Learning Log

John Darnielle, of The Mountain Goats

Darnielle: For years, I’ve written narrators who aren’t gender-identified. When I do autobiographical stuff, that’s different, obviously. But I’ve always tried to keep my songs as potentially not a man’s thing. I think so many rock songs you assume by default it’s a man’s thing. That’s a weakness of narrative. And when I was younger, my early songs employed this trope that is popular to this day with indie singer-songwriters, where a guy is gonna hurt himself or do something drastic and appalling in order to show the object of his affection how intense his love for her is.

Paste magazine: And we’re supposed to celebrate his self-destruction.

Darnielle: Yeah! And you’re supposed to think that’s amazing when these guys tell these stories: “Oh, he broke something, he hurt somebody, he did something rash; his love must have been so great!” instead of, “Oh no, he’s a psycho.” When I was younger, I did those too. And then I thought, that’s kinda bullshit to tell stories like that. I try not to write songs in which men glamorize their own need for approval from women. That’s kinda a bogus way to go out. But I try to do this quietly, I’m not about to go around telling people how they should or shouldn’t think. My feminism is for me.

you keep rockin’, meg cabot

iliketodisco:

Q: I like Taylor Swift, but all these websites say I shouldn’t, because she’s anti-feminist. I want to be a feminist, but not if it means I have to stop liking Taylor Swift. What should I do?

A: It’s getting harder and harder to be a feminist these days. Every time you turn around, someone somewhere is saying something you like is “anti-feminist”: Romances! High heels! Lipstick! Shaving! Sex and the City! Boys! Taylor Swift! Tacos!

But don’t worry. Part of being a feminist is doing what you believe in your heart is right (like Lucy Burns, who suffered hunger strikes, imprisonment, and the force feeding of worms just so we girls could have the right to vote).

And sometimes doing what you believe is right means liking something (or someone) and not caring what anyone else has to say about it.

Lucy in her prison cell, where the police hung her for days by her arms so people like you and me and Snooki could dance around in our underwear to Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga after a hard day of being the primary breadwinner (even though we still earn only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns) without being arrested.

Feminists, can we please, for this new decade, focus on what’s important? The definition of the word feminist is someone who believes women should have the same social, economic, and political rights as men.

I fail to see how Taylor Swift is actively working to undermine legislation in these areas.

- from Meg Cabot’s Q & A post on her blog