User:Lisa Busby/sandbox

Women and turntablism
In 2007 Mark Katz noted in his article Men, Women, and Turntables: Gender and the DJ Battle, that "very few women battle; the matter has been a topic of conversation among hip-hop DJs for years." In 2010 in her book Beyond the Dancefloor: Female DJs, Technology, and Electronic Dance Music Culture, Rebekah Farrugia states "the male-centricity of EDM culture" contributes to "a marginalisation of women in these [EDM] spaces."

Whilst turntablism and broader DJ practices should not be conflated, Katz suggests use or lack of use of the turntable broadly by women across genres and disciplines is impacted upon by what he defines as "male technophilia". Historian Ruth Oldenziel concurs in her writing on engineering with this idea of socialization as a central factor in the lack of engagement with technology. She explains:

"an exclusive focus on women's supposed failure to enter the field … is insufficient for understanding how our stereotypical notions have come into being; it tends to put the burden of proof entirely on women and to blame them for their supposedly inadequate socialization, their lack of aspiration, and their want of masculine values. An equally challenging question is why and how boys have come to love things technical, how boys have historically been socialized as technophiles."

Lucy Green has focused on gender in relation to musical performers and creators, and specifically on educational frameworks as they relate to both. She suggests that women's alienation from "areas that have a strong technological tendency such as DJ-ing, sound engineering and producing" are "not necessarily about her dislike of these instruments but relates to the interrupting effect of their dominantly masculine delineations."

Despite this though women and girls do increasingly engage in turntable and DJ practices, individually and collectively, and "carve out spaces for themselves in EDM and DJ Culture". There are various projects dedicated to the promotion and support of these practices such as Female DJs London.

It should also be noted that the terms women and men are "notoriously unstable" and some artists and collectives are open inclusive in their use of the term women. For example, Discwoman, 'a New York-based platform, collective, and booking agency' describe themselves as "representing and showcasing cis women, trans women and genderqueer talent."