Miscellaneous

My Michfest Journal , Part I

By Fannie

I attended Michfest for the first time this summer. For those who don't know what Michfest is, it's an "international feminist music festival" at which "womyn-born-womyn" camp out in the woods listening to music and attending workshops for 1 week in August.

Now, before I attended, maybe just a little bit in the back of my mind I was expecting to have a really powerful earth-shattering spiritual-womyn experience. I didn't, really. I mean, I can see how someone would have a much stronger experience if one lives a closeted (feminist and/or lesbian) life. But let's face it, I live a really gay life.

At the same time, I found many aspects of the "womyn-only" space to be notable. The most notable aspect of this space for me was a reduced sense of fear. I'm not generally a person overwhelmed by fear, but I do know that as a woman I have to be aware of my surroundings at pretty much all times. When I walk my dogs at night, I stay close to the street lights. When I go running, I brace myself for the inevitable hoots and hollers of loitering men. When I walk down the street, I make sure no one is walking too closely behind me. When I go camping with my friends, none of us go to the bathrooms alone. Little things.

At Michfest, I became aware of myself doing these little things and realizing that I didn't have to do them in an all-female environment. This lack of fear wasn't naive, I mean it's just a fact that with only women around, a woman is much much less likely to be harmed or harassed.

I walked to the bathrooms in the middle of the night, by myself, and felt considerably less fear than I would have at any other campground (and, can I just say that port-a-potties are much, much cleaner without men pissing all over the seats?) Little boys and little girls from the kids' camps ran around topless, unsupervised- which would never, ever happen at a gay male event or probably even at a mixed camping event. And yes, some (although considerably fewer than I expected) women went topless- and my sense was that the state of being topless was a natural, non-sexual condition. The significance of a woman safely being topless is worth noting because in a mixed-sex community (some) men would interpret that woman as "asking for" harassment, leers, or worse. I didn't see one woman do anything remotely resembling those behaviors to another woman.

In addition to the relative absence of fear at this music fest, there was a complete absence of male performers. While I appreciate many male musicians, of course, womyn's music festivals provide space for female artists to be appreciated as much as their male brethren are. It is easy to note that the lineups of "mixed-sex" music festival are overwhelmingly male-dominated. A brief perusal of Lollapalooza 2008's website, for instance, reveals that Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, and more (mostly male artists) performed. I enjoy some of these artists, but it's hard not to note the sausage fest that's going on and how (what I believe) equally-talented or superior female musicians are excluded from large music festivals such as these.

But, even if the masses overvalue male artists at the expense of female ones, I personally prefer giving my money to artists who actually speak to me.

In order to break up this long article, I will post Part II of my Michfest journal tomorrow. Stay tuned for the notorious "trans" exclusion policy!

Full post as published by Fannie's Room on August 18, 2008 (boomark / email).