On Wednesday, 17 September 2025, the C:POP. Transdisciplinary Research Centre for Popular Music Cultures and Creative Economies at Paderborn University invites you to an impulse and talk with pop music journalist and cultural scientist Sonja Eismann. The event will take place from 16:00 to 17:30 in lecture hall G (Warburger Str. 100, 33098 Paderborn) and is part of the supporting programme of the GfM conference (annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft 2025), which is being held at Paderborn University this year under the motto *Macht*.
Women who make themselves visible and audible in the field of music still come up against deeply rooted defence mechanisms. Although the female presence in pop culture is unmistakable, expertise is still predominantly attributed to men. Women, on the other hand, are often perceived solely through their gender. A mechanism that ranges from subtle gatekeeping to open devaluation. In the digital space in particular, this manifests itself in the form of insults, hostility or even threats of violence.
The event thus addresses fundamental questions: Who is allowed to talk about pop in public discourse? Who is heard as an expert, who remains invisible? And how deeply do historical mechanisms of exclusion affect today's writing about music? In the early 2000s, Diedrich Diederichsen reflected on the structures in which rock music could only speak about itself in this way if women were excluded at the same time. Even though feminist and anti-sexist perspectives have changed a lot in the pop field in recent decades, this history still forms the backdrop against which pop journalism and pop criticism take place.
Sonja Eismann, co-founder and co-editor of Missy Magazine as well as author and journalist (including taz, Jungle World, Der Freitag, Spex, Deutschlandfunk), will analyse precisely these dynamics in her talk and put them up for discussion. Her many years of work at the interface of pop culture, gender and society make her one of the most prominent voices in the German-language pop discourse.
The talk will be accompanied by a musical and artistic intervention by Charlie Mio Marlin, which will add an aesthetic perspective to the discussion. The event will be moderated by Prof.'in Dr.'in Beate Flath and Prof. Dr. Christoph Jacke (Managing Director C:POP, Paderborn University).
The event is sponsored by the Paderborn University Society. All interested parties are cordially invited to participate and join in the discussion.
To the supporting programme
