I see interracial couples all the time in Nashville. I'm a Jew in Nashville. I'm a gay person in Nashville. It's a non-issue in most of the time. That's a huge leap forward.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the acceptance of diverse identities and relationships in Nashville.
Janis Ian emphasizes the progress made in societal acceptance of interracial and diverse relationships in Nashville. She shares her personal experience as a Jewish and gay person, highlighting how these identities are generally regarded as non-issues, signaling a significant advancement in tolerance and equality within the community.
In practice
This quote can be shared at a community event celebrating diversity.
I was one of I think three white girls in my school. So, I was very much an outsider. And plus I was Jewish and all of my friends were black and Baptist because they listen to the coolest music. We were all listening to Ray Charles and what was then called race music.
Artists are taught to be humble about their impact, especially in folk music. It's so ingrained that I have a hard time even thinking I had any impact other than what a normal hit song would have.
It's what I do well - I write about things that make people uncomfortable. That's probably the only thing I do better than my peers.
'Society's Child' was a real hard record to start with. That's all you want is for you to put your first record out and have people screaming at you in the streets. But it taught me right away that what I was doing was valuable and important.
I had a vague idea of the song's impact in the '60s, but that was tempered by the hate mail and threats I was receiving. It was only about ten years ago, when I finally put it back in my show because so many people were asking for it, that I understood 'Society's Child' real impact.
It seems to be part of the human condition to need someone you can look down on. I still don't get that one.
We're trained to see only male or female and to plot people into those categories when they actually don't fit neatly at all. But if we pause, watch and listen closely we'll see the multiplicity of ways in which people are sexed and gendered. There exists a range of personal identifications around woman, man, in-between-we don't even have names or pronouns that reflect that in between place but people certainly live in it.
Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.
The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.
Human relationships are primary in all of living. When the gusty winds blow and shake our lives, if we know that people care about us, we may bend with the wind ... but we won’t break.
The curse of marriage_x000D_ _x000D_ That we can call these delicate creatures ours_x000D_ _x000D_ And not their appetites!
To mind being disliked by a woman you don’t desire and are not married to is yet another serious failure of common sense.
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