When you think of Anaheim CA you probably think of Tinker Bell on the Matterhorn, but I think of Guitars and Porn.
The annual NAMM show was just a week or so ago and I made the scene thanks to passes from the wonderful folks at Line6.

It’s no mystery that there are more male musicians than women.
Even more who actually play an instrument, and even more still who play that instrument at a virtuosic level in Rock n Roll. So I was not surprised by the sex ratio in attendance.
What did catch my attention were the other women there and how they allowed themselves to be regarded by their potential peers, fans, customers, partners and mates.

At the Daisy Rock booth I saw some cute tweens pink and sparkly in holy jeans and black nail polish amid colorful and unashamedly girly guitars. I get it, female empowerment though glitter, works for me but this was the ONLY booth where I saw a female endorser signing autographs and taking pictures.

Next I saw some dutiful Birkenstock wearing, and forgive me for saying it, “Frumpy” gals who either don’t care, or don’t care anymore (which I support either way) trailing behind their eager partners pulling them off to yet another Ukelele booth. And man I think the Ukes were breeding down there on the third floor!
Then more various types, Chinese saleswomen cutting through the crowds of black T-Shirts and Glen Danzigs, and some probable musicians in the form of garden variety Renaissance Faire Stevie Nicks types and an occasional Riot Grrrl as well.

But then, I see what can only be described as well…. porn stars, like sexual neon frighteningly reminding me of blow up dolls in their obviously awkward relationship to the tools of (or at) this trade show.
Some look a bit more WWF, and some look decidedly more fetish but Porn Star looks none the less.
(I was informed that the female version of the now called WWE is called GLOW, silly me, the things you don’t learn when you abandon mainstream TV)
Some were wives or girlfriends, but most of these porn types were actually show models.
I’m guessing most were not actual adult entertainers because the porn look, in Los Angeles at least, is ubiquitous and they all can’t be professionals can they?

Assembled with usually white cotton candy hair, tattoos only a mother can love, spray tans as orange as clementines and hooker heels these living ornaments have gone with Rock n Roll for as long as Rock n Roll has been around, each era having it’s own flavor of course. But don’t be fooled, these women were not groupies.
They did not appear to offer the adulation of fan to an artist, or muse to creator, these women were window dressing, or undressing in this case ….

Some of these ladies may have been musicians, but in this context they were accessories.
The women who seemed to be musicians dressed more, well…manly.
This brings to stark relief the unconscious conditioning I suspect we all share that men are musicians and women are rewards or trophies.
I can not count how many men did not introduce themselves to me while shaking the hand of my counterpart, Christian Nesmith, although in their defense I was greeted with many a smile.
But your average Rock n Roller who says he got into music without ever giving thought to sex is probably lying. And there’s nothing wrong with that as far as I’m concerned, but once puberty passes some actually realize music is a sublime language bearing a deeper potential then purely as an aphrodisiac.

Now lest you think I think I’m above all this, I’m not. I wore what I call my sensible heels because they have closed toes and are only about four inches high and a tight skirt. I had hoped to be appealing yes, but classy. But next to the porn star types however I felt like a Kir Royal in a room of cheap Tequila shots.
I’m not condescending here, I really felt sad for my sisters and fellow musicians.
And I’m not asking if we should ban T&A at NAMM, or for a solution to this gender imbalance, or if any of this is right or wrong.
I am asking did those tweens, on the way to the Daisy Rock booth, passing all that human eye candy displayed next to instruments but not playing them still want to pick up a guitar?