, judicious or flexible would mark a woman as needy, timid or flighty.

And because science is still widely viewed as “a male arena,” she said, a woman who succeeds may be viewed as “selfish, manipulative, bitter, untrustworthy, conniving and cold.”

“Women in science are in a double bind,” Dr. Heilman said. “When not clearly successful, they are presumed to be incompetent. When they are successful, they are not liked.”

Yesterday, the NYT had a similar piece on what prevents women from making it to the ranks of CEO and the like. Basically, these stories show it's all the same BS: double standards (see above), and this awful backlash that has so cleverly been disguised as the quest for perfect motherhood. Women are complicit, but that doesn't make it right, that just makes us pawns. The perfect attack is to get inside your opponent's head and make her question herself, and that's exactly what has happened with the focus on women as mothers.

As with all things, I'm not speaking in absolutes--there are many good things that have happened in the last 20 years with corporate flextime and mothers starting businesses at unprecedented rates. But I remember years ago reading a book called "The Promotable Woman" and taking its points to heart: Women have to walk through a minefield of stereotypes (sexpot, frigid, bitch, mommy) to climb the ladder in business.

Also, women have made progress partially because we've controlled reproduction, but the pendulum has begun swinging the opposite way. Now there's the perception that high-tech fertility is a new constraint on women who should become devoted parents to the exclusion of all else once they've enlisted science in their quest to have children--even though this is still a small minority of all cases. Pregnancy is increasingly considered a precarious condition that requires constant intervention, tests, bed rest and drugs--when in fact infant and maternal mortality and morbidity are at their lowest in world history. Women, wake up and work together!

"Truthiness" Succeeds Despite Fact-Based Agendas

An Associated Press report indicates that TV satirist Stephen Colbert's neologism, "truthiness," was named one of the top 10 words of 2006 by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster:

Colbert, who once derided the folks at Springfield-based Merriam-Webster as the "word police" and a bunch of "wordinistas," was pleased.

"Though I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honor me," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

"And what an honor," he said. "Truthiness now joins the lexicographical pantheon with words like `squash,' `merry,' `crumpet,' `the,' `xylophone,' `circuitous,' `others' and others."

Bathed in Reverb

As my ears gain studio experience, I start to hear stuff I never heard before. For instance, the other day coming home from the studio I put an Eva Cassidy CD in the car. For the first time in years, I noticed just how much reverb was on her voice--it was startlingly heavy. The next day I mentioned it to Gary.

"Oh yeah, a lot of singers ask me to make their recordings sound like Eva Cassidy," he said. "I tell them, look, it's how great Eva sings that you want, not all that dated reverb. Most of those recordings of hers are basically demos, anyway."

Painstaking Process, Part Nine: More mixing

We are really getting close. We have 7 mixes out of 11 total that are in pretty good shape. Gary really is a wizard! Yesterday we had Frank Martin come back into the studio and lay down some synth pads and Rhodes organ on Ave Rara because I felt it was still missing something to make it pull together and really shine in all its beauty (those chords and lyrics by Edu Lobo deserve only the best). Wow! Today we mixed that, pulling out some of the synth where it was too much and some of the background vocals too, fattening up the guitar sound, debating about vocals and vowels and whether lyrics can be understood, editing out percussion where it was excessive and starting to remind me of Goddess of War. The result is breathtaking. I hope I remember this feeling when I am crushed in a day or so under the weight of banality or something worse.

Painstaking Process, Part Eight: Mixing

Yay, we are sitting here mixing. Actually, we've been doing it for several days now. We have mixes of Calling You, Habanera, El Cantante, the Aguas medley and Entiendo el Amor. I'm tempted to post some and see what people think. I dunno.

Wayne just got here and is now offering some input--as usual, very spot-on. I did a funny thing on the intro of this tune, where we ran an effect on my voice to make it sound like it's coming through the telephone. Perhaps they're right and it's too weird. But I think it's kind of poignant, like someone calling and singing through the phone how much they miss their soulmate.

Then Wayne has lots of ideas of how to edit the percussion, bringing cuica, reco-reco, tamborim, pandeiro, etc. in and out rather than keeping a wash of Brazilian sounds over everything. Gary has also played with the effects/reverb to bring a lighter, airier Brazilian sound to the vocal, a la Brazil '66.

But frankly the most beautiful thing yet is the a capella Calling You. Wow, that sounds cool.