Judy Garland is one of the most praised entertainers of the 20th century. But as Kat discovered when she wrote "Kat's Korner: Give Judy her due" last week and as Ruth noted in "Judy Garland" -- that doesn't protect her from sexism.
Judy's ALONE is an album on par with Frank Sinatra's IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS OF THE MORNING but it isn't reviewed that way.
In fact, it's reviewed the way any album by a woman is reviewed: far less than more modest efforts by a lesser known male. Even being Judy Garland, a legend, doesn't guarantee that her incredible album gets the sort of attention that it deserves. That is the case with women artists, if you've missed it. Every leaky dick with a laptop will write weekly about Bob Dylan or some other man while ignoring female artists.
The fact that Judy is considered one of the finest vocalists of the 20th century does not mean that she gets treated any different than every other female vocalist is treated.
At this site, Ava and C.I. have done incredible work on putting women into the pop culture history. And that 14 years and counting of work has had an impact. But we need to all be doing this.
Women are not tokens in history, they are a part of history.
When William Goldman died last November, we had a few e-mails suggesting we write something nice about him. C.I. nixed that. "I don't give a f**k what film he wrote that changed some little drip's life, the reality is he was a homophobe and it's impossible to read anything he wrote without factoring that in."
William, for those who are wondering how this is connected, used his homophobia as the basis for his ESQUIRE article "Judy Floats: There are many tides in the affairs of Judy Garland, and many queer fish caught in the undertow."
He slammed Judy for her audience -- and for her embrace of gays in her audience. That was too much for William Goldman. Is it too much for others at this late date? Is that another reason that someone deemed one of the greatest singers of all time doesn't get deserved credit for her albums?
Who knows? But you've got the power. You can amplify what needs to be amplified. You don't have to be part of the problem. Tear down the system with your own hands.
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