HEADSTRONG - Reclaiming Language
We’re exploring the descriptors that we’ve been given but not chosen.
‘bossy’ ‘bitch’ ‘feisty’ ‘ditsy’ ‘slut’ ‘headstrong’
These qualities are things that make us strong and dynamic and human and women. Our determination, playfulness, sexuality, and honesty make us who we are.
We’re reclaiming this language that has been used to pin us down, make us feel small, to put us in a box.
We’re holding it up, strong and bold.
As a band, we are not natural linguists. The search for our band name took months when eventually the word ‘heisk’ was found in Dictionary of Scots Language. The definition included the words ‘excited’ and ‘flurried’ but also ‘nervous’, ‘agitated’ and ‘proudly’.
Elements of this definition felt just right. As a band we formed in response to not seeing ourselves represented on the late night party stages of festivals. With a love for dancing, partying and mischief, we create music that is fun and fresh, ‘excited’ and ‘flurried’. The other descriptors ‘nervous’, ‘agitated’ and ‘proudly’ also sat with us, although less comfortably. They carry elements of sexism and gendered language that we are content to take with us and deconstruct as we go.
The title of our album, ‘Headstrong’, fell into our laps from a tune composed by Sally, ‘These Headstrong Women’.
Cambridge Dictionary definition of headstrong:
very determined to do what you want without listening to others:
“She was a headstrong child, always getting into trouble.”
Each of us have been described as ‘headstrong’ or variants of it in our lives. We’ve also had bossy and feisty and all the rest.
Why does language matter?
My own masters research dug into this question. It explores the experience of musicians working in traditional music in Scotland, and how their gender, and perceptions of it, influences their work and experience.
“55% of female respondents said their gender, or any discrimination or attitudes
towards their gender, had impacted their participation or career progression in
traditional music in Scotland, whilst only 9% of male respondents said the same.”
The research found that language and microagressions lay the foundation for the exclusion, sexualisation, stereotyping, sexual harassment and assault that women and gender non-conforming people were experiencing whilst working in the Scottish traditional music scene. You can have a read of the full report, which features testimonials from individuals framed within a wider societal context. (2021)
In August this year (2023) The EMCC Report, Diversity at the Top: Leadership in Scottish Media & Culture, showed that just 33% of folk festivals in Scotland are directed by women and trans people.
And the BIT Collective research on the gender diversity of line-ups showed that just 33% of performers at folk festivals this year were women.
Our community is not equal and is not diverse. Representation matters, and language matters.
We will only continue to make the community safer, more diverse, more inclusive and more welcoming, if we create spaces for everyone.
Spaces on boards, in jobs, on stages; but also space through attitudes, language, and inclusion.
We’re reclaiming our language and having fun with it. We’d love it if you’d join us.