In Susan Fast’s “Rethinking Issues of Gender and Sexuality in Led Zeppelin”, she discusses her love of Led Zeppelin and uses herself as a means of questioning the historical assumption that the band is primarily enjoyed by men. Since Led Zeppelin's formation, many women have enjoyed the music and attended shows, even amidst sexist musical themes and hypermasculine live performances. Why might some women enjoy this music? And why are women's roles in the history of Led Zeppelin reduced to a generalization that they simply listened "because their boyfriends were" or because they were part of the "groupie scene"? Fast concludes that there are - and have always been - women who appreciate rock music, but they are often erased from the narrative (Fast, 1999). This theme of women's erasure also applies to the history of the electric guitar.

 

Historically, the electric guitar is regarded as an instrument pioneered by and primarily enjoyed by men. Academic research has offered some analysis as to why gender factors into the “inaccessibility of the instrument”, as well as the “institutional reasons” for the minimal amount of female guitarists and manufacturers (Bourdage, 2007). While many of these observations are true, viewing women’s relationship to the guitar as separate from the discussion of the technology as a whole perpetuates inaccurate instrument ideals. If the initial premise in academic study is that the electric guitar is a masculine instrument, how can women ever be seen as more than just novelties? As a result of this type of discussion, women who are acknowledged become grouped together by gender, without regard for how their individual experiences and playing styles are a part of the instrument's history.

 

While household names like Les Paul, Gibson, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and more are integral to discussing the popularity and enduring value of the instrument, there are many prominent figures who go unrecognized for their contributions to the technology. This discussion intends to challenge readers to view female guitarists as individuals who add to the conversation of the technology and who are an irremovable part of the history of the instrument.

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The point of this project is to counter women’s erasure from history simply by discussing their contributions to the technology. I want to create more dialogue about the women who helped shape certain playing styles, musical movements, manufacturing companies and more, which I think are crucial to the development of the technology. I plan to go over how certain female performers/companies have contributed to the instrument and/or maybe how they’ve failed to contribute in a positive way. I discuss a few key example of performance and industry figures throughout different points in time, specifically in rock music and its subsidiaries, and how their erasure looses a big part of guitar history.