I was already an ally but this helped me truly relate

I taught guitar professionally for 20 years. I got really good at it. Through the explaining and trying to guide my students I discovered an interesting truth.

Electric guitar with distortion has a distinctly male association. Rage, bravado, confidence, power. It's all very aggressive but in a sexy way.

On the other hand, we tend to associate acoustic, strummy music as more introspective and delicate, thoughtful and honest. Definitely a more "feminine" vibe.

The irony is, if you want to play acoustic guitar well, you need to have strength and determination. You can be sloppy, but you can't be weak.

Playing electric guitar, especially on distortion, takes grace and precision. Even the slightest mistake can ruin your performance. Details matter.

This is probably stupid and obvious to most people but it really helped me absorb why gender roles are not only completely imaginary but in a lot of cases, completely wrong.