Call it what it is.

[iamkeri1]

I started thinking about this a couple of months ago. The church I belong to was having a discussion about changing our name from "Rainbow Promise" to, well, something else. I was on the side of keeping that name because gay folk could see the name and know they would find peers there. The other side wanted to change it because several of the members, closeted to one extreme or another (I am as well) felt uncomfortable with the revealing name. One said they had lost a job when it became known what church they attended. That sucks. We did end up changing the name, by the way, though I voted against it.

Then the other night I was searching online for music to listen to and I put in the key words "womens music", and just enjoyed the hell out of listening to women sing love songs to each other. In the middle of the evening, I started laughing to myself when I realized that what I had been wanting to listen to was LESBIAN music, not women's music.

Why don't we call it what it is? Can you think of other examples of this?
Smooches,
Keri

[The_Lady_Snow]

I love Womens music too!! I do have to say is not all Womens music is sung by lesbians...

For example: Lillith Fair was started by Women that don't identify as lesbian

So maybe that's why it's called Womens Music

:)

Sarah Ann McLachlan is not a lesbian that I know of

[PearlsNLace]

active wear.... i can never find it in "plus size" clothing. i suspect this is due in part because both terms are created by marketing people.

[PearlsNLace]

Easy to sew patters. Wow. So , misleading.

[Dance-with-me]

It's important to look at the historical context for "women's music." At the time the genre was formed (and named) there far fewer female musical artists who were empowered to control their own content, image, or anything else about their works and their careers, than there are today. "Women's music" was a genre where the music was created by women and for women and most of the time with a majority of women in the invisible roles: Producers, musicians, background vocals, engineers, etc. But while most women who aligned themselves with this genre were lesbian (and many of their songs celebrated love between women) many were not.

Trivia: The genre was also (at least at first) very heavily biased towards folky acoustic music, which is why the primary label for women's music in the 70's and 80's, Olivia Records, rejected the music of a hard-rocking Lesbian named Melissa Etheridge, thinking that she would have no appeal in the "women's music" community...