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[–]MarkTwainiac 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Great point, OP. Thanks for sharing it.

Also, since you brought up Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like A Woman," to be fair to her I want to point out that it was written by Twain with her then-husband Robert John "Mutt" Lange. In the publishing credits, he gets first billing, which indicates he might have put more into writing it than she did.

Moreover, if we're gonna go after songwriters for helping create and spread the idea that it's possible to "feel like a woman," it only seems fair to also blow a raspberry at Gerry Goffin, Carole King and Jerry Wexler, the songwriters who penned the 1967 song "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman" that was a huge hit for Aretha Franklin.

[–]vitunrotta[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Always appreciate your insights. :) Good lord, woman, are you a library that came alive!? I had never checked the writers of this song - until now. (Fact check: 100% correct.)

When that song first became a big hit (in our remote little country) it was FOR the women, at least from my perspective. I was very young at that time - on the 7th grade - so I never heard it played on the dancefloor, for example. But even so, I recall it was a song for women only and men could go suck it.

I used it in this rant as we all know the song (most of us do, anyway) and the majority of women & men of my age who listened to it didn't take it literally. It was a rallying song, an anthem for the uterus-havers (heh).

I've heard this song play many, many times since in numerous parties and weddings and women tend to go nuts. It was (perhaps still is) a song about "feeling like a woman" and the fact that there is nothing wrong about that - even if it's a split second of champagne craze where you wildly swing your pretty dress and throw your high-heels away and let loose.

As for "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman" - I only ever knew the Celine Dion version from 1996, but by god I can still lip-synch the entire song (and album, no shame whatsoever, it is one of my favourite albums).

I think all art is a depiction of our times - the songs we used to listen to and love now sound weirdly misogynist and old-school. The art that was once so groundbreaking makes some of us yawn. I recall studying Guernica from Picasso and while I knew exactly what it depicted it bored me to death back in the day; I'm unsure if I like the piece still to this day. (I'm not an expert in arts, maybe that's why.)

In a similar sense the song "Man! I feel like a woman!" was a bit of a different thing for the society then than it would be now.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: women can be misogynists just as much as men. Your biology doesn't make you any better or worse in this matter - or any other.

But we are women still, ha! ;)

[–]MarkTwainiac 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Good lord, woman, are you a library that came alive!?

I am so flattered by your characterization, but no. I'm just someone who prior to the internet age spent a lot of time in libraries researching stuff and working as a reporter, investigative journalist, fact-checker, independent historian and such. For some reason, I've always had a weird knack for inquiring into, picking up on and remembering a whole lot of info about all sorts of high and low culture topics that many people see as unrelated.

If I were to write my memoirs I'd want to call 'em "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" - but Richard Feynman beat me to it!

Glad the info I'm am sharing is appreciated, though. I am on in years and quite physically ill in ways that mean I no longer get out much. And my unacceptably TERFy views mean I can no longer get anything I write published in either article or book form. So I'm here trying to share some of the stuff I've learnt over many decades in hopes it will be of help to younger women (and men), and you in turn will pass it on to others.

Keep up the good work!

[–]tuesday 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

yes I too have noticed your most excellent contributions. To the point that I always get a little bit excited whenever I see your name in the comments, because it signifies: interesting stuff ahead!

Very glad you're here :-)

[–]vitunrotta[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Seconded!

[–]MarkTwainiac 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thank you! That means a lot.