Distaste, Discourse and the Politics of Emotional Authenticity

Abstract

As demonstrated in Chapter 3 some authors have argued that through emphasising rational, detached listening practices, champions of ‘formal’ music education in Western societies have often attempted to mitigate against the ‘effeminising’ connotations of emotions in music (Citron 1993; Leach 2009; McClary 1991). Whilst Chapter 2 highlighted that the separation of rationality from emotions is a gendered construct, rather than a physiological reality, Chapters 3 and 4 also outlined how there were judgments exercised about which specific types of passions and emotions were acceptable in relation to ‘serious’ music listening and taste. This indicates that specific emotions, rather than emotionality generally, have gendered histories and therefore impacts on which displays and which emotions are (publicly) acceptable and unacceptable.