Dylan and the Women.

Wow. I haven't written for almost 6 weeks. I have been working way too hard, studying for my MEd at weekends and I even had time to party a little (!) since I last jotted ideas here.



As a preface to this blog entry, we saw Nanci Griffith in concert this week. She was awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience (apart from the support artist being a little disappointing and a man in our vicinity suffering from halitosis and body odour!). Nanci herself was stunning. She was so charming and poised, and she has the clearest and most beautiful voice ever. I was entranced.

What I was considering for the last little while, and this is linked to my liking Nanci Griffith, is how a female (educated, fairly strong-minded and not a feminist per se, but certainly an egalitarian) can be such a fan of Bob Dylan. He has been labelled a misogynist and there are signs in his songs that he has a somewhat 'old fashioned' view of my sisters and I... downright politically incorrect on some occasions!

There are female stereotypes littering his songs for five decades. I could quote for pages to give examples of this throughout his catalogue... but that would be a waste of time. Better to just list the categories. There are women who are the Madonna/mother/wife figure; the too-perfect ideals; the girls who cheat and deceive and the girls who are 'true like ice, like fire'. There are women who leave; women who are left; women who are angels and worldly women who are sinners. Women who charm away his brain and women who give him the creeps. Sad-eyed ladies and gypsies who 'wiggle'!

Many women are referred to in perceptively demeaning terms in the songs- baby, babe, mama, sweetheart, honey, little girl. Immature or derivative terminology placing the protagonist as the controlling patriarch. This can rile us sometimes...

Liking Bob Dylan is usually seen as a 'guy thing'... but that is another stereotype in itself. It is as abhorrent a phrase as 'chick flick' or 'girlie things'. Let's not even go there!

My personal feeling is that, as a woman, I get something different from Dylan's music than the male fans.

Firstly, Dylan is hot! Not so much physically maybe (sorry Bob!)... although those eyes, those hands, those ill-advised leather trousers back in the day... hmmm. I digress! There is a real sexiness in intelligence - and specifically the form of emotional intelligence Dylan exhibits. He is not a 'new man' by any stretch, but he was vaguely androgynous in the '60s and didn't eschew make-up in the '70s and '80s (all that psycological stuff about masks, duality of personality, performance, public and private faces and so on). He seems unaware of gender boundaries in some senses, but in other ways he is certainly 'one of the blokes'. He is very male, but with the edges blurred in a nice way! As a woman, I find that attractive. Remember that the largest sexual organ is the brain!

Secondly, I find it fascinating to hear the male opinions (real or fictionalized for effect in a song) concerning relationships and emotions. Sometimes I am surprised by the depth of feeling or understanding. Sometimes I am shocked at the unenlightened expressions. There are times when I smile at the wry self-deprecation or sarcasm that might not be in the words on paper so much, but are certainly in Dylan's voice when he sings. There is always that quality where you can't be sure how much he takes himself seriously. For example, I can almost hear a smile in his voice when he sings 'I want a real good woman to do just what I say' whilst bemoaning the state of the modern world in Thunder on the Mountain (Modern Times).

I really can't get mad at Bob Dylan. I could, as an atheist, turn my back on him completely, as even beyond the conversions and preaching there were Biblical allusions and imagery throughout his work from the start. But there is so much else there to enjoy, that it would be cutting off my nose to spite my face. And when used to full effect, the religious content of Dylan's songs invest a power and sometimes apocalyptic gravitas that is hard to ignore.

As a woman, I can't take the stereotypes and call him a misogynist.

The men are often buddies in Dylan's songs. Companions of the road. Lovable rogues - the way Dylan identifies himself with the 'honourable outlaw' ('to live outside the law you must be honest'). However, there is also a share of evil or ruthless businessmen. There have been some pimps and wife-beaters in there as well. I could probably write an essay on the oedipal father-son references in Dylan's work too. It isn't just the male-female relationships that struggle along here.

I get the impression from the songs that the protagonist (I must be careful to separate the real Dylan from the fictional voice of his songs) actually likes women very much - but often feels let down or confused by them. Women and men do act, feel and think differently in many ways. We women do not really understand men either - much as we like to kid ourselves we have you all sussed!

Believe me, though, there are a lot of us ladies out here who think Dylan is the business.