There are two issues in that original article, and I'm only addressing the first.

Do people really introduce female folkies by their looks, and male folkies by their talent? If so, that is akin to white players being described as smart and black ones as athletic. That would be a sexism problem in folk music.

The other issue of exploitation happened *through* folk music but is an issue of exploitation, not of folk music itself, which was the vector, not the virus, if you will. And was horrible, but I'd like to address the introduction thing.

Do those of you who do open mikes, club performances, and folk festivals --Anything where you are introduced by an emcee-type presenter-- really have that happen? I have not noticed that myself but rarely go see live music.

Please note I am not trying to minimize the exploitation part. I was shocked by the sexism brought up in the beginning of that article, and thought the writer would go on about sexism specifically in folk music, rather than about sexual exploitation that could have happened in any other context where there are unsupervised predatory and vulnerable individuals. Yes, it's horrible, but it's not my question. Please don't hurt me.