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Women in Audio — Recognising All Roles

March 8th marked International Women’s Day. Social media, as ever, was buzzing with details about conferences and events celebrating women’s achievements in various fields.

One such event caught my eye. It was a panel discussion about the barriers and challenges faced by women in audio (particularly radio and podcasts), and how we can make the industry more inclusive. This, of course, is a topic that’s very close to my heart. But I was dismayed to see that every woman on the panel was either a radio DJ or a podcast host. There wasn’t a single producer, editor, engineer, or sound designer. No technical or “behind the scenes” role was represented.

Of course, it’s important to hear the perspectives of on-air talent. All women in audio, regardless of their specific roles, are fighting for recognition in a male-dominated industry. But this is exactly why we need to hear those other perspectives too. In focusing exclusively on hosts/presenters, the organisers of events like these are only giving one side of the story. They’re overlooking women in other audio roles whose experiences and insight are equally valuable, which is ironic considering women in audio as a whole tend to get overlooked anyway, hence the need for conversations about inclusion in the first place.

That’s not to say women with hosting experience can’t also produce or edit. I started out presenting radio shows in college and have also narrated documentaries and hosted podcasts. However, my first love is producing/editing/mixing audio. It’s what I trained to do during my Master’s in Radio Production, and it is my job first and foremost. I know of many women in radio who juggle presenting and producing, and plenty of podcasters who edit their own content. But it would be nice if more of these panels included women who are not the voices we hear on the air, but rather the silent superheroes making sure what we do hear sounds amazing.

I see parallels with women in the music industry. As I sat down to write this blog, I had just finished reading a wonderful book by Christine Feldman-Barrett called A Women’s History of the Beatles. In one particular chapter, she writes about how, for women pursuing careers in music in the 1960s, singing was considered a more “feminine” (and therefore acceptable) occupation than playing an instrument or songwriting. To this day, I think we have a tendency to overlook women musicians (who don’t sing) in favour of women vocalists (who don’t play instruments). It’s a similar story in radio and podcasting. Those whose voices we can hear usually receive more recognition than the people working behind the scenes.

It’s a problem that also applies to the radio industry generally, regardless of gender. I’ve come across many people who believe that the presenter just turns up and does the show. They don’t seem to realise how much work goes into putting it all together, and how many other people it often takes to make that happen. The question I was asked most frequently about my work in radio was: “Do you have your own show?” When I explained what I actually did, their eyes would glaze over.

In my experience, it’s hard enough for producers, editors, sound engineers, etc. to be recognised as it is, without also being excluded from important discussions about women in the industry. We’re all doing equally important work, whether we’re behind the mic or not, so let’s celebrate that.

 

On Diversity and Inclusion Quotas

I receive emails from people on a frequent basis stating how they have changed their names to be gender-neutral or to white-sounding names, so the exclusion of people based on sex and race is very real. Resumes from women, BIPOCs, and LGBTQ+ people are often ignored or just tossed into the trash. On top of it most of our industry is freelance and people are hired based on their contacts and word of mouth referrals.

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, there were a lot of promises made to diversify crews and work staff. SoundGirls has seen this playing out as we are getting requests for recommendations for women, probably the largest uptick since we started on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. So it is nice to see some of those promises being kept.

For myself, while I enjoy being able to tour with 10 – 12 women on any given Pearl Jam tour, I have never wanted to be a part of an all-women crew and throughout my career have turned these types of gigs down. And while I know that I have not gotten gigs because I am a woman, I also don’t want to take a gig solely because I happen to be a woman.

I am not sure how feasible it is for touring productions to have diversity quotas in hiring, I would assume diversity quotas are more for companies and while they may be imperfect it seems diversity quotas are a necessary quick-fix to meeting diversity goals.

We all know organic change is slow-going and these quotas can help speed up the process for companies in reaching diversity and inclusion goals. We also know that diverse talent is out there and quotas can nudge the hiring managers to find, interview, and hire them.

A thing to remember is quotas DOES NOT MEAN HIRING UNDER QUALIFIED PEOPLE. They also can get the message out to people in the company to take diversity seriously. It always has to start from the top down.

Legality In the United States

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act PROHIBITS discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national orgin. Yet we know and understand this happens all of the time and eliminates women, BIPOC, and LGTBQ+ people from hiring consideration, and affects WOC the hardest.

So how can companies reconcile unlawful discrimination in hiring and reach the real value of the goal of increasing diversity? There is a difference between committing to hire and promote a certain percentage of individuals on the basis of their skin color or other factors and committing to interview and/or consider these individuals for hire or promotion.

Expanding opportunities for everyone within all levels of an organization makes sense from a financial, legal, and moral perspective. The question is how to achieve those financial and moral goals without running afoul of the law.

Suggestions for businesses include:

Businesses and organizations should be aware of these pitfalls

Resistant People

The most resistant naysayers within an organization could very well end up being the biggest diversity champions. But enforcing rigid quotas is a sure-fire way to create resentment and resistance. No one is perfect and no one is born “woke” but education, conversation, and patience will help those employees to come on board with diversity initiatives.

Minority groups don’t want to be patronized

“We certainly don’t want a situation where people feel like they only got the job because they’re meeting a target.” This can seem demeaning and creates a divide between so-called “diversity hires” and those who believe they were hired solely on merit.

Forcing change doesn’t force inclusivity

A lot of organizations engage with quotas but they are not necessarily engaging with the community to change the fundamental problem, which is a lack of opportunity and the biases and the challenges [that minority groups face].

There should be no end-goal

Setting quotas and targets implies that there is an end goal for diversity and inclusion. In reality, organizations need to continually learn, evolve and find ways to truly include and integrate their workforce. diversity and inclusion isn’t a problem that you can just tick off and solve. It’s about embarking on a journey to continuously improve our position.

Let’s briefly look at Affirmative Action

In 1965 Affirmative action policies, which were passed to encourage universities to use an applicant’s race as an admissions factor in order to increase racial diversity on campus, were never meant to be permanent.

In 2003, Grutter v. Bollinger Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, “The Court expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”

Yet here we are in 2020 and new research finds that states that banned affirmative action have seen a long-term decline in the share of Black, Latinx, and Native American students being admitted to and enrolled at their public universities. According to the study, conducted by Mark Long at the University of Washington and Nicole Bateman at the Brookings Institution, alternative policies designed to increase representation have proven inadequate. https://feed.georgetown.edu/access-affordability/what-happens-when-states-ban-affirmative-action/

Inclusion Rider

Before Frances McDormand ended her acceptance speech for Best Actress at the 2018 Oscars with the words, “Inclusion Rider,” most people both inside and outside the film industry had never heard of the phrase. Just a few years later it seems to be working. “The inclusion rider has moved from concept to concrete actions that creatives and companies are employing to counter biases in hiring across entertainment, sports, theater, and technology.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/90309462/did-the-call-for-inclusion-riders-help-make-hollywood-more-diverse

While I do not know what the answer is – it is not just keep your head down, work hard and be overly qualified this has not worked if it had SoundGirls would not need to exist. For my part, I have gone through my list of referrals and I made sure that I am recommending women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ people for gigs.

You can find more info here on creating an inclusive industry

SoundGirls – Gaston-Bird Travel Fund

Life in the Less-Than-5%

 

As hate against those who look like me has skyrocketed in the past year, and been largely ignored by the music industry, I’ve started to rethink my assumptions about how I can move through the audio world. If women make up 5% of sound engineers, then the percentage of women of color like me is even smaller. In my nine years in live sound, I have never crossed paths with another Asian-American sound tech, although I know we exist. The times that someone onstage has looked like me have been far and few between. I always thought I would have to be extra careful about my safety because of my gender, not because of my ethnicity. Clearly, that was naïve.

As strange as it feels to say, I am one of the “lucky” ones: nothing I’ve gone through has been bad enough to force me out of the industry. A friend of mine, who is also Chinese-American, had such a bad experience interning at Big Name Music Hall with a boss and coworkers that constantly asked him incredibly invasive, weird, and racist questions that he decided to stop pursuing a career in live sound altogether. I’ve experienced nothing so constant and pervasive. The worst environment I’ve been in was as at my first and only training at a production company whose manager went on a bizarre, semi-incoherent rant for several minutes about how racism doesn’t exist, and “the only racism” is green (money), which was triggered by a comment made about the Papa John’s Pizza we were eating. 

Most of the racism I’ve experienced come in the form of the harassment most women face anyway, just with an extra racial component. The stereotype of Asian women as sex-hungry “dragon ladies” who exist only to serve white male pleasure is alive and well (just look at the coverage of the Atlanta shootings). So the assholes who aggressively hit on me and wouldn’t take no for an answer might throw in a reference to anime, hentai, massages, and happy endings, Japanese schoolgirls, or anything else that would make what they are saying that much more degrading. Another non-white friend and I found ourselves and our credentials excessively scrutinized at the few AES meetings we have gone to, compared to the other new faces at the meetings. The gatekeeping worked – I haven’t gone back. Moving from clubs and bars, where often there is no one able (or willing) to back you up, into the more structured world of larger music venues, where the touring crew probably know my coworkers and I am suddenly a friend-of-a-friend instead of a complete stranger, has helped cut a lot of this.

What never goes away are the offhand comments and assumptions. The negative ones are self-explanatory: assuming I don’t speak English or learned English as a second language, pressing me about “Where [I’m] really from” or asking “What are you”, arguing with me about whether or not I am a different Asian sound engineer who you worked within a city I’ve never lived in, being asked to confirm my citizenship by someone literally holding my U.S. Passport when filling out paperwork. Being called ‘China doll’, having someone proudly explain to me how they can tell the different types of us Asians apart as if that deserves my congratulations and gratitude. The supposedly complimentary ones, often based in stereotypes like the model minority myth, are equally as gross: saying that they’re glad I’m Asian because I’ll work harder, or assuming I can do a quick calculation on the spot because I’m Asian, and therefore good at math. And of course, there is the classic ‘Oh I love your culture!’, which is quickly followed by a bunch of half-baked romanticized stereotypes that probably aren’t even from the right country. 

Overall, the biggest issue I’ve run into in my career is tokenism: being paraded or held up for being a person of color as proof of diversity. It was particularly bad at my first job, whereas the only non-white sound engineer I was constantly pressured to participate in the marketing campaigns, fundraising events, tabling, and basically become the face of the audio program. There was a hard push to show how diverse we were as an organization when we really were not. A single person cannot be diverse! I declined until I was eventually left alone, but it was extremely uncomfortable to go through, especially as a high schooler.

Recently it’s resurfaced again, in a slightly different form. I have become the token woman/minority audio engineer success story to a white coworker of mine, who I barely even know. This person has tagged me in social media posts about how inspirational it is to see a non-white woman in audio, and has privately sent me several long messages of solidarity and apology over inconsequential things the venue has done. Did I have to ask my venue to put STOP AAPI HATE up on the marquee? Yes. Was it painful or traumatizing that they didn’t put it up automatically and I had to make that request? No. It was moderately annoying at best, and it’s insulting to decide that it was something deeply distressing on my behalf. To continue doing so after I have explained that to you that this not the case at all is ridiculous. Removing my agency from the situation and operating under the assumption that it is the duty of white people to swoop in and save me, is not ‘being an ally’. It is an unhelpful and infantilizing statement that paints me so delicate that something as simple as requesting my venue speak out is a shattering ordeal. 

Flattening me into a single dimension, whatever the intention, is not okay. It takes the complex, whole person that I am and reduces me down to be defined solely by my race. It doesn’t matter how much solidarity you claim to have if you can’t see past the surface of my skin. Especially at work, the body that I am in should come second to what really matters: the fact that I am a great sound engineer. 

 

Revenge on the Nerds

 

Democratising education to diversify the workplace

Part 1: Formal Education

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has spent time learning during the pandemic. Even if you didn’t attempt to fit all of humankind’s knowledge into your brain just because you had a few months of downtime, you’ve probably attended at least a couple of the seemingly never-ending webinars that audio manufacturers and groups have kindly made available to us. I chose to learn how to code and found there are so many parallels with audio, both in the nature of the subject and how it’s taught. It keeps reminding me of the tiresome debates about why our workplace isn’t more diverse: for whatever underrepresented group is being discussed, it gets suggested that they just aren’t interested, they aren’t cut out for it, or the people who do well in the industry are there because they’re naturally suited to the role. The solution, if it’s seen as a problem at all, is to encourage more of that underrepresented group to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects at school. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief that it’s the next generation’s problem and they’ve narrowly avoided having to examine or change their own behaviour or the processes they participate in, and they go back to the status quo.

The people on the left are computer programmers, the people on the right are actors. Credit (left): NASA

Unfortunately, “more education” is not the panacea it’s touted to be and actually presents its own set of problems. One coding lecturer explained that he had named his course “Python for Everybody” (which I highly recommend, available for free from http://www.dr-chuck.com/) because he wanted to make computer programming truly accessible for everyone and stop it being the reserve of nerdy gatekeepers who hoarde the knowledge for themselves (I may be paraphrasing slightly). That really resonated with me, because I’ve seen it time and again in audio too.

We’ve been raised by movies and sitcoms to see ‘nerds’ as mostly harmless goofballs, born with huge analytical brains and zero social skills, who deserve to succeed because they got bullied by ‘jocks’ in school. It’s apparently inevitable that most computer programmers, physicists, mathematicians and even audio engineers are straight, white or Asian, middle-class men because the nerd stereotype teaches us they are the ones who are born to fit those roles. This simply isn’t the case and teaching in a way that only appeals to people who think like them is a self-fulfilling prophecy that they’re the only ones who can do that work. If we want to encourage and retain a more diverse workforce in every sense, we need to change how we participate in education, both as teachers and pupils.

Case study: Women computer programmers

[I apologise for the length of this example, but I found it so fascinating and it had so many echoes of audio that I had to share. There’s a tl, dr: at the end.]

Women programming the first digital computer, “ENIAC”, for the US military c. 1946. They were given no credit for their work at the time and it was later presumed they were simply models. Credit: U.S. Army photo from Getty Images.

Women have been involved in computer programming from the very beginning. Ada Lovelace, while probably not the first programmer as is often claimed (1), had a thorough and profound understanding of the potential of computing machines, even beyond their inventor Charles Babbage’s. When the first “digital computer” was built for the U.S. military during the second world war, six women were the ones who programmed it, because they were already working as ‘computers’: humans who did calculations (2). As far back as 1943, women of colour were performing calculations for NACA (which became NASA), as immortalised in the film Hidden Figures (3). They proved to any doubters that women and people of colour were perfectly capable of handling mathematical and engineering problems, efficiently and under pressure.

For the first few decades of modern computing, hardware production was seen as important, ‘manly’ work and software programming, like manual computing, was seen as menial administrative work, so was commonly done by women. There are countless instances from the time of people using traditional gender stereotypes to explain why women were naturally suited to coding, because they were meticulous and good at repetitive tasks like knitting or typing. Even Dr. Grace Hopper, a behemoth in the world of coding, said in a Cosmopolitan article from 1967 that it was “just like planning a dinner… …Programming requires patience and the ability to handle detail. Women are ‘naturals’ at computer programming.” (4).

The first women programmers didn’t have manuals to learn from, and had to figure out what to do from first principles, using paper diagrams at first because they didn’t have security clearance to enter the room that housed the computer. I defy anyone in audio to look at these banks of circuits and not see patch boards. Credit: U.S. Army photo from the ARL Technical Library.

The boom in computing was so great that there were far more jobs than candidates, even after men came back from the war. This opened up opportunities to people who might otherwise have been excluded. The New York Times Magazine cites a time when a young woman of colour called Arlene Gwendolyn Lee applied for a systems analytics job in Toronto in the 1960s. “Lee persuaded the employers, who were all white, to let her take the coding aptitude test. When she placed in the 99th percentile, the supervisors grilled her with questions before hiring her. “I had it easy,” she later told her son. “The computer didn’t care that I was a woman or that I was black. Most women had it much harder.” (5).

Unfortunately, those tests that allowed everyone’s aptitude to shine through regardless of appearance or background gradually came to be accompanied by personality tests, which selected for ‘detached’ people who were less likely to have home or social commitments and could therefore dedicate longer hours to the job. “The primary selection mechanism used by the industry selected for antisocial, mathematically inclined males, and therefore antisocial, mathematically inclined males were overrepresented in the programmer population; this, in turn, reinforced the popular perception that programmers ought to be antisocial and mathematically inclined (and therefore male), and so on ad infinitum.”(6). This, combined with the marketing of personal computers in the 1980s as boys’ toys, slowly eroded women’s position in the field. It paved the way for middle-class white boys, whose families could afford personal computers and would usually keep them in the son’s room, to arrive at college having had years of experience experimenting and learning to code in their spare time. Anyone else who joined computer science courses was made to feel inferior or not suited to the subject because they lacked that exposure. However, when the gender disparity in university courses was examined, “It turned out that having prior experience is not a great predictor, even of academic success”, “the pace of learning at college was so much more intense that by the end of the degree, everyone eventually wound up graduating at roughly the same levels of programming mastery.” (5).

So women, including women of colour, had been showing up and doing the work from the outset, and the research found they were just as capable as men, and yet even now biology and gender stereotypes are used to support men’s dominance in the field. A Google engineer’s 2017 memo against their affirmative action policies (7) caused quite a lot of hyperbole on each side of the argument, but it exemplified this attitude to women in tech. Despite the engineer’s bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Ivy League universities, his arguments made clear that he didn’t understand the field’s nuances or consensus on humans’ innate abilities (8) or, in fact, what it takes to be an engineer (9). Judging by the ensuing internet meltdown, and conversations I see again and again in our own field, he’s far from alone in holding those views.

Tl, dr: People have been using gender stereotypes to explain women’s involvement in computer programming from the beginning. First to justify their aptitude for it, then to justify their absence from it. Starting a course with prior experience of the topic might make a student seem more promising than others, but by the end, even students with no prior experience will have caught up.

What’s holding us back?

The case of women in computer programming covers some major points of what limits women and minorities’ participation in STEM, especially PECS (physics, engineering and computer science). A very useful Physics Today article (10) outlines worries students may have that can lead to them dropping out or underperforming, and how they can be addressed effectively. There are concerns about belonging, about being able to improve, and being respected by classmates and teachers alike. These often stem from harmful stereotypes about nerds, and opinions about innate ability. I have previously discussed how ‘fetishising brilliance’: i.e., believing that natural talent is the main requirement for success in a given field, enables discrimination and reduces diversity (11). It is particularly damaging in an education setting because it can discourage students from even trying, and educators are less likely to put the effort in to teach pupils who don’t take to a subject immediately (10).

What can we do?

The good news is there are ways to counteract these effects. For example, it is true that, on average, women perform less well on spatial reasoning tests than men. Whatever the reasons for this, potentially because boys more than girls are raised to play with toys that improve that skill, the gap in ability can be narrowed significantly with one 15 hour course (12) or even just 10 hours of playing spatially rich video games (13). This is a huge deal because many PECS courses start with activities that emphasise spatial reasoning, alienating people who are less skilled in it from the start, even though they may be perfectly competent in other areas of the subject. This can have a ripple effect on their feelings of fitting in and competence, and they are more likely to drop out of the class altogether.

Fostering a ‘growth’ mindset (“I can improve”), rather than a ‘fixed’ mindset (“I was born with a certain set of abilities”), is massively beneficial too: ‘Students with a fixed mindset who encounter a difficult problem or concept see that difficulty as evidence that they lack ability. Across many different research studies, such students tend to seek out easy problems (to prove their ability) and avoid challenging ones that would help them learn. They avoid speaking up in class or in group discussions so they don’t seem stupid. When they face setbacks, they lose motivation and turn their attention to subjects for which they feel more “natural” ability.

In contrast, students who have a growth mindset see difficulties as opportunities to learn—“I love a good challenge!” So they work harder and ask more questions, which naturally improves their learning.’ (10). A key way educators can encourage this way of thinking is to explicitly state in their feedback that they are giving it precisely because they believe the student is capable of improving, rather than trying to comfort them for their lack of ability (10).

Don’t make it awkward

Perhaps counterintuitively, these measures work best to improve diversity when they’re offered to everyone (10). Singling underrepresented groups out for special treatment can make them feel less able and like they don’t belong. It can also cause friction with other classmates who think they’re being offered an unfair advantage. Interventions like playing video games can help all students, but they tend to have the biggest effect on the people who have the biggest improvements to make, thus levelling the playing field without explicitly helping one group over another (10, 13).

It may seem strange for an advocate of Soundgirls, which is aimed mainly at an underrepresented group in audio, to recommend against targeted initiatives. Of course, I feel that organisations and fora specifically for underrepresented groups can be very beneficial. They can counteract the feeling of not belonging, and provide an understanding and supportive environment that they may not have access to elsewhere. However, it’s essential that people seek these organisations out and partake in them because they choose to, not because their school or teacher tells them they need to.

Key takeaways

Next time I’ll discuss more detailed examples of how we can help to attract a wider variety of people to our industry through teaching. Until then, the key points to remember, whether you’re learning or teaching, are:

Not knowing something doesn’t make you stupid: We all come from different backgrounds and have different life experiences. The whole point of learning is to fill gaps in your knowledge. Mocking a student for not knowing something is about as impressive and helpful as yelling from the sidelines of a Peewee game that they suck.

We’re all different, but we have the same potential to learn: Don’t rely on lazy stereotypes and cherry-picked biological research to justify prejudices.

A growth mindset is a key to learning: Viewing learning demanding topics as a fun challenge rather than evidence of unsuitability to a field results in the best and longest-lasting improvements.

Movies and sitcoms lied to you: Wearing glasses and a pocket protector doesn’t make you smart. Who knew?

References:

  1. https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/technology/visionaries/ada-lovelace-original-and-visionary-but-no-programmer/
  2. https://www.history.com/news/coding-used-to-be-a-womans-job-so-it-was-paid-less-and-undervalued
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Area_Computers
  4. http://thecomputerboys.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cosmopolitan-april-1967-1-large.jpg
  5. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magazine/women-coding-computer-programming.html
  6. The Computer Boys Take Over by Nathan Ensmerger https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VCcsTPQ738oC&q=infinitum&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=antisocial&f=false
  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%27s_Ideological_Echo_Chamber
  8. https://www.wired.com/story/the-pernicious-science-of-james-damores-google-memo/
  9. https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/so-about-this-googlers-manifesto-1e3773ed1788
  10. https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.2383
  11. https://soundgirls.org/how-to-find-the-best-candidate-for-the-job/
  12. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/43802/can-teaching-spatial-skills-help-bridge-the-stem-gender-gap
  13. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01990.x

How Can We Boost Intersectionality in Audio?

 

Intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. It is no secret that women, people of color, and other minority groups are highly underrepresented in our audio industry. So how do we change this? We need to understand intersectionality and practice intersectionality as a WAY OF THINKING and ACTION, and not just a word.

Understand and Recognize Differences

Stating that you “don’t see color” is a problem. A huge problem. Understand and recognize there are many different people from all walks of life. Race,  gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. These character traits are what make each and every one of us individuals and unique. Besides being prejudiced against people who are different from you, learn to embrace differences and recognize your own differences. Understanding and recognizing differences can help the audio industry hire and create a safe space for minority groups.

Increase Representation

How many times have we seen audio companies host panels and seminars with only white cis-gender men on the panel? It is truly disgusting, and when these companies are called out about this, very little is done about the matter. Why is this? We need to increase representation. In order for us to increase representation in the audio industry, we actually need to hire minority groups. Generate panels with more people of color and women in our industry. There are very few if any women or people of color in executive positions. There is not one Black-Owned audio touring company on a large scale in the US. Before you hire your “homeboys” and skip over resumes of names that “sound Black”, please understand the damage that is being done for individuals and groups who already suffer from discrimination disproportionately. There are a lot of racists in power and in positions that inflict their racist ideology in society and jobs. This is also true in our industry.

Join the Conversation

Staying silent and ignoring social justice reforms and racism is not okay. Ally is not a noun. Ally is a verb, something you do and continue to do because it is right. Speak up against racism, homophobia, misogyny, and every other form of hate and oppression. Join the conversation against hate and create a conversation in the workplace. We saw many companies speak up standing with BLM but continue to discriminate against Blacks. We need to continue to educate ourselves and each other.

More on creating an inclusive industry

How to Find the Best Candidate for the Job

Twi McCallum on Hiring Black Designers and Creatives

Twi McCallum on The SoundGirls Podcast

For the Men Who Want to Support Women in Audio

A Guide to Supporting Women in Sound

Black Technicians Matter

On Current Events and the State of Our Industry

Women in Audio – Music Blogs, Collectives, and Organizations

A More Inclusive Industry

 

 

 

Twi McCallum on Hiring Black Designers and Creatives

An Interview with Twi McCallum – The Woman Behind the Letter 

On June 8, 2020, broadwayworld.com published Twi McCallum’s Open Letter to the Theatre Community on Hiring Black Designers and Creatives Twi McCallum Shares an Open Letter to the Theatre Community on Hiring Black Designers and Creatives.  I came across this letter the following day, and I have to admit that I was quite struck by the letter’s tone.  You really must read the entire letter for yourself, but I can tell you this:  Twi gets right to the business of letting the entertainment industry know that hiring a Black cast does not mean your EDI box is checked.  She writes that she’s, “tired of “inclusion” being exclusive to the actors, writers, producers, musicians, and dancers,” and that’s exactly the tone I’m talking about.  She’s tired of it, and who wouldn’t be?  The play does not stop at the stage.  As everyone knows, that’s only the beginning, so why isn’t this inclusivity reaching backstage, to the shops, the design studios, etc.

I’ve seen this letter pop up in my social media feed several times since the first time I read it, and I’ve re-read it a few times.  Each time I did, I couldn’t help but thinking, “I wonder who’s reading this and what they’re doing about it.”  I reached out to Twi because I wanted to know more about her thoughts behind this letter, what made her write it, and what did she hope to accomplish with it, and I wanted to know what makes Twi tick.  She graciously agreed to be interviewed, and here’s what she had to say:

You recently wrote an open letter to the theatre/arts/entertainment community on hiring black designers and creatives.  Can you talk about your impulse for writing that letter?

The contents of the letter have been thoughts I’ve had drafted in my iPhone’s notepad for about 2 years, and sentiments I’ve felt since I was in undergrad (before I dropped out.) I attended Howard University, an HBCU, in their technical theater program. Although I was at a Black college, the school’s focus was to serve the acting students, so I was often told, “nobody cares about the designers and technicians” as if I shouldn’t use my artistry as an activism platform the way the performance majors were encouraged to. Here I was, about four years later, seeing a fantastic video from a Black Broadway actor going viral on social media, speaking out about racism he’s experienced. However, it was a little discouraging because Black actors are often given the platform to speak out. The thought of “representation” in entertainment is often limited to seeing Black actors, writers, directors, producers, musicians, and dancers getting big roles. Artists like me who work behind the scenes and are often nameless are seldom included in this “representation” picture. The letter is still evolving, I have several drafts of it and I plan to republish it next summer with a review of how I think the industry has progressed (or not) over a year.

Did you expect the letter to be so widely received?  What was your reaction to that?

I still have no idea how “widely” my letter has been received, especially since I intentionally have not opened the links where it’s been published– I learned as a teenager not to read reviews and comments because some people intentionally say unkind things. BroadwayWorld posted on its Instagram page that they were opening their writing slots to Black people in light of the uprisings, so I saw that as my chance to write an open letter through the lens of a Black femme (and disabled) sound designer who works in theater as well as tv and film. I also submitted the letter to a few Black publications, who surprisingly did not publish my letter, which I assume is because they focus on highlighting actors and directors and don’t care about the Black artists who work behind the scenes. That rejection was a little discouraging until I started getting emails from veteran sound designers, former teachers, and regional theater companies that I worked for. I am still afraid of getting blackballed, but so far all of the responses from my network have been positive and encouraging. I’m sure that every minority designer can relate to my sentiments about physical abuse, sexual harassment, delayed payment, and wondering why a show with a Black cast/director has no Black designers. I chose not to name-drop particular companies where I experienced blatant racism, but I’m sure they all read it and wept.

What kind of responses have you gotten from industry folks?

Most of the responses from industry people have simply been to the effect of, “great job using your voice eloquently” and “you are a great role model.” I’ve also been invited to speak on a few panels since my letter was published, and my proudest result has been joining the EDI committee of Theatrical Sound Designers & Composers Association. Moving forward, I am trying to collaborate with the non-Black veteran designers to figure out ways to get more Black designers into job slots at regional and off-Broadway theaters in the upcoming seasons.

Who are your mentors, and why?

I have four mentors, who all have been warm and gentle towards me in different capacities. In no particular order: Nevin Steinberg, who has passed my resume along for at least 1 design job, and texts me every once in a blue moon to check-in, which goes a long way for me. Megumi Katayama, who took a chance and hired me as her design assistant at Long Wharf Theater in November 2019. I was grossly under qualified at the time but I was able to learn so much and being able to put that show on my resume opened doors for me. Mike Backhaus, the sound supervisor at Yale School of Drama, is a fantastic resource for all the engineering and mathematics-related sound things I haven’t mastered yet–he’s terrifyingly intelligent. Finally is Wingspace Theatrical Design, an advocacy organization for professional directors and designers based in NYC, and I’m being mentored by Sinan Zafar and Kate Marvin who have already helped me make important decisions in my career like unions, school, books to read, etc.

Can you describe the most comfortable and most equitable collaborative artistic situation for which you have been worked on?

My favorite production so far has been Frankenstein at Kansas City Rep in March 2020, we made it to opening night and then closed due to the virus. This is my first LORT stage as a sound designer, so I had big shoes to fill. This was not a “Black” production, both of the performers/writers were non-Black. The director was a non-Black woman, and I was the only Black designer on the team. When I saw the promotion for the show on the KC Rep website before arriving for tech, I was terrified because I had already convinced myself I was out of place. However, the organization didn’t make me feel like their token teammate. They trusted me, I got paid on time, it was a safe space to ask questions and expect a respectful response, my sound team picked me up when I fell short, and overall that level of comfort allowed me to produce my work to the best of my ability.

It’s a common discussion in this industry that once the “old guys” are gone, the upcoming younger generation will be able to enact real change for future generations.  What is your response to this scenario?  Do you think there is hope for meaningful change while the “old guys” are still here, or is it too late?

To an extent, I see many of the “old guys” helping to create real change for future generations. Of course, there are still racists popping into the conversations especially on social media, such as the situation with the Black producer who wanted to hire a Black film editor and got backlash from veteran White editors. At least in the sound design network, some of the old guys are showing up for EDI conversations and speaking up about the tangible actions they can take, such as making a commitment to bring on an emerging Black designer for one of their regional productions in a future season.

Job access is a multifaceted issue, including stems like pay disparity (because minorities are expected to work for free), education level, and access to expensive equipment if you’re a designer who comes from a low-income background. Institutionally, White-run theaters create barriers by hiring the same old guys consistently, and not having contact information listed on their website so that emerging designers can submit their resume to the producers/production managers, which creates a sense of exclusivity. Old guys making room is a good step towards getting more Black designers into these seats since many of them overbook themselves for productions that their design assistants are responsible for, but it’s not the only solution.

What is your dream project?

As a sound designer who works for the stage and the screen, this is a two-tiered answer. My dream project in theater: anything on Broadway! I already have my co-designer picked out for when I get hired for my first Broadway production, and yes she is a Black woman. I’ve had my eyes set on designing for a Broadway-bound director like Kamilah Forbes and Stevie Walker-Webb, along with a list of 30 other big directors I admire.

My dream project for cinema: post-sound mixing for many Beyonce films! She’s producing great content and I think she would love me as her post-sound girl.

However, the icing on the cake would be if I’m not the only Black, femme, and LGBTQ person on those technical teams. In a few years when I can grow as a businessperson, I want to have the power to train and recruit diverse engineers, A2s, foley artists, dialogue editors, etc who look like me.

Do you think that the pandemic outbreak has overshadowed the BLM movement and related initiatives that are being executed in the entertainment industry?  If so, what do you think folx can do to stay focused?

I don’t think the pandemic outbreak has overshadowed the BLM movement, I think it’s the other way around. In regards to visibility, the problem is that non-Black counterparts participated in the temporary activism for about a week or two, then things went back to normal for them. Black people collectively are still mourning, marching, and organizing not only for George Floyd but also for Breonna Taylor, and new/rediscovered cases such as Elijah McClain, Oluwatoyin Salau, Sandra Bland, Tony McDade, and Riah Milton. Black women, trans people, and disabled people are often not cared for in these movements as much as Black men are. I want everyone if they have the capacity, to show up as much as they can, sign petitions, and donate to grassroots organizations instead of large nonprofits that aren’t proving where the funds are being allocated. BLM is an ongoing movement, even when the fire settles down.

What advice do you have for young technicians, designers, crew, and any other “unsung heroes?”

Advice on your job hunt: Send out your resume as much as possible! Cast your net wide. Last year, I sent my resume to about 80 theaters and directors I wanted to work for and only heard back from 6, but those responses turned into jobs.

Advice on creativity: practice, practice, practice. Practice your QLab, ProTools and other industry-related software, sign up for free webinars, join lots of industry organizations, watch YouTube tutorials, etc.

Advice on being comfortable in your own skin: My favorite quote is by a man named Michael Todd, “…planted and under-qualified” which means we may not always have enough experience or readiness for a job, but still take the opportunity when it comes and do your best.

Resources for hiring a diverse production crew

Wingspace is committed to the cause of equity in the field.  There are significant barriers to accessing a career in theatrical design and we see inequalities of race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability across the field.

Parity Productions is a formidable producer of new work, that also ensures that they fill at least 50% of the creative roles on their productions with women and trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) artists. In addition to producing their own work, they actively promote other theatre companies that follow their 50% hiring standard. Artistically, they develop and produce compelling new plays that give voice to individuals who rebel against their marginalized place in society.

Production on Deck Uplifting underrepresented communities in the arts. Their main goal is to curate a set of resources to help amplify the visibility of (primarily) People of Color in the arts.

POC in Audio Directory The directory features over 500 people of color who work in audio around the world. You’ll find editors, hosts, writers, producers, sound designers, engineers, project managers, musicians, reporters, and content strategists with varied experience from within the industry and in related fields.

The EQUAL Directory is a global database of professionals that seeks to amplify the careers and achievements of women working behind the scenes in music and audio. Any person around the world can add their name and claim their space. And, any person looking to hire a more inclusive creative team can find professionals in their area.

Twi McCallum is an NYC-based sound designer for the stage and screen. Her first jobs in the big city were a technical theater apprenticeship at New York Live Arts and an IATSE Local 1 stagehand gig at Manhattan School of Music.

Off-Broadway credits include Women’s Project Theater. Selected television/film credits include ABC, HBO, Warner Bros, CBS, and NBCUniversal. Selected regional credits include Kansas City Rep, Cape May Stage, and Long Wharf Theater (assistant design.) Twi has also designed Parity Production’s spring 2020 production of “Mirrors” at the New York Theater Workshop.

Selected Awards/memberships include USITT Early Career Mentee Grant, Post New York Alliance, SoundGirls, and Disney Creative Careers Fellow.

The SoundGirls Podcast – Twi McCallum: Hiring black designers and creatives

Twi McCallum Interviews Bobbi Banks for The SoundGirls Living History Project

Find More Profiles on The Five Percent

Profiles of Women in Audio

 

 

How to Find the Best Candidate for the Job

 

There’s been a lot of talk about equality, equity and diversity recently. I’ll discuss the pros and cons of a diverse workplace in my next blog (spoiler: they’re mainly pros), but first I want to tackle an idea that shuts discussion about diversity down before it even begins: “It should just be the best candidate for the job.” Of course, I am 100% in agreement with that sentiment, but unfortunately, as is so often the case in live audio, the theory does not match up with real life.

Is live audio a meritocracy?

In my experience, it is widely believed that our industry, and indeed our society, is a meritocracy. That is, “outcomes such as wealth, jobs, and power are distributed on the basis of hard work, strong motivation, and personal ability.” (1) Or, that the best candidate gets the job. While that may be the ideal, and some companies might be very conscientious hirers, it is not what’s happening on an industry-wide level. If you’re feeling philosophical you might like to read this article about the origins of the term and the arguments for why a true meritocracy is unsustainable. The myth of meritocracy: who really gets what they deserve? (2). From a more practical angle, just think about how most of us get new clients: word of mouth. By its very nature, a network based on word of mouth and personal recommendations is an enclosed system. Would you trust a government that was only ever appointed by other members of that government? There are definitely advantages to hiring people who have been recommended by respected colleagues, but it is a system particularly vulnerable to biases and personal preferences, with little opportunity for scrutiny.

I have heard of people getting gigs because a parent-owned the company because they worked for a favoured artist and the hire company wanted to “keep them sweet” while they weren’t touring, or simply because they were in the warehouse when a project manager was filling their crew lists. Often, these people are genuinely very good at their job, but it can’t be argued that those are fair or transparent hiring practises. It’s also statistically unlikely that they were the definitively best choice for the job.

Meritocratic beliefs actually result in more discrimination

It sounds counterintuitive, but if someone believes they are part of a fair system (when they aren’t), they are more likely to act unfairly. “The more individuals believe that Meritocracy exists, the more likely they are to deny economic inequalities and discrimination and to overestimate racial equality and less likely to have support for policies designed to reduce those inequalities” (1). In other words, if you believe that with enough hard work and talent anyone can achieve anything, then you don’t believe discrimination or even luck are significant factors in people’s lives (3). The people who aren’t successful simply mustn’t have worked as hard or be as talented as the people who are. Members who benefit from the system happily believe that it is solely down to their work ethic and aptitude, while those who do less well blame themselves for being incompetent or lazy. When this belief is widespread, it further reinforces the stereotypes about the high-status group (often white men) being innately better than the low-status group (e.g. women and/or people of colour).

A 2010 study found “When merit was emphasized, research participants provided, on average, higher rewards to a male employee over an equally qualified female employee (in the same job, with the same supervisor, and with equivalent performance evaluations).” It concluded that “Ironically, working in an environment that highlights meritocracy might make individuals believe that they are fair and objective, and as a result, make them more likely to display their biases” (4). If someone feels they are already egalitarian, they’ll go with their gut instincts rather than examining what is driving their decisions, and those instincts are often biased. The rags to riches fairytale, which is so central to the American Dream and so countless movie plots adored worldwide, actually justifies the unequal status quo. It “serves as a social glue, holding the status-based hierarchy, and importantly, making inequalities more acceptable, hence promoting stability within a stratified social system” (1).

“Fetishing brilliance” reduces the pool of candidates 

A report published in Science in 2015 found that academic disciplines that fetishise brilliance, i.e. where practitioners in that field believe that raw, innate talent is the main requirement for success, are likely to have fewer women and African Americans than those that don’t (5). This results from a trend of white men being more associated with being ‘gifted’, while women and African American men “are stereotyped as lacking innate intellectual talent”. Tellingly, Asian Americans, who are not stereotyped in the same way, were not underrepresented in those fields. Emphasising the need for brilliance can both put women off, who often feel they don’t possess that quality and make employers less likely to choose women or African American men even if they do put themselves forward. The study found no evidence to support the theory that these groups are truly less likely to be naturally brilliant, as some had suggested, or that men do better because they work longer hours (which they didn’t).

We are obsessed with the idea of innate talent in audio. How many times have you heard people say that you have to have a musical ear for mixing, or you have to have the knack with technology? You’ve either got it or you don’t? Throughout music in general, skill is far more highly valued if you’re born with it. If you have to work at it, it’s almost embarrassing. When someone claims that to shine in audio requires skills that just can’t be taught, they’re subconsciously contributing to the underrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities in the field.

The limitations of word of mouth

If meritocratic beliefs and fetishising brilliance are two common factors in the industry, which have been shown to reduce the likelihood of success for large proportions of the population, why do we think the best candidate for the job is someone we already know? It’s not even a case of needing more diversity; how does an enclosed system recruit the best talent (innate or learned), regardless of identity? I understand that it is very difficult to judge aptitude for live audio just from a résumé. There are a lot of skills that can’t be measured by qualifications, résumés are vulnerable to exaggeration and finding a good personality fit for a team can be as important as finding someone with the right knowledge. The freelance, last minute and temporary nature of the industry also make it less suitable to recruitment methods used in more “corporate” settings. If you need eight people to work for just one week, starting 4 days from now, it isn’t practical to mount an advertising campaign for the roles then rigorously review each candidate and fact check their résumés.

However, we need to acknowledge that word of mouth and personal networks really limit the available talent pool, especially when it comes to newer people trying to make it in the industry. What are the odds that the best person possible for a job went to the same school as you? Knows a friend of yours? Goes to the same church as you? Or the old favourite, happens to be in the same room as you? If we can acknowledge the limitations of this approach we can start to do something about it.

Take control of the pipeline

Live audio is so highly competitive that it might seem like there’s little incentive to bother seeking candidates out rather than letting them come to you. Even if you get to the bottom of your call list, there’s always a pile of résumés waiting in your emails, right? It’s still likely that those résumés are from people who are already in the industry, often friends of people who work for you. You might be expanding the number of candidates, but they’re still likely to have quite similar attributes, especially if you’re looking for people who will “fit in well”. There’s a growing body of evidence that having diverse teams, not just measured by gender or ethnicity but a diversity of thinking improves performance (6). According to research discussed in Scientific American in 2014, “Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working.” (7) I will revisit this in more detail in my next blog but suffice it to say it is good to work with a wide variety of people, both from a company perspective and as a freelancer.

More “traditional” business sectors understand the importance of nurturing talent well before candidates reach the interview stage. If you want to attract the best of the best, you’ve got to see recruitment as an investment. I don’t know about you, but any career advice I’ve ever had was awful. There were about five jobs on their list, and none of them was “sound engineer.” The best engineer of the future might not even know the role exists. You could go into schools (not just your own) and do demonstrations, hold open days at your premises, have an active online presence where anyone who is curious can learn more about the industry and your part in it. Offering work experience and internships can help both parties assess each other, and you can teach potential employees good habits before they have the chance to learn bad ones.

As for finding candidates who are already in the industry: treat maintaining your freelancer pool as a year-round task. It’s easy to not see it as a priority when you’re busy with more immediate concerns, but if you leave filling positions to the last minute, you’re highly unlikely to find the best candidate. If you’re in a rush you won’t be thorough in your considerations, and to be frank, if someone’s available at short notice, they’re unlikely to be high quality. When reviewing cover letters and résumés, try to focus on objective things like qualifications and experience, and avoid making snap judgments based on less relevant aspects, like names or age.

Freelancers benefit from less homogenous working environments too, so it’s in our interests to help expand the search for coworkers. If you’re asked for recommendations, bear in mind that it’s natural to suggest people who are like ourselves (8). Make the effort to think about who would actually be the best fit for the role. If everyone you know is like you, get out more! Interacting with a wide variety of people benefits your professional and personal development anyway (more on that next time). Companies, employees and freelancers can all work to foster environments that value differences of opinion and experience, not just to attract but also retain and develop the best people in the industry.

So, if you’re looking for the best candidate for the job, I hope I’ve convinced you that our current methods are not enough to find them. Our industry is not a romantic comedy where the person we needed was right there in front of us all along. Idly believing that the best people should get the job is not going to change this. The good news is there are plenty of ways to find great techs and increase your competitive edge, productivity and profits in the process.

  1. Primes and Consequences: A Systematic Review of Meritocracy in Intergroup Relations. Madeira et al., 2007 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6761281/)
  2. The myth of meritocracy: who really gets what they deserve? K. A. Appiah. 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/oct/19/the-myth-of-meritocracy-who-really-gets-what-they-deserve
  3. A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you. C. Mark, 2019 https://aeon.co/ideas/a-belief-in-meritocracy-is-not-only-false-its-bad-for-you
  4. The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organisations. Castilla & Benard, 2010 https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/paradox-meritocracy-organizations
  5. Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines. Leslie et al., 2015 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6219/262.full
  6. Why Diverse Teams are Smarter. Rock & Grant, 2016. https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter
  7. How Diversity Makes Us Smarter. Phillips, 2014 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/
  8. Word-of-mouth recruitment isn’t the best path to top research talent. ResearchGate, 2019 https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-recruitment/blog/post/word-of-mouth-recruitment-isnt-the-best-path-to-top-research-talent

Language In Production

No, I don’t give a shit about cursing

Microaggression is a form of bias that can occur in everyday language, often subtle and said inadvertently. Language can be problematic when it’s a common phrase or saying and people avoid understanding its origins or implications. We use language to express ourselves, and even when we have the best intentions some phrases, wording, and terms, in general, are no longer applicable or widely accepted.

Just last week I overheard someone (a white thirty-something dude) say to one of our members of the production team (a 19-year-old black student) ask “how’s it going, Boy?” Racism is reprehensible and protests are happening across the world, and he had the balls to be casually racist. I doubt it even registered to that “southern boy” that what he said was horrible. The student took it well, I don’t even think he flinched, I’m guessing he is used to it. I didn’t ask him about it, maybe I should have, but I did give him a ride home since the city was under a curfew and we were working past it. I went to a protest last weekend as well. I took my dad’s advice and protested peacefully and kept my distance from the police. He lived through the civil rights movement as a young man in the south, recalling abundant racism and fellow students as KKK members. Although not surprised, my dad is concerned and worried about the future of our country. So am I. It feels like a dystopian society where we are repeating the same awful battles over and over.

“In many ways, overt racism has declined gradually since the civil rights movement, Kanter said, and white people often assume that because they do not utter racial slurs, or perhaps are well-versed in and value social justice, that they do not have to worry about engaging in racist behavior themselves” (Eckart, 2017).

We should avoid perpetuating stereotypes just because it’s always been done that way. Complacency is the root of many issues in our society. People get oddly protective over “the way it has always been done,” even if that way is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or generally just an asshole way to behave.

JK Rowling recently made a statement via Twitter that was trans-phobic where she attempted an awkward joke about people who menstruate. There are probably a lot of people who have never heard the terms cis-male/cis-female and have no idea what TERF stands for in this context (it means trans-exclusionary radical feminist). There are loads of new terms, phrases, and words to add to our vocabulary, and there’s plenty of old ones that we can let go to make room for them.

Handsome transgender teenager tearing the word Female into MALE in Gender identity, equality and human rights. Breaking silence about own gender identity transgender Pride and freedom concept.

Most of it comes down to simply respecting other people. Inclusive does not mean “people who are different, like how I am different.” The intention of inclusivity is not as meaningful as actually doing the work.

“People are tired of talking about diversity and inclusion, frustrated by talk not turning into impactful action, and overwhelmed by the number of issues to address and the scope of what must change” (Crayton, 2017).

It seems contradictory when we are working toward being “sound humans” rather than the “sound guy” when we are still using racist & sexist terminology. I’ve explained to more students than you’d expect why one end of a cable is male/female. There was a better way to explain connectors without invoking the birds and the bees. Maybe it doesn’t bother you because “that’s not what I meant by it” but the phrase “Master/Slave” when referencing control and communication is troubling as well.

Now I use plug/socket and hot (for voltage). I don’t want to be the person who singles someone out because I was ignorant, insensitive, or holding onto implicit biases. I want to be better than that, we all need to be better than that. Through teaching and education, we can reframe society into a transformative version.

Resources:

Crayton, Kim. (2017, June 19). “There’s a big difference between an intention to be inclusive and a strategy.” Retrieved from https://qz.com/work/1308410/theres-a-big-difference-between-an-intention-to-be-inclusive-and-a-strategy/

Eckart, Kim. (2017, September 13). “Offhand comments can expose underlying racism, UW study finds.” UW News. Retrieved from https://www.washington.edu/news/2017/09/13/offhand-comments-can-expose-underlying-racism-uw-study-finds/

Im, Sinclair. (2020, June 12). Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/12/tech-industry-has-an-ugly-master-slave-problem/

Read more:

Avoiding Casual Racism

Harassment Training 

Avoiding Sexist Language

 

Allies and Aggression

 

This year I planned to be more active in my mentorship and volunteer roles, mostly to break up the monotony of teaching the same thing every single month. Volunteering helps me feel worthwhile, and like I’m doing something meaningful with my life. I have put a lot of energy into these efforts, I believe in what I am doing, and I know that I am helping younger people on their journeys. Currently, we are organizing the SoundGirls Orlando Expo 2019 set for July 13 at Full Sail University. It’s a lot, and I am super excited about helping host this event!

Diversity is the key to survival; this is a fundamental aspect of any ecosystem. If you look around and see a bunch of people who look and think exactly like you, how are any of you adding something valuable? An aspect of being more active in my community is the sheer amount of people that I am deliberately exposing myself to at a higher frequency. This year has been the year of Confrontational Assholes; we will call them CA going forward. There are two examples that stand out to me from this year of hustling and promoting *the cause* of equality in the industry.

Story Time, Folks

I was a vendor at an industry expo; it was my first time doing this. I have been to many expos and shows, so I know the deal, but it’s still exhausting for me to speak to a ton of strangers all day. Most responses from people at the expo (predominately male, which I expected) were humoring me, and I felt mild amusement from them. That’s fine because there were ten women who were so excited that SG exists it was worth it, that’s our target audience. I know I am not changing any minds who don’t want to be opened. I am helping connect people to a growing network of resources and allies. As I am speaking with a woman who works in marketing for an entertainment technology company, another person (CA) comes up to ask us, “What is this all about?” I give my spiel. His gloriously clueless response is forever burned in my memory: “Well, you don’t see women working in this industry (for him it was Broadcast) because they can’t wear high heels to work.” The two of us glanced down to our *flat* shoes in astonishment. “Well, there are many women who are working in a variety of technical positions who seem to do just fine with whatever shoes we choose to wear, and that comment is why we are working to promote awareness and establish allies in the industry,” I exhaled, exasperated. The looks exchanged between me and, the other woman were priceless, we had a shared silent moment of “Jesus Christ; this is literally why we are doing this and how clueless is this guy?!” He seemed to have that comment locked and loaded just to piss me off. Grace and manners got me through that one. It was worth it, I tell myself, for the people who I can reach and help find some amazing resources.

My second CA incident this year comes from a panel on Women in the Entertainment Industry hosted at my university. I was excited to attend, as these things are my jam. One of the comments that stood out to me explained that women seem to lack confidence and that they don’t get promoted or recognized because they are afraid to stand up for themselves. After listening to what I felt was a lot of women-blaming, which is my interpretation of some of the panelist’s comments, they had a Q&A.

My question was formed around how the panelists suggest we handle those situations, rather than accepting abuse in the workplace. I prefaced with my position, job, etc., and gave a personal example from when I worked on a cruise ship almost a decade ago, and my production manager called me a “stupid white bitch” during a rehearsal. How do we handle that situation and still have confidence in the workplace? One panelist’s response was, “You need to quit that job,” which I replied was not always an option. Another panelist went OFF on me. Her response was fueled by aggression and blew me away. I wasn’t ready for a woman, a perceived ally, to tell me in front of my peers that I am clearly incapable of being a mentor to others because I carry around insecurities and damage from my past. Completely shocked, and with attempts to rebuff extinguished by more bullying, I did what seemed the best in the situation. I said nothing else and sat down. She very loudly proved the exact point I was asking for a solution to, which was that when women ask for help or guidance, we are often shut down or dismissed. The same thing happened when I went to the director in response to being called names by the PM; I was dismissed. They were buddies, so it was brushed off.

Too many successful women blame other women for not trying hard enough.

Women Don’t Need to Lean In

Several women came up to me after the panel, which I considered leaving early but did not want to show weakness. They expressed outrage at the panelists’ response and correctly understood my point of “your reaction is literally what I am talking about.” THOSE women are allies, and I hope they know that I appreciate their comfort and support. I’ve done some additional research because I still hadn’t gotten an answer to my question. How do we handle adversity when faced with bullying or aggression in the workplace, when no one is listening, and a clean escape is not an immediate option? I defer to a quote that I found within this article, “9 Keys to Handling Hostile and Confrontational People.”

“Don’t take anything personally…What others say and do is a projection of their own reality…When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.” -Miguel Angel Ruiz

Empathy is, once again, a valuable tool. We are not excusing the behaviors of others, instead of taking the time to control the only thing we can: our own reaction and behavior. There is so much more wisdom than I have space to include here, if this is helpful to you, please find this article as well: “Agreeing with the Four Agreements.” There are many more resources referenced, and I am just now going down this rabbit hole.

During Infocomm 2019, I had the privilege of attending the AVIXA Women’s Networking Council, hosted by Shure. This was a lovely, positive, and hopeful event with a keynote speech given by Shure’s CEO Christine Schyvinck. She explored the trends of women working in STEAM positions and incited a call to action for us to promote and cultivate young women’s interests in these careers. The women I met there made an effort to get up and be presentable at 7:30 am, and Christine inspired us to take our energy and efforts to help move the next generation. This is why I give a shit about what I do; this is why I will handle whatever confrontational person I encounter. What we are doing now matters to the future generations, we can shame people in public for having bad experiences, or we can lift them up to be greater and learn from those times instead.

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