“Gender Inclusion, Gender Exclusion, and Safety Delusions in Mexican Ska Festivals,” A Presentation for the SEM 2024 Annual Meeting

I am departing from my typical blog post to invite you to my upcoming conference presentation titled “Gender Inclusion, Gender Exclusion, and Safety Delusions in Mexican Ska Festivals.”

Once again, I am honored to present some of my recent work at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Annual Meeting. This presentation is part of the session on Gender Exclusion in Performance Spaces being held virtually on Thursday, October 17 at 12:30 pm EDT.

Gender Inclusion, Gender Exclusion, and Safety Delusions in Mexican Ska Festivals

Abstract:

Ska, a popular music genre originating in Jamaica, has idealistically served as a genre that creates spaces for inclusivity and unity. However, researchers have noted that these perceived utopian spaces did not prioritize the inclusion of women (Augustyn 2020, 2023; Black 2011; Sangaline 2022; Stratton, 2011). To further complicate ideas of utopia and unity, these studies of inclusion often exclude ska scenes outside of Jamaica, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Ska music has garnered immense popularity throughout the world, significantly in Mexico. In this paper, I investigate Mexican ska music festivals as a gendered space to address current questions in ethnomusicology regarding intersectionality and gender. I ask: to what extent are ska festivals in Mexico City and Tijuana designed to be inclusive or exclusive gendered environments? Is creating a safe environment a priority for festival organizers? Who is performing? Who is not? How are notions of masculinity like machismo reinforced to serve as barriers? How do women circumvent or operate within such structures of aggressive masculinity? Drawing from digital ethnography and fieldwork in Mexico City and Tijuana, I use these questions as a starting point to examine the similarities and differences of various festivals as they relate to issues of creating gender-inclusive spaces.