Monday, April 9, 2012

Patti Smith on women, men and muses

“Most of my poems are written to women because women are most inspiring. Who are most artists? Men. Who do they get inspired by? Women. The masculinity in me gets inspired by the female. I fall in love with men and they take me over. I ain’t no women’s lib chick. So I can’t write about a man, because I’m under his thumb, but a woman I can be male with. I can use her as my muse. I use women.” (source )
I saw this come across my Tumbr dash yesterday. I'd been looking for the source of this quote, especially the "I ain't no women's lib chick" part, but the added context explains a lot. I've always known Patti Smith has a somewhat contentious relationship to feminism. Granted, I don't think identifying as a feminist is a requirement -- I know there are myriad reasons why someone wouldn't identify as one (and I'm not sure myself if I do anymore), but the entire quote is pretty disappointing. I also think it's fair to point out that it was probably said early on in the second-wave era of feminism, and Smith's being a woman more of my mother's generation than my own, there were plenty more barriers in place, especially in the inchoate punk rock scene.

But I'm not giving her a pass on this, particularly for the confusing, "I can't write about a man, because I'm under his thumb, but a woman I can be male with." What does this even mean? The only way for her to gain power is to be in control of another woman, in the place of a man? It's not shocking or subversive, just disheartening.

2 comments:

  1. How old is this comment, I wonder? I read Just Kids last summer.

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  2. I don't know. I found it on Believe mag's Tumblr with no other source. It seems familiar, but I think it's from pretty early on in her career.

    I love Patti, but some of the things she's said and done some pretty problematic things (not to mention using the N-word in a song title).

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