saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (02/04/84)
Last year, I went to listen to Janina Fialkowska, who is considered to be one of the best pianists of Canada. She has a very agressive and forceful style which many people seem to appreciate, but I didn't like it too much. I have heard some criticisms of her playing and they also centered on her aggressiveness. The thing that bothered me about the whole thing is how much I minded her aggressiveness whether I wouldn't have minded so much had she been a man. Something looked wrong. I realised this was a very sexist reaction, but I couldn't really help it, which is very sad because it implies the old story of "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Usually I tend not to differentiate between men and women when it comes to attitudes; there are certain attitudes in people who bother me very much and it doesn't matter to me what the sex of the person who has that attitude is. Yet, when it came to "art", things changed and I couldn't get rid of my old sexist expectations of how different sexes should act. I guess this means we haven't come that far enough yet. Sophie Quigley watmath!saquigley