The Body and Gender in Perspective

The concept of body and gender brought contentious discourses in ethnomusicological studies and analysis over the centuries and has become a central issue for consideration in the 21st century. This discourse is based on gender and bodies’ evolvement in ethnomusicology and how relevant these issues are to 21st-century ethnomusicologists. The paper employed existing literature to discuss theories and conceptual analysis of bodies, gender, and ethnomusicology from different societies, status, sexual orientation, and value divergence. The findings reiterated that ethnomusicological discourse presently sees the physical body and social body as a connecting process to multiple types of power relations such as social control and gender formation. Most importantly, cultural identity, gender, and sexuality in cross-cultural enclaves such as homosexuality and transgender in Africa pose an ideological, cultural, and legitimacy quandary to ethnomusicologists in the 21st century. Therefore, ethnomusicological discourse must have a comprehensive method for resolving ethical dilemmas in cross-cultural and social phenomena.