For anyone who missed it, here is that k.d./Chrissie interview:
http://home.macau.ctm.net/~tina71/articles/q.htm
Chrissie also goes on to talk about other issues:
"No, I'll tell you what's really gotten my goat lately. It's when I read
that a sixteen-year-old girl has been shot dead on the streets of
Algiers for not wearing her veil. When I hear that 5,000 women a day are
having their genitals mutilated and their sexual organs removed
altogether for the rest of their lives. And my question is: why is it
when you suggest that rapists should be castrated - which makes
absolutely perfect sense, and is a just answer to rape, and sound and
compassionate - that most men are absolutely horrified? That's where I
step in and say, 'OK you fuckers, I'm questioning it. Just like I'm
going to question factory farming methods and the live exportation of
calves.'"
I don't know how much of an activist she is, but just by talking about
things in interviews, she brings them to the attention of people who may
never have known. Just as Joni does when she sings about issues in her
songs. "The Magdalene Laundries" and her subsequent comments on the
song in interviews is feminist activism in my book.
(I know most of you have probably read these articles before, but they
seem worth quoting in this context.)
Joni from the Irish Times, February 6, 1999:
"'The Magdalene Laundries song came about because I read that the
Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, in Dublin, had sold off land which led
to the discovery of graves marked `Magdelene of the Sorrows' or
`Magdelene of the Tears' but didn't have the names of these women. And I
could identify with that because when I was pregnant and looking for an
institution to hide away in, I went to places like the Salvation Army
and I was refused. I ended up living in the attic of a Chinese white
slaver and, finally, was warned "get out of there, he's just waiting for
you to give birth". It was fraught with peril; an attic room with no
heat and half the banister rails gone, from the previous tenant burning
them for warmth.'"
http://www.jmdl.com/articles/docs/990226it.cfm
Joni from Vanity Fair, June 1997:
"One of the mixed blessings of being Joni Mitchell is that random fans
want to praise her for such lines as 'I've looked at clouds from both
sides now,' when the lyrics she's most proud of pass without comment.
She is particularly partial to 'The Magdalene Laundries,' a song from
Turbulent Indigo that describes Irish girls forced to do menial labor
for sins ranging from having children out of wedlock to inspiring impure
thoughts in men. I asked about an image from the song, the nuns
described as 'bloodless brides of Jesus.'
"'I carried that for a long time," she explained. 'There are images I
carry for a long time before I find the artistic receptacle, the proper
scenario to let them into. I never understood how the nuns could call
themselves the brides of Jesus, the compassionate one, and be so
hostile. I was sickly and in hospitals a lot as a kid. I'm not Catholic,
but I had a lot of interaction with nuns in hospitals, and some of them
were brutal, you know.'"
http://www.jmdl.com/articles/docs/9706vf.cfm
(Funny, Chrissie also makes an appearance in this article as well...)
If this were to be the furthest extent of a celebrity's activism, I for
one, would not mind.
Brenda
n.p. Glen Phillips - Men Just Leave
Susan McNamara wrote:
>
> Yes, I think you are right. Hissing of Summer Lawns is definitely
> Joni's feminist statement, I would certainly agree with that. I
> really liked what one poster wrote about the conversation between
> Chrissy Hynde and kd lang. By being Chrissy she is ultimately a role
> model for women (as Joni is too obviously) but being a feminist means
> (to me anyway) that you believe in a political activism to combat
> patriarchy. Am I off base here? Teach me friends!
>
> take care, sue
