ABSTRACT
This essay investigates how gender and sexuality intersect in the world of jazz instrumentalists through my interviews and archival research. I begin with discussing two African-American female saxophonists, Vi Burnside and Willene Barton, who were often associated with homosexuality. By examining the ways newspaper articles reported as well as fellow musicians described them, I will explore how their excellence in jazz performance was associated with homosexuality. Then I will illustrate the contemporary jazz scene where the same type of assumptions about strong female players and homosexuality still existed. Drawing on theorists such as R. W. Connell, Judith Halberstam, Michael Kimmel, and Adrienne Rich, I argue that gender norms in jazz are strongly associated with heterosexuality and patriarchy. Further, I suggest that due to this heteropatriarchy, women, regardless of their sexual orientations, often encounter sexual harassment in jazz. Though being identified as lesbians and sexual misconduct are seemingly two different issues, they are intertwined and based on heteropatriarchy that has persisted in the jazz world.
