In her post from the other day, Martha made the case for singer Nick Lowe’s inclusion in the Mantheon, argung that "there’s something to be said for a man who can speak in so many registers of masculine reaction. A man who’s neither paragon nor asshole, or if he is, he’s both, some of the time."
I agree, and was thinking, a propos of Nick Lowe, that there’s a further point to be made, which is that for all that we inveigh against gender role stereotyping here, there is an incredibly significant role to be played by such stereotyping, in the culture, when it’s transfigured by art into an articulation of the human experience. Or, to put it more simply (I hope), whether or not there’s something politically destructive about how easily we fall into these artificial constructs of what it means to be a man or a woman, the fact is that we do fall into such constructs, and so our subjective, authentic experience of life is one in which we think, sometimes, with the aid of traditional categories of masculinity and femininity. And thank God, then, for artists who can do something profound with those feelings, who can lend them dignity and complexity and joy. How awful it would be if it were only our politically enlightened experiences that were given voice in art (I suppose there’s some Marxist-type argument to be made here that such art serves a politically reactionary purpose, by diffusing discontent that would otherwise be channelled into political action, but I don’t think I buy it).
Consider, for example, Nick Lowe’s "I trained her to love me," which, as Martha wrote, "tells the touching story of a man who makes women fall in love with him so he can break their hearts."
Or, in the same vein, Kanye West’s "Golddigger"
These are, stripped of their artistry, songs that express pretty retrograde ideas. But with the artistry, well, they’re something different. They make it easier, I’d argue, to be in the world, to forgive and redeem heartbreak and betrayal, to live as a man trying to find love with a woman (and vicey-versey).
