IdleRich
IdleRich
This is an interesting one to me. I mention it cos of two things recently.
In summer we are going on holiday with my parents to Orkney (for non-Brits that's a group of islands off the north coast of Scotland on the way to Shetlands and ultimately Norway) and we decided to travel through Scotland and meet them there, maybe do some DJ-ing on the way. So someone put us in touch with a club in Edinburgh àand we had a chat, sent some mixes etc in the end they said "ok, cool, we got a night and we like the sound, but we only book women so Liza can play but you can't". Which is a bit annoying, not the end of the world cos I don't have to drag my records round Scotland... but it doesn't feel quite right somehow.
Then, we got a friend, fairly well established producer, dj etc he's just been dropped by his agency and they said that a big part of it is cos clubs wanna book women and as an older, white guy they don't wanna book him.
In fact there is another, third, thing, when we were booking Lena Willikens to play Lisbon, we were talking to one club and we happened to mention her boyfriend might be coming over, they went "Boyfriend? I thought she was gay?" and they went cold on the booking. Those guys are the most militant gays in Lisbon, they really don't like to book or even associate with people who are straight.... oh, although they do make an exception for.... themselves, something I always find rather funny is that these guys who are the most aggressively anti-cis in terms of their attitudes and policies are a happily married straight couple.
So again... I dunno, I do agree straight white men have had it too easy too long and I'm certainly down with doing something about that. I'd definitely be thinking that if there was a slot and it was an equal decision in every other way between a man and a woman then sure go for the woman. But I think if it's totally quota driven it's a problem, if I go out to a club I wanna hear music picked cos it's good, not cos the dj ticked a box. I mean if the music is good AND they tick the box all fine...
I dunno what I'm saying here overall, I guess I'm not saying anything really, just wondering out loud about this situation. I suppose I have a feeling that something that is well intentioned is causing some collateral damage along with the positives it brings. Although I recognize it would be difficult to apply it precisely. No reai idea for a solution or anything.
In summer we are going on holiday with my parents to Orkney (for non-Brits that's a group of islands off the north coast of Scotland on the way to Shetlands and ultimately Norway) and we decided to travel through Scotland and meet them there, maybe do some DJ-ing on the way. So someone put us in touch with a club in Edinburgh àand we had a chat, sent some mixes etc in the end they said "ok, cool, we got a night and we like the sound, but we only book women so Liza can play but you can't". Which is a bit annoying, not the end of the world cos I don't have to drag my records round Scotland... but it doesn't feel quite right somehow.
Then, we got a friend, fairly well established producer, dj etc he's just been dropped by his agency and they said that a big part of it is cos clubs wanna book women and as an older, white guy they don't wanna book him.
In fact there is another, third, thing, when we were booking Lena Willikens to play Lisbon, we were talking to one club and we happened to mention her boyfriend might be coming over, they went "Boyfriend? I thought she was gay?" and they went cold on the booking. Those guys are the most militant gays in Lisbon, they really don't like to book or even associate with people who are straight.... oh, although they do make an exception for.... themselves, something I always find rather funny is that these guys who are the most aggressively anti-cis in terms of their attitudes and policies are a happily married straight couple.
So again... I dunno, I do agree straight white men have had it too easy too long and I'm certainly down with doing something about that. I'd definitely be thinking that if there was a slot and it was an equal decision in every other way between a man and a woman then sure go for the woman. But I think if it's totally quota driven it's a problem, if I go out to a club I wanna hear music picked cos it's good, not cos the dj ticked a box. I mean if the music is good AND they tick the box all fine...
I dunno what I'm saying here overall, I guess I'm not saying anything really, just wondering out loud about this situation. I suppose I have a feeling that something that is well intentioned is causing some collateral damage along with the positives it brings. Although I recognize it would be difficult to apply it precisely. No reai idea for a solution or anything.