All my battles were with male egos. Iβm just looking for equality, not to dominate. But I want to be able to control my vision.
Interpretation
Joni Mitchell emphasizes the struggle for equality in a male-dominated world, highlighting her desire for balance rather than control.
In this quote, Joni Mitchell reflects on her experiences with male egos and the challenges she faced while striving for equal recognition and respect. She clarifies that her aim is not to assert dominance over others but rather to maintain control over her own artistic vision, advocating for equality and mutual respect in her pursuit of success.
In practice
In a speech about gender equality at a conference, you might quote Joni Mitchell to emphasize the fight for balance in representation.
There's a man who's been out sailing In a decade full of dreams And he takes her to a schooner And he treats her like a queen Bearing beads from California With their amber stones and green He has called her from the harbor He has kissed her with his freedom He has heard her off to starboard In the breaking and the breathing Of the water weeds While she was busy being free
Unlike some of my peers, I haven't really hit a writer's block. When I hit a block I just paint, which is an old crop rotation trick.
This is a nation that has lost the ability to be self-critical, and that makes a lie out of the freedoms.
You wake up one day and suddenly realize that your youth is behind you, even though you're still young at heart.
I have an aversion to being mislabeled. Here's a label I'd accept: I'm an 'individual.' I'm someone who can't follow, and doesn't want to lead.
What I do is unusual: chordal movements that have never been used before, changing keys and modalities mid-song.
I don't know why women aren't allowed to have the same sort of breadth and scope and flaws of men.
Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.
The view that women are infantile and emotional creatures, and as such, incapable of responsibility and independence is the work of the masculine tendency to lower women's self-respect.
Our goal should be to develop work-life policies that enable people to put their gender values into practice. So let's stop arguing about the hard choices women make and help more women and men avoid such hard choices.
The one thing I would say is, I do think women are evaluated differently than men. How we look, what is our age? Do you see a ton of 55-year-old women in sports television? No. But there are men in their 60s and 70s across many networks who are still in sports television.
Investing in women and girls may once have been considered a radical notion or even a waste of resources, but in most places in the world today, women and girls are increasingly recognized as a critical link to greater prosperity, political stability, better health and public policy.
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