Blowing your own Trumpet: Exploring the Gendered Dynamics of Self-Promotion in the Classical Music Profession

Abstract

This chapter explores the gendered dynamics of self-promotion by drawing on 64 in-depth interviews with female, classically trained musicians in London and Berlin. As in other sectors in the cultural industries, the ability to self-promote is considered key to finding employment. However, many research participants were reluctant to engage in self-promotion. First, it was associated with pushy behaviour that conflicts with normative expectations that women are modest. Second, self-promotion was regarded as a commercial activity and positioned as unartistic. Taking into account that women have been constructed as the artist's Other, engagement in self-promotion may threaten their already tenuous status as artists. Lastly, the notion of selling yourself may evoke the spectre of prostitution due to the sexualization of female musicians and the fact that it is mainly women who sell their bodies. As I will show, these gendered dynamics do not mean that female musicians are unable to pursue self-promotion, but that they engage in a range of discursive strategies to negotiate and secure their identities as female artists.