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Sebastian Arroyo
Mr. Newman
English 101: Rhetoric
8 October 2014
Make Room
To be a woman performing in a field thats being powered by men, its hard to rightfully
stand out and earn your position where crowds have never seen a different figure. What We
Talk About When We Talk About the Lack of Women in Dance Music by Michelle Lhooq
published on September 23, 2014 via Thump, addresses this situation and helps understand it by
sitting down and having a discussion with the Discwoman Crew, a small collection of female djs,
singer songwriters, and web editors. Lhooq effectively addresses the inequality of women in the
man-lead dance community of performers, by collecting these underground female dj's and
expressing their perspectives on the subject.
To begin the discussion; Lhooq first asks Is the dance music industry still very much a
boys club? The ladies assertively agree with her but respond by showing that in all, theyre out
achieving towards their own goals in the industry as well; I find myself surrounded by men, but
that doesnt change my relationship to the music. Christine Trans outlook is, It has to do with
the decision-makers. If Im booking an event, I always book female DJs. But I dont talk about
it, I just do it. By asking the right questions, the author was able to let the article flow on its
own, just by the groups feedback and was able to combine the uses of ethos,pathos, and logos to
support their side of the argument. One strong way in which Lhooq uses logos, is by showing the
percentage difference in women performing at large festivals (see fig.1). Frankie Hutchinson, the
online editor for Galore Mag, states during the discussionthat a lot of men dont want to book

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female DJs. Theres still a stigma. Lauren Flax, an NYC based DJ, further expresses this stigma
well by portraying a use of ethos in her statement saying So that impacts the cycle of exposure
that female DJs are gettingtheyre not booked as much because theyre not playing in front of
as many people.
Michelle takes a dive deeper into the matter at hand by stating, Youre almost hacking
the system...Youre secretly shifting the balance but not calling your efforts out I think thats a
clever way to tackle sexism. The author engages the reader with her specific word choice. The
overlook of this article is to pinpoint why are not enough female performers being seen at this
major events and festivals, but to really favor that its a problem of sexism. and speaks on it in
an assertive use of pathos; I think its so important to speak up and
point these people out. I like to expose these assholes. Once it starts to
affect their income and their future, theyll start to realize that this isnt
right.

Work Cited

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Lhooq,Michelle.http://thump.vice.com/words/what-we-talkabout-when-we-talk-about-the-lack-of-women-in-dance-music. Thump. Vice, n.d. Web.

1 Oct. 2014. <http://thump.vice.com/words/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-thelack-of-women-in-dance-music>.