>Joni:
>"I am absolutely not a feminist. I prefer the company of men to women,
>always have. And I'm constantly lumped in with women with whom I don't
>belong."
>
There's a book, I don't remember who wrote it, which is a kind of journal of
the Rolling Thunder Revue. The author, who was following the tour and who
comes off as a bit of a dweeb, recalls telling Joni that the Rolling Thunder
tour was perfect because his three favorite female songwriters were
represented: Joni, Joan Baez, and Ronee Blakely.
She reacted angrily and I don't blame her.
Joni and other female singer-songwriters are always being compared only with
other women, as if they can't hold their own against the boys.
[Personal note: when I was in London in 1977, I remember seeing billboards
advertising Joan Armatrading as "the best Black, female songwriter" - talk
about marginalization!!]
So, Joni has resented being compared only to women songwriters - she has
said that her real peers are Dylan and Cohen (she's sometimes included Laura
Nyro).
Even Joni's champions have had to be men: Prince has spoken very highly of
THOSL and Boy George caused sales of C&S to rise. David Crosby was the
person who launched her recording career (Joni has publicly dissed both Baez
and Judy Collins as being less than helpful to her in the early years).
Elvis Costello gave her the highest possible compliments in Vanity Fair.
True, Chrissie Hynde has been a highly vocal admirer, as has Annie Lennox.
But Joni has resisted any and all flattery by younger female
singer/songwriters who have claimed her as an influence, mostly because she
doesn't feel their work is significant enough to warrant comparison.
So, I don't think her assertion that she's "absolutely not a feminist" has
anything to do with her preference of the company of men to women. I think
she just got tired of being left out of the big picture, which in her
heyday, as today, was dominated by men.
As Elvis Costello said, she has very few peers, male or female. I hope she
understands that this is a great compliment from a man of genuine talent.
That's my two cents, anyway.
Roberto
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