I love this song. Nightkite13, you put it so well, "This is one of the saddest, truest songs I have ever heard anywhere."
I love how this isn't only a feminist rejection of female gender roles, but a fully rounded realization of how social gender norms constrain all of us.
My wife introduced me to Dar Williams' music, and I'm proud to say that this song makes me tear up a little every time especially in the last verse. I was a girl too :)
This is almost exactly my own response. I was almost irked with Dar the first time I heard this song because, despite how perfectly she was descibing the life of a small boy on her bike who knew the tricks that all the boys knew, I felt that she was leaving me out... and then came the last verse and I heard myself and my experience expressed in every line. Of course I am still in touch with the girl inside of me, and can still always cry, including almost each and every time I hear this song...
This is almost exactly my own response. I was almost irked with Dar the first time I heard this song because, despite how perfectly she was descibing the life of a small boy on her bike who knew the tricks that all the boys knew, I felt that she was leaving me out... and then came the last verse and I heard myself and my experience expressed in every line. Of course I am still in touch with the girl inside of me, and can still always cry, including almost each and every time I hear this song whether I am walking the streets, on a bus, at home or in my office.
@aphoenicis No doubt many of us do. Reminds me why so many of my friends in adolescence were girls, and so many are women into late middle age (62ish). And has me thinking of Mom, gone 5 years. Sigh.
@aphoenicis No doubt many of us do. Reminds me why so many of my friends in adolescence were girls, and so many are women into late middle age (62ish). And has me thinking of Mom, gone 5 years. Sigh.
I love this song. Nightkite13, you put it so well, "This is one of the saddest, truest songs I have ever heard anywhere."
I love how this isn't only a feminist rejection of female gender roles, but a fully rounded realization of how social gender norms constrain all of us.
My wife introduced me to Dar Williams' music, and I'm proud to say that this song makes me tear up a little every time especially in the last verse. I was a girl too :)
This is almost exactly my own response. I was almost irked with Dar the first time I heard this song because, despite how perfectly she was descibing the life of a small boy on her bike who knew the tricks that all the boys knew, I felt that she was leaving me out... and then came the last verse and I heard myself and my experience expressed in every line. Of course I am still in touch with the girl inside of me, and can still always cry, including almost each and every time I hear this song...
This is almost exactly my own response. I was almost irked with Dar the first time I heard this song because, despite how perfectly she was descibing the life of a small boy on her bike who knew the tricks that all the boys knew, I felt that she was leaving me out... and then came the last verse and I heard myself and my experience expressed in every line. Of course I am still in touch with the girl inside of me, and can still always cry, including almost each and every time I hear this song whether I am walking the streets, on a bus, at home or in my office.
Tony
@aphoenicis No doubt many of us do. Reminds me why so many of my friends in adolescence were girls, and so many are women into late middle age (62ish). And has me thinking of Mom, gone 5 years. Sigh.
@aphoenicis No doubt many of us do. Reminds me why so many of my friends in adolescence were girls, and so many are women into late middle age (62ish). And has me thinking of Mom, gone 5 years. Sigh.