Vienna Woman: Your Choice Blog Post
For my woman of choice I am doing Alma Mahler. This woman was known as very “scandalous” for her time. She was judged harshly for her actions and was never taken seriously because of it. She was married to a man named Gustav Mahler who was a composer. She studied composition as well and was known for her music with vocals and piano. She was not recognized for her work until after her death. Learning about this woman and how harshly they judged her connects with the way woman are held at a higher standard than men now. It is unacceptable that a woman cannot achieve the same amount of recognition because of her actions even though man gets recognized with similar actions.
Her contribution is very important because it helped to bring a woman composer to Austria. Although she was not recognized in her time she was able to eventually get her music back to Austria through someone else fighting for it to be played. Because of it being so well loved and a big success in Austria it has changed the way music is in Austria. Woman are now more recognized and people play their music because of Alma Mahler's music being such a success in Austria. This would not have been possible if her music was not so amazing and so well loved. This has helped Austria to be more progressive and has helped them to better the music being performed throughout its country.
In my opinion I do not think she has been commemorated well. She has been not taken seriously her whole life. People judged her harshly and would not let her talents be noticed because of their judgements. She has been only brought to Austria in the past few years even though she should have been famous and well loved for many many years. She does not have anything named after her. Also when researching her online the immediate results are "who her lovers are" and "who she married." This shows that even now after her music has become world renowned and so well loved especially in Austria she is still not given the same amount of recognition she deserves and still is noticed for certain things other than her talents.
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ReplyDeleteGreat Post! I agree that she complicates our understanding of history because people couldn't separate her actions from her compositions and talent. She was held to a higher standard then men. I feel that this is still a problem today and reminds me of a very popular Taylor swift song haha. Maybe the problem is less but it definitely is still a very prevalent problem.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I think you said it well about her commemoration and how she was held to a higher standard. She was called out for things, but men did other things and weren't called out for me. So, not only did she have to do something difficult as a composer and "make it," she had to overcome the difficulties of her actions because she was a woman.
ReplyDeleteLove this post, Elease! I like the point you made about how she complicates history because she others couldn’t separate her actions from her talent. She was held to such a high standard, almost higher than men. Although it’s gotten so much better, we can still see this problem happening in our lives today!
ReplyDeleteLove the blog post Elease! I loved getting to learn about this woman too. She faced a lot of scrutiny in her time and even after. Everyone focused on her romantic partners and who she chose to marry. I think women totally still have this problem today. People still slut shame women like crazy today. It is really sad that after all these years this is still going on. Men don't have this problem but women still do. I love that her work is finally being recognized now!
ReplyDeleteElease, I loved that you chose to write about Alma Mahler. Learning about her has definitely helped me to better understand how Vienna is a cultural capital. Music is so important there and they have such a legacy of famous composers. Alma Mahler was one of the first female composers to have work accepted by the public and having that happen in Vienna is an example of the more modern and forward thinking of the people there.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good post, Elease! Alma Mahler overcame a lot of obstacles in order to be recognized. I think one of the bigger issues that Mahler dealt with was slut shaming. She had a lot of sexual partners, particularly among great artists, and that really negatively affected her public image in a way that only overemphasized the misogyny that was imposed on other female imposers.
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