The Sunday News
“IF you’re a woman, once you decide to become a musician, never, never get married. If you want to sing solo, he’ll say ‘no’. People will offer you places to perform and he’ll refuse.” This statement was uttered by a female artiste in the early 90s. The statement is not as simple as it reads; it is not just about men’s attitudes towards women who pursue a career in the arts — it speaks more about patriarchy and society’s expectations towards women. It says men are in charge of women’s career paths.
As we begin the year 2015, almost a quarter of a century after the above statement was made, we ask ourselves what has changed as far as the status of women in the arts in this country is concerned? Has anything changed at all? Have opportunities for women in the arts increased? Are working conditions for women safer and better than they were 25 years ago? Are women’s voices louder and clearer than before? Does society now view women artistes better than they did 25 years ago? Are women artistes getting married and getting support from their men and families? Has the portrayal of women in all art forms changed? These are some of the questions we ask as we reflect on women advancement, particularly in the Zimbabwean arts sector.
Honestly speaking, things ought to have changed. Unfortunately, nothing much has changed. Of course there has been a lot of screaming and fighting for women’s rights and their emancipation from patriarchal attitudes and enslavement. Women activists have demanded the re-definition of gender roles and the proper treatment of women in all workplaces — the arts sector included.
Today’s women are no longer viewed as chained to the bedroom or to the kitchen or as just producers of children. As we write women have ventured into fields that have been basically male dominated and made some serious contributions. But how is the new perception of women helped those who want to pursue a career in the arts? And are women artistes today viewed differently from those in the 90s?
In the 90s women artistes were generally regarded as loose. To use a more stinging word they were “prostitutes”. This perception was cemented by the places these women artistes worked and the times they worked. Most performed in pubs and bars and performed to a predominantly male audience, and usually at night. Most musical performances ended in the wee hours of the morning.
The traditional image of a proper woman was that of a married and stay-at-home woman. So any woman who didn’t fit into this proper woman image was immediately labelled loose or an outright prostitute.
To make matters worse most of the women then played cameo roles in bands as raunchy dancers and backing vocalist perpetuating the image of women as sex objects. (The coming in of artistes like Beverly Sibanda, Zoey Sifelani and a lot of other women performing sexy acts in pubs and night spots has served to cement this image of women as sex objects).
The end result was and continues to be the stigmatisation of women artistes in the country. The same attitudes that were there in the 90s are still there 25 years later. The conditions of work too haven’t changed.
Performance spaces for most women artistes are still pubs and bars. The audiences are still predominantly male. The images most women portray are still the same — sexy costumes and sexually connotative gestures.
However, in the midst of these oppressive conditions some powerful women have emerged, their voices so powerful that when they speak a lot of people sit up and listen. These women are not viewed as loose or prostitutes.
They are viewed as professionals and they continue to define what a woman artiste in Zimbabwe is and what women can do. We speak of the likes of Tsitsi Dangarembgwa, Priscilla Sithole-Ncube, Dudu Manhenga, Batsirai Chigama, Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana, Amai Charamba, Sandra Ndebele, Hope Masike, Selmor Mtukudzi and others.
Interestingly, most of these are respectable wives who have claimed their own spaces as women artistes in Zimbabwe. Sadly, these are still too few to make a huge difference from the situation 25 years ago.
So as the Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture finalises on its strategic plan for arts and culture we are hoping that one of the strategic goals deal with the empowerment of women artistes in this country.
The empowerment we envisage is in terms of safe places and spaces for women artistes to practise their arts. It is also in terms of meaningful opportunities for professional and personal growth within the sector. For in a few years’ time the success of the ministry will be measured by the role it plays to advance women artistes.
