Worm, just some food for thought. Because I see you projecting in the same way I did last year. You are talking about a man who gave his music the male tag this February. And if you look at the female writers and singers whom he is affectionate to, they are to the great majority lebians or groupies. My notion of a strong woman is different, more like how I have seen that "northern woman" described and what the women are like whom I have grown up with, but where is this woman other than in the literature that he drew from? She does not stand on his stage as support, she is not in his lyrics, she is not in his interviews. What you get as his support are lebians and women who not accidentally sing and also work as models, make their living by not just making music but also selling their bodies to masses. The really strong woman does not do this, she tries to make a living without selling her body and soul to one man or a whole lot of them.
Fair points, Silke. I was trying to indicate what Morrissey believes, that's all. Whether or not he's a "real" feminist is another question. My definition of a "strong woman" is closer to yours, but I wasn't really offering my own views.
As for the lack of these women in his songs, again, I think you have to consider that he has always sung about men and masculinity, and women have been background figures in the lyrics. I don't know what you mean by "the male tag" being so recent; he talked about "male liberation" in the earliest Smiths interviews and has remained consistent.
The tricky thing about understanding what Morrissey thinks about women is that his favorite artists, male or female, are writers, actors, filmmakers, and musicians whom he must find "interesting" as artists first and only secondly as social or political categories. You can easily tell what he likes, but it's much harder to discern what he doesn't like, and why. He finds breaking sexual norms "interesting", but his obvious affection for homosexual artists can't be seen as an implicit repudiation of men and women who don't sell their bodies and souls to anyone, as you put it. He's addicted to spectacle, drama, and extreme human emotions. If these aren't on display, he probably isn't going to sing about it or talk about it in interviews. I believe if you sat down with him and described what you thought of as a strong woman, he would agree with you completely and enthusiastically. Then, at the end, he'd still say, "Fine, fine, fine. Now, can we talk about Joni Mitchell?"
)
(not you Silke).
I'm sure you can!
