This meaning to the word gossip erases the importance of communication between women, devaluing and denigrating the need to communicate among themselves about many different topics. The examples brought by Federici of the topics women in a diversity of cultures and periods would go from gossiping about natural remedies to passing on stories about the community they belonged to, which is a way to preserve history. Indeed, “naming gossip this production of knowledge contributes to the degradation of women[...]. That’s how women have been silenced and excluded from the places where decisions are taken, the possibility to define their own experience was taken away from them [...]”. 

I think the link between sexuality and improvisation I’m defending can be a powerful liberating source if understood in the direction of transcending heteronormative and binary norms. Even though I think female players might experience more difficulties to learn, creating the breeding ground for the lack of representation at a professional level, there are also many other factors that keep the gender gap in the music industry. These go from the compatibility with parenthood to the hostile and harrassy environment…

When someone states (publicly and privately) “_fill in with a successful female/queer musician_ has visibility/gets all the gigs/get the grants/gets the teaching job/is the jury of X competition because she is a woman”, the message that is being sent is that the only value this person and their creation have is linked to their gender. It takes away their agency, their uniqueness, it’s actually dehumanising. The consequence is that for younger womxn…