Carla DeSantis - Speaking

A Voice for Women in Music

Carla DeSantis' professional focus is public speaking. Her mission is to educate young people about past and present challenges for women in music. Carla believes the key to success for women in rock is to encourage the music industry to increase the visibility of inspirational female role models and ensure that women's voices are represented and heard. Here's why:
Back in the early '80s, when the charts were filled with a diversity of take-charge female role models, like Heart, Blondie, Joan Jett, the Go-Go's and Madonna, Carla DeSantis spent her nights playing in an all-female rock cover band. After every performance she was asked if her drummer was really a man in drag and if the band was lip synching.

Carla and her band circa 1982 - she is the one in the striped top and Rod Stewart hair.

Such inquiries seemed silly at first, but Carla began to wonder why, exactly, did people find it difficult to accept women playing their instruments? Did they really think there were guys behind the curtain, Wizard of Oz style, playing the music for them?

Fourteen years later, on a mission of self-discovery - and to try to understand the origins of this strange mindset - Carla visited several news stands and noticed that music magazines treated female artists one of three ways. Either they wrote about women with a patronizing tone ("Wow! "She is female and writes her own songs! Imagine that!"), focused on sex rather then music, or ignored them altogether. She realized that if things were to change, something was needed to counteract these ideas.

Since starting ROCKRGRL Magazine in 1994, Carla has worked tirelessly to level the playing field for women who play rock. She has "tabled" at Lilith Fair, ghost-written for Courtney Love, and has a million stories about everything and everyone in between.

She brings her uniquely witty, intelligent and provocative style to colleges and events all over the globe and delivers the message that when it comes to popular music, sex may sell, but sexism still sucks.