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With accent on the words "more inhibited and constrained".

Miss Crow has said it, in a nutshell.

Recently, a French Police Commissar investigating a spate of gang-rapes and similar acts perpetrated by youths aged 11 to 15, told the press that his team of officers have been gob-smacked by the "incredible intensity of misogyny among youths today". He said there was a complete lack of any form of respect for woman, that reminded him of primitive peoples.

There is a direct relation between that remark by the Commissar, and Miss Crow's.

Look no further than Hollywood, television, "adult" comic books, and Video Games. Woman is less than nothing. Apart from the very privileged, children today have no parents. Their father is unemployed, or about to be. Their mother is out working as a cashier for less than she would get on benefit. When their parents come back, they goggle at television too.

Children are brought up by electronic entertainment. And they are deeply resentful of their parents for leaving them so alone. The electronic world is their real family, and the values of "Silence of the Lambs", are their values.

That is where the problem that we face in the ballet today comes from. Woman is less than nothing.

But artists are amongst the most important people in society. Why do they not protest more ? Why did people agree to go out in the new production of "Un Ballo in Maschera", and sit on the potty with their trousers down ? WHY DID THEY DO THAT ? No man, no real man, in my book, would ever do that.

It is a crying shame.

If we cannot get people to stand up for their own dignity, as a human being, when they belong to the most educated and privileged circles in our society, we should not wonder that woman be trampled upon.

Or, as Lis Jeppesen said, "The subject of Bournonville is beauty and love"...

I think there's a lot of truth in this, and Germaine Greer says similar things in The Whole Woman, talking about the difference between men's creativity and women's.

However, I think people can have what we consider 'male' or 'female' character traits independent of gender. Susie's phrase "chaotic and fluid multitasking" applies much more to the way I and many other men think and work. Only recently I found myself letting off steam with the phrase "why is it that men don't seem to understand the concept of work unless it results in a 60ft statue of Stalin?".

To this extent (and this is a side-issue, I admit) I don't think it's relevant to draw parallels between the ballet world, and the world in general. Ballet dancers are an elite group, with a distinct subculture in which gender roles and expectations are quite different to those in the outside world.

All the same, it is odd that there are so few female directors or choreographers. But I would question (and I'm crouching for cover here) whether this is actually a matter of choice rather than discrimination? Is it perhaps a masculine trait to want to be 'king of the castle', to rise up the ladder for the sake of it, or to haggle for rank?

>All the same, it is odd
>that there are so few
>female directors or choreographers. But
>I would question (and I'm
>crouching for cover here) whether
>this is actually a matter
>of choice rather than discrimination?
>Is it perhaps a masculine
>trait to want to be
>'king of the castle', to
>rise up the ladder for
>the sake of it, or
>to haggle for rank?

This was one of the traits that I was thinking of - I have noticed that it is far more common for men to say "What do I have to do to get promoted" whereas women will say "What do I have to do to make this work better".

(stereotyped generalisations but stereotypes exist for a reason)

Compared to ballet, the music profession is scary - just have a look at this page about the Vienna Philharmonic and women to see what I mean.

>This was one of the traits
>that I was thinking of
>- I have noticed that
>it is far more common
>for men to say "What
>do I have to do
>to get promoted" whereas women
>will say "What do I
>have to do to make
>this work better".
>
>(stereotyped generalisations but stereotypes exist for
>a reason)

And my problem with this is that there are no prizes for making things work better, whereas rank, position and money are fetishized by men and women alike.

I feel nervous and a little insecure about posting this, but it has been worrying me for many years. I can cite two hard and fast cases of sexual discrimination against women in my work experience and I have felt helpless as to know what to do.

CASE 1. A many years ago Colleague X supervised a female PhD student who had a 1st Hons degree and was eminently qualified. The nature of the project involved supervising fieldwork and going to conferences, in the usual academic context. Colleague X's wife became intensley jealous, gave him hell for three years. The result is that he has avoided female research students at all costs ever since, but has had several successful males.

CASE 2. This involves me so I don't have to be anonymous. I am a licenced bird-ringing trainer and have trained lots and lots of male and female trainees over the years. When one particular female trainee went on a sandwich placement year, I contacted the local ringing group to ask if she may participate in their activities for a year (normal practice). The result was a stone wall. The response from the leader was something like "It's hard enough getting the time off from our families to "enjoy ourselves" on a Sunday afternoon as it is - to be seen enjoying ourselves in the company of other women would be unthinkable". My trainee was extremely upset, and this is not an isolated case.

The facts are indisputable, it is the interpretation of them that I find difficult. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, in these cases at least, women may be their own worst enemies. I have really felt helpless as to know how to respond to situations like this.

I know this is not about ballet but seems to be in the general context of this thread.

In France, recently there have been several ballet companies with female ballet directors: Brigitte Lefèvre at the Paris Opera (and in the late 1970s- early 1980s there were also Violette Verdy and Rosella Hightower), Nanette Glushak at the Ballet de Toulouse, Marie-Claude Pietragalla in Marseille... Also the director of the POB school (a very influential job, as nearly all POB students come from the school) is Claude Bessy. The number of ballet companies is so small that it's hard to have significant statistics, but at least it shows that there are women in powerful positions. It'd be hard to name French female ballet choreographers... but well, actually it'd be hard to name living male ballet choreographers under 60, as most choreographers are more interested in modern dance.

Also there is a large proportion of female modern dance company directors, like Maguy Marin, Maryse Delente, Catherine Diverres, Mathilde Monnier... All of them are choreographers, which seems to contradict what was written above about males creating and females interpreting. More generally, there have been a lot of historical modern dance choreographers (Graham, Humphrey, Sokolow, Tamiris...), many female writers, etc.
In general, I'm always a bit cautious about such generalizations, I've heard quite a lot of "biological" explanations to explain the very low proportion of women in mathematics (my field of work), but it generally neglects the fact that such proportions depend a lot on the cultural background (for example the proportion of female mathematicians is much larger in Italy, or in Mexico).

>it generally neglects
>the fact that such proportions
>depend a lot on the
>cultural background

I absolutely agree with this. The old notion of the male being the active hunter/gatherer whilst the little woman stays in the cave suckling infants is totally negated by some anthropologists who describe (still extant) matriarchal cultures in which the women do all the work and the men hang around all day getting high on whatever it is they smoke, and discussing "higher things".

I'm not so sure if cultural background makes so much difference in todays Europe. I would rather call it a problem with superficial 'stereotypes'.
I never wanted to make an issue about male/female ambitions and careers. Women have other preferences and put other accents into their jobs....and usually have to proof themselves twice
Estelle's example about the French situation finds also some resemblance in Italy : you have Carla Fracci (Rome), Elisabetta Terabust (Firenze), not so long ago : Patricia Ruanne at La Scala, Carolyn Carlson at the Biennal of Venice and there are others.

20 years ago we graduated 8 female/60 male architects (out of the 10/110 who started). Only 2 women started a private practice. It was a tough time, first not taken serious by some professors and afterwards being ignored by engineers and workmen. At some point it was quasi impossible to find a decent obligatory trainee-office for a 2 years-period.
In the meantime things have changed considerable : nowadays the male/female proportion is 50/50. But now and then...we need to face the same old problems ! (even when I answer the phone one is still asking for the 'architect' )
There are days I ask myself "was it all worth it" ? ...and I can carry the 'invisible women's'point.