Today, Musicology Now posted an essay by Amber R. Clifford-Napoleone in which the author bewails the lack of material on music and sexuality. As someone whose own work is erased by this claim, I want to point out that musicology has, as a discipline, engaged with sexuality in a very robust manner over the last twenty years, if not longer. Contrary to Clifford-Napoleone’s statement that “If the subject is not a famous queer performance, or someone famous for being a queer performer, then it is not in the archives as ‘sexuality.'” I cannot think of a more erroneous proclamation. I encourage her–as well as anyone interested in music and sexuality–to begin with the following resources:
- Emily Wilbourne’s excellent Oxford Bibliography on Gender and Sexuality and Music
- The resources posted by the AMS’s LGBTQ study group
- The Society for Music Theory’s Committee on the Status of Women’s Bibliography of Sources Related to Women’s Studies, Gender Studies, Feminism, and Music
I hope that careful and critical reading of submitted essays by the Musicology Now staff will prevent the publication of such poorly-informed pieces in the future. Many recent posts have been excellent and, given the blog’s mixed history of success, we need the best scholarship we can get.