Gender, Sound, and a Touch of Judith Butler

  Anne Rasmussen in her chapter, "Celebrating Religion and Nation," Women, The Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia discussed gender, performance, and ritual through music in the Islam religion and culture. I really enjoyed this reading as it discussed not only the beautiful music and sounds of the Islam religion but delved into how the public setting of this ritual “decontextualized” the religious aspect of the ritual.  Rasmussen mentioned how at first she felt like this was sacrilegious, particularly the competition aspect. As someone that is not religious, I think this is really interesting and a great way to involve more community engagement with people outside the religion. The public access makes the performance, songs, and music in this case, more artistic and more dynamic, as it is out in the open for all to hear, and not just a closed-off space for only certain individuals. The performance aspect also allowed women within the space that they usually would not be in. I found this relationship very interesting, as gender and religion have always had what I would call, a tense relationship, but it seems that sound was able to break through some social norms and the gender barrier. 

     As a WGS major, I should probably reference Judith Butler on gender performance and performativity, as this is directly referencing gender and performance, and is who is allowed to participate and perform. Butler would probably contribute that “gender” is created through these repetitive rituals and performances, as it emphasizes the different roles that take place. However, the more I think about gender performance and performativity, the more I get confused, particularly when speaking about actual performance. 

    The public access to sound and music made me think of my own experience within the Catholic Church. As an ex-Catholic, I can say that my favorite part of mass and one of the only things that I felt included in, was the music and singing, as it didn’t feel like it was excluding me, as the music was for all to hear. Even the bells that would ring during the blessing over the Eucharist always drew me in more than what the priest was saying...but that might have just been because I was young and bored in mass.  That might be getting too sentimental but I think that music and sound are such a powerful aspect of religion and spirituality and also is a great way to be inclusive of all people, despite gender or background.