Musicians wanted. No males need apply
NewsAmsterdam’s Splendor, jazz club is advertising three coveted new memberships for musicians.
The bottom line?
Who we’re looking for:
Splendor currently has room for three new musicians. We strive for an equal M/F/X distribution, and given our current composition, we are specifically seeking women and non-binary individuals in this round.
Is that even legal?
In the Netherlands, yes it is legal (from what friends there have told me)
First of all, Splendor is not a jazz club.
Next to that, Splendor is a privately funded collective. I am sure they have sought out this issue carefully and it is perfectly legal.
What is X? The confused sex?
If it’s anything like the US, a club can set its own membership — it can legally be racially exclusive, for instance. It is certainly still legal in the UK for clubs to exclude females and presumably minorities.
But what sort of genuine music establishment determines its membership based on chromosomes and/or current fashions in sex definition?
Lunatic!
According to the wokescolds themselves, you are never to assume a person’s gender, so if you have a problem with their preference, just identify as non-binary in your application.
Did they do a survey of the current members? If you are a current member are you required to identify or prove your gender or your binaryness?
Very slippery ground and probably uncostitutional, given the First Article of the Dutch Constitution:
Article 1 Equality
All persons in the Netherlands shall be treated equally in equal circumstances. Discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief, political opinion, race or sex or on any other grounds whatsoever shall not be permitted.
Private clubs have always operated outside the laws for public establishments, from shops to boarding houses to institutions that serve the public.
The only law I am not clear on is the right to smoke. In Canada, where no-smoking rules are almost universal (you can’t even smoke in the outdoor areas of pubs) I believe clubs may not permit smoking either, except perhaps in a designated smoking room — and the last time I encountered one of those was over 20 years ago. The restriction there would be imposed under employment law, which prevents employees from having to cope with secondary smoke.
But the current constitution of this venue is NOT equal, that is why they want to restore the equilibrium. They must have suffered when they discovered that their members consisted mainly of binary men.
So, to rectify a discriminatory situation, a counter-discriminatory action is necessary.
The problem with the anti-discrimination article 1 of the Dutch Constitution is that the factor of ‘past’ is not included. What if a current situation is the result of past discrimination? Imagine the number of cases in any Western society that can be thus stamped with condemnation. According to such logic, groups that never have suffered from discrimination, should then be discriminated against by the groups that have been discriminated against in the past.
Prison populations also consist of mostly binary men. What are we going to do about that discrimination?
Or is it ok to discriminate on terms of criminality, but not ok to discriminate on terms of achievement and excellence?
This is not even a slippery slope anymore. It‘s an issue of human brains collectively turning into dumb jelly.
For starters, it isn’t a jazz club. Why not read a bit more about the place before contesting whether their ad is legal.
‘Splendor is run by a group of 50 exceptional musicians from every nook and cranny of the international music scene. Splendor is a second home for them and their public, but also for the vast number of musicians from the Netherlands and abroad that come to rehearse or perform there.
The 50 core musicians invested €1000 and play at least once a year for the Splendor members. In exchange, the building is theirs – 365 days a year – to create, explore and produce…wherever their imagination takes them……Splendor is independent, does not receive structural subsidies. There is no programmer or artistic director. The musicians determine what sounds, performed by themselves or the colleagues they bring along. At the beginning of the season it is not at all clear what is going to happen, and that offers plenty of room for the creation, development and execution of projects and plans.
As the ad clearly says, ‘ ‘We strive for an equal M/F/X distribution’ (and if you were to take a look at the list of musicians on their website you will see that is clearly the case). So, at the present time they want to add three female musicians to their list. What is wrong with that? Who could contest it legally? They aren’t govt funded, and these aren’t paid positions, they have to pay for the opportunity to take up the role, and I’m sure there will be a long list of candidates who will apply.
It is a fantastic place which deserves all the support it can get, why not offer it some instead of trying to find fault all the time????
The clue is in the name of the jazz club.
Fair enough.
I don’t know why a working white male wouldn’t just claim non-binary these days. Seems like that is the only way to break thru the woke ceiling.
What “ceiling”? What world are you living in? Do not feel threatened, you are not the minority and you never will be. The ceiling that’s being broken now is precisely the ceiling that had been set for millennia, and that’s not the “non-binary” ceiling. Hope that’s clear.
This is discrimination at its finest.
No it isn’t!
This kind of stuff is a major reason why Trump won;
I and many kept warning them about what will happen if they kept on engaging in this neo-discrimination under the guise of equity (which is different from equality), but did they listen? … nope they did not.
As a result, it won’t be long before the immense power of the US federal government is used to drive this toxic insanity out of institutions. Trump announced a few days ago that they are going to strike at the heart of wokeness (the universities); His admin will be threatening Universities with loss of accreditation status and federal lawsuits, if Universities engage in discriminatory policies like the ones covered in this posting.
Trump is going to take action against a Dutch collective located in the Netherlands?
Bring it on.
But what if… men start to identify as women and win in the woke game by taking away the “women %” jobs from women?
Ding ding ding, b-b-b-b-bingooo
Just apply if you are biologically XY and tell them you are non-binary, but only in Tuesdays, when you wear .
on Tuesdays, sorry.
Well Norman, I might think this is legal.
Als far as I see, Splendor is a foundation according to Dutch private law. So the steering commitee might stipulate their own specific conditions for possible candidates to reflect upon vacant positions inside the programme of Splendor. This is not about jobs or labour positions with implicated legal labour rules.
And as far as I see, there is no public subvention with possible policy restrictions or obligations upon this matter.
So the steering commitee might stipulate their own specific conditions for candidates to reflect upon vacant positions inside the Splendor programme. Even so the committee might be free to offer their preferred candidate a position that fits the best.
Just like the local darts- or fishingclub…a fundamental civil right of association…
Please note that the above doesn’t implie any (dis)approval of Splendor’s handling in this affaire. However I’ve read in earlier comments most interresting observations about chromosomes etc. So curious to learn what they might have to do with quality of performing arts and music making.
Furthermore I wish Splendor all the best of composing a well balanced new tableau de la troupe.
Maybe some AI could be helpful to objectivate this matrix-kind of decisions…
So that’s OK then.
Since these people also believe gender is a life-style choice, then anyone can apply: just decide to be female or “X” at the interview.
„We strive for an equal M/F/X distribution“.
Why?