Kids say the truest things

 

People Who Refuse the COVID-19 Vaccine Are Why Our Lives Can't Return to Normal

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXLIX--Helen Reddy: I Am Woman

 As I've noted a time or two (or three or four) here on Friday Night Jukebox, the tunes I feature here each week are chosen years in advance of their posting, and once again this week we have one that just happened to oddly coincide with recent news events--that being the Supreme Court's decision earlier this month to allow the Texas ban on abortions to stand while I picked perhaps the greatest women's anthem ever performed some years ago to be this week's song.  Of course, as far off the deep end as the Supreme Court has gone during the Roberts' years, I probably shouldn't be surprised....

Helen Reddy was born into a show biz family in Melbourne, Australia in 1941.  After winning a talent contest in her native Australia in 1966 with a grand prize being the chance to record a single for Mercury Records, Reddy immigrated to America only to find out the grand prize wasn't so grand--it was only to be an audition for the chance, and they eventually decided they did not want her to record for them.  Reddy--despite being a single mom--decided to stay and pursue her dream anyway.  She got her chance in 1971 when she released her first single, which was a top twenty hit in Canada, and led to her second single which kickstarted her success.  Reddy had a number of hits, won a Grammy Award, and was inducted into Australia's music hall of fame  She retired in 2002 and after her retirement earned a degree in hypnotherapy.  In 2011 she returned to performing and continued through 2017.  For her career Reddy released eighteen studio albums (with six hitting the top twenty), and 31 singles (with three hitting #1 and another three reaching the top ten).  Ms. Reddy was diagnosed with dementia in 2015, but still participated in the 2017 Women's March.  Sadly, she passed away last year at the age of seventy-eight.

"I Am Woman" was originally released on Reddy's debut album, I Don't Know How to Love Him in 1971.  It was later re-recorded with an additional verse and chorus and became a hit single on Reddy's third album, I Am Woman.  The second version reached #1 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and its album hit #14 on the Billboard 200.

I don't think it can be overstated what an important cultural reference point "I Am Woman" was to a still relatively nascent women's movement here in America.  As a man who has never suffered the discrimination that women have in America's history, I am loathe to imagine what this song meant to the women of the time (and the women of today), but I hope it spoke to the empowerment they were (and are) seeking.  From a strictly musical standpoint, the song is incredibly catchy and Reddy's vocals capture the strength, defiance, and joy that the song's lyrics demonstrate.  In the end, what stands out most for me is not only did Reddy create an anthem (which isn't often done), but she created one that appeals to half the world's population--and spoke to their common history and their hope for the actualization of their fight to be treated as equals.

Lyric Sheet:  "I am woman hear me roar/In numbers too big to ignore/And I know too much to go back and pretend..."

Enjoy:

People Who Refuse the COVID-19 Vaccine Are Why Our Lives Can't Return to Normal

Peace,

emaycee

Thrice as nice

Our Holy Trinity--Whitmer, Benson, and Nessel

 Ms. Magazine this week announced their feminists of the year, and Michigan scored a well-deserved trifecta.  Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Attorney General Dana Nessel all made the list, for standing up to Donald Trump and fighting for Michiganders to receive the PPE they needed, to make our elections fair, and to prosecute Trump's lawyers for attempting to corrupt our system of government.

Not to mention the plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer and the threats made to Secretary Benson and her child.  The courage these women have shown over the course of the last year in the face of moronic traitors with guns is more than any public official has ever bargained for, but the three of them were all up to the task and more.

Michigan should be proud of our stalwart leadership, and hope for many more years to come from these incredible women.

356,000+ Dead Americans Because of Donald Trump's Incompetence

Biden:  306 EV's, Trump:  232

emaycee

Good intentions

I once toyed with writing a post about how republicans would respond if the movie Dumbo had been released in the last twenty years--unwed mother, underage drinking, positive modeling of hallucinations--but decided against it in light of Dumbo becoming a gazillionaire at the end because of his ability to fly with his ears.  The end of the movie would fit nicely into the republican worldview that being born with a gift most of us don't have (a la the silver spoons in the mouths of Bush the Lesser and Romney) is somehow inherently the fault of the poor bastard living paycheck to paycheck.  After all, if he'd been born with jumbo fucking ears perhaps his life wouldn't have been so miserable.

Ahem.

This is the kind of piece we Liberals write that I hate railing against because a) the author, Alyssa Rosenberg, is most assuredly right, and b) it's a thoughtful and well-written piece.  Still, rail against it I will because it's just another example of Liberals getting off track and looking silly.

Ms. Rosenberg's central thesis is that we should not judge a woman's sexuality by her gender performance, i.e., a woman who enjoys athletics is no more likely to be gay than a woman who enjoys gardening.  A+  for accuracy, right?  Unfortunately, Ms. Rosenberg uses the movie Brave (haven't seen it) as an exemplar of this, mostly in anger from a piece written by some joker from Entertainment Weekly. (Note to Ms. Rosenberg:  People who write for magazines like EW suffer from a common malady known to common folks as "Lack of Brains and Talent"--who starts college thinking, "You know what I want to do when I grow up?  Watch and write reviews of '2 Broke Girls!'"--and it's best to ignore them.)

Look, I'm the parent of a seven-year-old, and now that school is out for the year, the only things he's interested in are the Wii, "Phineas and Ferb," and Legos.  If perchance we take him to see Brave (and we might, it looks entertaining from the nine thousand or so commercials we've seen on The Disney Channel over the course of the last month) the only things he wants is a few laughs, some exciting scenes, a few moments to talk about on the ride home, and his share of the popcorn and soda.  And as a parent, the only thing I'm looking for is a little above average entertainment for our son (or a little cat nap if it's below average) and a little family time with a fun outing that we all recall fondly a few months from now when we're buying the DVD.  Sexuality?  Gender performance?  Fine and wonderful things, but not looking for them in a theater full of kids, mostly ten and under, who are making mental notes for their "What I Did Last Summer" essays when school starts back up in September.  (Note I also have a grown daughter and would feel exactly the same had this occurred when she was seven.)

I appreciate Ms. Rosenberg's passion and intelligence, but sometimes it's best to remember that if something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.  And sometimes a children's movie is just that, a children's movie.

Peace,
emaycee