And to think, we were chilling on our frustrations over the DJ Mag Top DJs poll results. Hell, we've been just starting to get around to not totally despising Spinnin' Records for their (now deleted) sexist "CD-J for women" "joke." That was before seeing this Facebook post from Dani Deahl, who recently suffered her own bout of sexism during a DJ gig. In this post contained a picture that Her Beats scanned from the December 2013 issue of DJ Mag, which contained the above picture in their "Rant N Rave" column, which apparently dealt with "an anonymous writer describ[ing] her experiences as a female DJ – constantly being patronized by men who question her technical skills or knowledge, and the sexist experiences she and her female colleagues encounter on a regular basis."
That'd be all well and good if it wasn't accompanied by the following picture:
1.
That's right, this is a "Ladies Guide to the Pioneer CDJ-2000," and although they do have an asterisk that points to a tiny "Only jokin!" in the bottom corner, we have to agree with Her Beats: saying you're "joking" while taking sexist, ridiculous shots at an entire gender is ridiculous. Especially when the "jokes" are pretty fucking weak. How many "um, just go get your boyfriend" or "let a man do this for you" comments do you have to repeat? Why would you think it's funny to assume that women don't know that "sync" means "matches?" It's poor taste, it's wack humor, and it illuminates a larger part of the EDM scene, which doesn't seem to be ready to handle the evolution of women within the scene. It's ridiculous "jokes" like this that destroy any progress that's been made by the countless females who have active roles within the worldwide dance music scene, from Annie Mac and Nervo to TOKiMONSTA and Dani Deahl, among many others.
Maybe one of these days the companies that are getting the most publicity and making the most money from this scene, which is chock full of women, will start treating them as equal members of the human race, and not easy fodder for "jokes."
UPDATE DJ Mag has since posted the full "Rant N Rave" column on their site, in an effort to prove that their "satire" is OK. I have no problem with the truth that was written, no matter how much some want to say we're "removing the context." We want to see an EDM scene where females are seen as equals, and no matter how much good the article that was anonymously written does, the fact is that the "satirical" image doesn't help the context. The fact that DJ Mag took the time to write "Only jokin*" gives the impression that someone "might not get it." If a joke is that funny, shouldn't it be seen that way immediately, without someone having to nudge you and let you know how to read it? And to echo what HerBeats said, would it have killed DJ Mag to just show an image of a woman on the decks?
