Blink : A Formal Description of Blink

Throughout history many artistic works have been deemed "great" and many individuals have been labeled "masters" of the discipline. The question of who creates art and how is it to be classified as great or greater than another has commonly been addressed by scholars and historians. The last quarter of the 20th century has reexamined these questions based on the assertions that no women artists have ever created or been appreciated to the level of "greatness" that perpetually befalls their male counterparts. The position that society has institutionalized on women as unable to be anything but subordinate and unexpressive is a major contributor to this claim. Giving a brief history of gender discrimination in the art

The 19th century was an era of change. There were lots of progression in technology, science, and philosophy that gradually turned European society away from the past centuries. Women’s status in the 19th century Europe also changed. Many of the 19th century women were able to have a profession as they received higher and wider education, and also allowed to have more participation in society. In the musical life of 19th century Europe, numbers of women were able to perform and compose as good and men.

Women’s music came from radical, grassroots origins in the 1970s thanks to contributions by brave women, mostly lesbians (Mosbacher, 2002). These women used non-violent, peaceful force to forge their own way into the music industry. It was a peaceful yet political revolution of togetherness and liberation. It brought together women of different backgrounds who produced easy-listening, mellow harmonies played with lyrics filled with tumultuous

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a book written by Malcolm Gladwell. This book introduces the concept of “thin slicing”. The concept refers to how in a split second or blink of an eye people can make an unconscious and accurate assessment of someone. Using the concept of thin slicing we can determine what is really important within the first few seconds when meeting someone. Malcolm Gladwell explained that first impressions or spontaneous decisions can be just as important as decisions that are made carefully and planned out. According to Gladwell, people make better decisions with quick judgments than they do with a lot of analysis. Gladwell believes that the power

The Age of Enlightenment began to show a growing middle class and more amateur musicians arrived on the scene. Women began to become more involved and had an increased presence on a social level, which increased their presence in the growing amateur music scene. Composers such as Haydn and Mozart fell in line with Enlightenment ideals.

There are many important women who significantly contributed to Jazz and left a legacy of women artists. In the early years of Jazz, it was considered a male professional and women who tried to be part of Jazz faced obstacles. This was from male musicians, critics, record producers, club-owners, concerts and also racism. Despite the obstacles, women forced their way to be part of Jazz and pushed for equality and visibility (“Gender Discrimination, 2014).

In the life and writings of Kate Chopin and Mary E. Freeman, how can you see the obvious cry for women to have an equal status in a man’s world?

In the twenty first century there are a few men in this world that admits when you think of artist, you don’t typically think of women. Women rights and racism play a strong role when it comes to African American female artist. For decades’ African American woman have always had a permanent double bull’s eye on their back. Their skin and gender was their worst enemy. In the 1700 century women rights movements started to rise. But if you look up women right movements starting in the 1700 century, the face of women rights is predominantly white women. Between books and the internet, they show that it was mostly white women who helped woman rights. If we still struggle to shine light on African American Women now in the 21st century, you cannot

Charlotte Bunch once said “Sexual, racial, gender, violence, and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture.” Our society experiences all of these problems and I would like to focus on the gender perspective in the 21st century and how women have had more of an influence in music than people actually realize. Men have dominated the music industry and business but women have been the underlying reason as for why men and other females have been so successful in the music scene.

At my school, I am one of two women in the jazz program. In high school, I went to Birch Creek: one of the finest summer jazz academies in the country. In attendance, there were four girls and forty-eight boys. Even though I was outnumbered at the camp, I returned there three consecutive years, once earning their most-improved student award. In total, I attended twelve summer music camps between seventh grade and my enrollment at Northern Illinois University. Unfortunately, the boys always greatly outnumbered the girls. The jazz music scene in particular is male-dominated, and women need to fight for their place on stage. As a woman in jazz, I have, among others, been viewed as an outsider, a lesser musician, and an object. Women in jazz should feel welcome in this industry without facing discrimination.

This section in Blink presents the realization behind the change and how people learned to judge with their ears instead of their eyes. Julie Landsman and Sylvia Alimena are two women who were saved from prejudice, which led them to their common goal of playing the French horn professionally. “At the time [Julie auditioned], there were no women in the brass section of the orchestra, because everyone ‘knew’ that women could not play the horn as well as men (Gladwell 254).” Still, from behind a screen blocking the judges’ views, Landsman landed the role of principal French horn at the Metropolitan Opera. Gladwell shares how the judges were initially surprised- not only because she was a female, but because she was previously only a substitute horn player at the Met. Only five feet high was another musician looking to play the French horn, this time for the National Symphony Orchestra. She too was separated from the judges by a screen, and she too earned her desired role. Greatly due to the screens put up, these ladies were judged

A woman of risk, controversy, perseverance, and ambition does not even begin to describe Barbara Strozzi. Being a woman composer in the Baroque Era was not a social norm and caused those who pursued this career suffering, disadvantage, and negative labels. However, as one of the top women composers and singers in the Baroque Era, Strozzi did not let negativity stop her. Strozzi, thrown into the music world by her, “father,” Giulio, excelled the best she could as a woman composer, developing her artistic skills, embracing publishing and print, and utilizing the opportunities she was given.

To what extent can music provide a means of resistance for challenging the power relations of racism, class and gender?

“Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” was written with a passion both intense and familiar. Reading Nochlin’s words, I found myself thinking, several times, “I’d always wondered the same thing,” or “I feel the same way.” I even formulated some of my own thoughts on the subject, responding to the title question with another, asking, “What makes an artist an artist?” Upsettingly, it would seem it is not by her own choice or talent. It is decided by the world around her, including the men and “social institutions.” However, it would also appear that hope is always in reach for those who will wake up and grab it. Nochlin left us with this stirring advice:

“Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant – in the blink of an eye – that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. The book deals with the smallest components of our everyday lives—the content and origin of those instantaneous impressions and conclusions that spontaneously arise whenever we meet a new person or confront a complex situation or have to make a decision under conditions of stress.