User:Alexp10801/Women's music

History

The genre, which first came to be known as "lesbian music", has its roots in certain musical contributions of the 1960s and is defined by the artists and labels in the 1970s who built upon this foundation in order to foster a lesbian-oriented musical movement.

Black and transgender representation in women's music

The mainstream women's music genre has often been criticized for its alleged failure to adequately include black women, and in particular, queer black women, as well as trans women, through the prioritization of white, cisgender artists.

Michigan Womyn's Music Festival transgender exclusion controversy

Main article: Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, or MWMF or MichFest for short, was a subject of controversy for much of its existence due to its exclusion of trans women. In 1991, Nancy Jean Burkholder was dismissed from MichFest on the basis of her being a trans woman; the festival subsequently implemented its "womyn-born-womyn" policy that would face fierce criticism from trans and LGBTQ+ activists and organizations. In 1995, Camp Transwas established and would stage a protest just outside the festival's venue each year until 2010, when it was forced to shut down. Petitions and boycotts ensued from notable organizations like GLAAD while MichFest founder Lisa Vogel insisted that it is not transphobic to have a "healthy, whole, loving space" for women who were assigned female at birth to come together. The festival ceased operations after its 2015 rendition.

While this controversy highlighted some of women's music's key issues with inclusivity, it is still notable that the "movement was engineered by an out trans woman" and that "Olivia Records, the radical feminist lesbian separatist music collective, was itself trans inclusive".

Revisions/citations/stuff

Cris Williamson, whose 1975 album The Changer and The Changed has been described as the cornerstone of women's music, in concert in 2013

Original sentence: "There were many social and economic components that caused the women's music business to start failing in the 1980s and 1990s."

Revised sentence: "Social factors like a shift in attitudes and a lack of queer and BIPOC representation, along with economic factors such as increasing pay demands and a drop in concert turnouts and revenue, contributed to the failure of the women's music industry in the years following the 1970s."

O: "The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival is an example of an environment that celebrates all women not just those who conform to mainstream media."

R: "Though historically controversial, The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival is sometimes posed as an example of an environment that celebrates all women, not just those who conform to stereotypes in mainstream media."