Sexuality and Choice of Musical Instrument: Beyond Gender Stereotyping
Sexuality and Choice of Musical Instrument: Beyond Gender Stereotyping

Summary/Abstract: Choice of musical instrument is among the most important factors in determining the course of a student’s music education. The selection of a musical instrument in secondary education can be a lengthy process due to various factors. The paper seeks to establish why gender stereotyping on certain musical instruments has affected musical performances in selected southwestern Nigeria schools. Enquiries would also be made into why females choose to play certain masculine musical instruments. Participant observation, oral and interactive questions with students in thirteen purposively selected Federal Government Unity Colleges in Southwestern Nigeria using a descriptive method for data analyses of findings, further information was collected via libraries, archives and the internet. Findings show that associating a particular gender to particular musical instruments has significantly influenced student’s choice of a musical instrument, thereby resulting in numerous negative consequences, these include fewer musical instrument choices, limited ensemble participation, and peer disapproval. The paper concludes that the challenges of choice of a musical instrument based on gender stereotyping has been achieved because both males and females pick up any musical instrument of their choice and that females do well in their chosen musical instruments which are fundamentally taken to be masculine in nature and practice.

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