A Note on Cross-Sex Identification among Musicians

Many observers have commented on the widespread incidence of cross-sex identification among musicians in our own and many other cultures. This tendency is by no means universal, but it is nevertheless widespread enough constitute an interesting problem for ethnomusicology. Based on current research among the Taosug people of the southern Philippines, a few general ideas can be suggested which might be tested by other fieldworkers and which might serve as a basis for a general theory of this phenomenon. Taosug culture places a very high value on certain apparently virtues such as bravery in battle, ability withstand pain, and sexual potency. It is interesting in this regard that a disproportionate number of professional and semiprofessional musicians are identified as bantut, or homosexuals. Actually, the word bantut is used refer a number of personality characteristics which fail meet the masculine ideal: impotence, femininity in mannerisms, inability satisfy a wife, unusual cowardice, as well as overt homosexuality. I do not believe that Taosug associate music per se, or any particular genre of music, with either femininity or masculinity or with any sexual implications whatsoever. But from the point of view of an external observer there seem be several elements in Taosug music and music performance situations which offer opportunities for vicarious cross-sex identification persons who already possess such tendencies. An extended discussion is not possible here, but several items may be mentioned. An important genre in Taosug music is called pagsindil (literally, to express). It consists of the stylized singing of courtship repartee by two male and two female professional musicians before an assembled audience (usually at weddings). It is possible for a male singer sing the female parts, and when this is necessary it is usually a bantut singer who takes the role. It is somewhat expected that he will take this role, and in most cases he seems overtly derive satisfaction from it

Biology · Identification (biology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Philippine History and Culture · Psychology

• Transgender Men and Homosexuality in the Southern Philippines

  Open Access•M Johnson•South East Asia Research•1995

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