Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ut-sally.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!riddle From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) Newsgroups: net.music,net.women Subject: Feminist versions of "men's" songs (Re: Cyndi Lauper?) Message-ID: <610@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: Thu, 10-Jan-85 11:53:29 EST Article-I.D.: ut-sally.610 Posted: Thu Jan 10 11:53:29 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 07:48:43 EST References: <147@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills Lines: 29 Xref: watmath net.music:5682 net.women:4053 In his article on Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," Jim Dyer says that a reviewer in "Ms." calls the tune "a 'feminist version' of a man's song". Jim has some doubts as to whether or not Lauper's song qualifies, but the category is an interesting one. Can any of you think of other (1) feminist versions of sexist songs or (2) feminist songs belonging to a usually sexist sub-(sub-sub)-genre of music? My favorite example of the latter is "Love Me Like a Man" by Bonnie Raitt. Raitt is, in my opinion, a truly great blueswoman, and the song is a down-dirty blues tune with echoes of all sorts of classic but unfortunately sexist numbers that everybody's heard ("I'm a Man", for instance). Raitt's song, though, turns around the usual blues equation of masculinity with machismo; the singer first complains about the treatment she receives from her usual lovers then call (I'm quoting from memory here), "I just want a man to love me / who won't put himself above me / but will love me like a man." (I don't have the record with me, and I'm not sure that Raitt wrote it.) I suppose that Maria Muldaur's "I'm a Woman (W-O-M-A-N)," an outright spoof of "I'm a Man," could fit into category 1 above. Considering how many of the great early blues artists were women (especially in the line of the blues that developed into jazz), I wouldn't be surprised if some digging wouldn't turn up a number of blues songs that could be called feminist. Anyone know of any? And what about other styles of music? --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle --- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle@zotz.ARPA