Last Wednesday in my choir, I was really thinking about the ways in which choirs or art, in general, can be sexist. It obviously is, in the world of fine art we see many paintings by white men, but rarely do we see women artists displayed in mainstream museums and the numbers have been decreasing over the past couple of decades. But the Guerrilla Girls can give you more information about that.

My form of art is classical music, and more specifically, choir. I never really realized this before and as I write this I've realized that this is less of a choir issue and more of just a woman's issue.

So last semester I noticed this guy in the back who would always raise his hand to make a comment about something his section was doing wrong. And for whatever reason, I always noticed myself rolling my eyes, because he usually spoke like he was the boss of everyone. "The basses are singing a bit flat, so I think we need to think higher up when we get to that note." It was always his patronizing tone of voice that got me.

And then another girl raised her hand and said, "I think we're all having trouble with this run on page 4, do you mind going over it again?" She points out a mistake with a question. Which is also what I do. But I'm a narcissist, so in my mind I'm like, "I am doing this correctly, but nobody else is so I'm gonna point it out." But I'd never be so blunt and just say "Everyone else is wrong and I'm doing it write, here's how!" The choir is made up of people who have been singing for years and years.

I don't know how to fix this, because I think my way is too submissive, but kind. However, I think his method was too harsh and kinda, as I said, patronizing. I think recognizing the issue is the first step in trying to change my own "submissive" mannerisms. Like saying sorry less.