Understanding Joni Mitchell’s views on feminism
When Joni Mitchell released Blue in 1971, the music press still firmly grasped archaic ideals about what a woman could or couldn’t be. “The girl with everything,” as Mitchell has been deemed, meant she arrived as something else. Within her compositions, and as an outsider peering over at her beautiful physical image, Mitchell defied all odds, showing that women could have all control. And all of this came at a time when they couldn’t even own bank cards.
By the dawn of the 1970s, Mitchell had what many women didn’t: full creative freedom in every sense of the word. Not only did she have full control of her musical contracts, but she also regulated her own music publishing, owned a car and multiple homes, and travelled the world single and alone. She cancelled concerts that she didn’t want to do and lived a life in celebration of the utmost freedom.
Music, for Mitchell, was both a creative and escapist outlet. She needed to earn money to leave her marriage and pay her way as a single woman, all while committing fully and wholly to believing in artistic power and her prowess as a songwriter. Mitchell occupied total independence, writing songs and sharing her path with the world in the most effortlessly beautiful and poetic ways.
Although Mitchell’s talent as a musician was widely established, mainly rooted in the folk scene, Mitchell constantly found herself at odds with media portrayals of herself. This resulted in much discourse on her limitations as a woman in the scene, which offended and angered her. Often, outlets would compare her and fellow musicians, like Joan Baez or Judy Collins, to which she would state that she no longer existed in the folk realms, despite it looking that way because she “was a girl with a guitar”.
Hence, by the time Blue hit the airwaves, Mitchell was more than just a star. Before Blue, Mitchell was finding her way, navigating various barriers about gender and musicianship. After Blue, she was exactly what she would become: an innovator whose music represented creativity and ambition. Yet, despite being a beautifully depicted capture of the cultural zeitgeist, Blue contradicted everything Mitchell stood for.
Mitchell lived through several significant movements, including many discriminatory ones and the persisting counterculture movement. This was also a time when many women fought for equality and challenged stereotypical gender norms. For the first time, women expressed their frustrations at their forced lack of control and put the wheels in motion to reclaim power.
Blue, therefore, was soaked in self-discovery and the idea that freedom was both to be championed and entirely attainable. Mitchell told her listeners that they could essentially be and have anything they wanted. The women in her songs had jobs, interests, and narratives that didn’t centre around men or romantic needs. Blue arrived at the perfect time for women’s liberation, adding an edge to confessional writing that was as much exposing as it was inciting change.
As Mitchell said herself: “It was a man’s world…the game was to make yourself larger than life”.
Mitchell encountered criticism for baring her soul on the album, displaying what some deemed excessive vulnerability — a trait frowned upon in a male-dominated world. However, although she appeared to be fighting the same battle, one interview in 2013 was particularly sobering. “I’m not a feminist,” Mitchell told Jian Ghomeshi. “I don’t want to get a posse against men. I’d rather go toe to toe myself.”
She also previously said: “The feminism in this continent isn’t feminine, it’s masculine,” adding: “Our feminism isn’t feminism, it’s masculinism.” Mitchell’s ill-conceived idea about what feminism is has clashed with the opinions that a lot of her fans hold, emerging as an insincere perception about what the word means and her judgement about women adopting one specific ideal, as opposed to accepting all of them.
There continues to be one significantly distorted misconception about the term feminism in that some people deem it radical. Mitchell seems to sit on this side of the fence, playing into misconstrued notions about what it means to be the “perfect” woman. She calls Madonna a lousy role model for women, but that’s only because opinions had yet to progress past a point regarding the idea of a “woman” as one particular thing.
Mitchell’s rejection of feminism shouldn’t necessarily be taken to heart, mainly as it seems like a take soaked in her manifestation of internalised misogyny — there’s something valid in explaining the beauty of women holding onto their modesty. However, a woman is still a woman if she decides to celebrate her sexuality.
