She's always a woman to me ... ♫

 

She can kill with a smile 

She can wound with her eyes 

She can ruin your faith with her casual lies 

And she only reveals what she wants you to see 

She hides like a child, 

But she's always a woman to me 

She can lead you to love 

She can take you or leave you 

She can ask for the truth 

But she'll never believe you 

And she'll take what you give her, 

as long as it's free 

Yeah, she steals like a thief 

But she's always a woman to me 

When the song was released the women's liberation movement was really gaining momentum and a lot of men didn't understand what it meant … Did liberation mean that the new woman was trying to be a man? No ... perish the thought! The term ‘new woman’ emerged at the end of the nineteenth century to describe women who were pushing against the limits which society imposed on women. Today we might call her a liberated woman or may be a feminist. Less constrained by Victorian norms and domesticity than previous generations, the new woman had greater freedom ... she challenged conventional gender roles and met with hostility from men and even from women who objected to women's public presence and supposed decline in morality ! Put in a simpler way, the new woman was the young women at the turn of the century to reject her mothers' ways in favour of new, modern choices. Indeed equations change every day. Questions have been raised on how far women's liberalism has become effective. But the big change was that women have tasted the possibilities; they know what’s in the realm of their grasp … the freedom to work or be single, the freedom to define themselves, to find what they really want. 

O ... she takes care of herself 

She can wait if she wants 

She's ahead of her time 

O ... and she never gives out 

And she never gives in 

She just changes her mind 

And if all this brings confusion to the woman, think of the poor man. What worked well some time back did not work anymore. The men are slowly getting the idea, they are trying to understand the new rules and become new men ! Yet the new man seems to be a confused young man right now … trying to be gentle, open and supportive new men while fulfilling the traditional male role of being aggressive, assertive and high-achieving. Typically men do not like the expression ‘new man’ at all … the new man is a caricature ! They do not care for ‘feminists’ either …for feminists are 'short-haired women shouting for their rights'. Indeed there are very few new men around and there is no evidence to suggest that we are witnessing huge social change. But in my own family and among friends and acquaintances I see men who are more open to change. Men are becoming incorporated into domestic and societal roles, which have traditionally been the prerogative of women. 

Anyway, the idea of the new man is not new. There were plenty of affectionate and sympathetic men around in previous generations. But those affectionate and sympathetic men of the previous generations were never asked questions like – "Is it important for you to be the breadwinner ? Are you competitive ? Is it important to you to have a good physique ? Would you share the housework or look after the children ? Are you confused about how you relate to women ? Do you find it difficult to talk about your feelings ?" The answers, I guess will reveal a lot. It will be interesting to put these same questions in their proper context to a new woman too. The answers will reveal a lot, yet again ! Indeed we all are living through changing times. However, the basic rules of human relationships have always been the same … you cannot force your views on somebody else, emancipation is a state of the mind ! 

And she'll promise you more 

Than the Garden of Eden 

Then she'll carelessly cut you 

And laugh while you're bleedin' 

But she'll bring out the best 

And the worst you can be 

Blame it all on yourself 

Cause she's always a woman to me 

She is frequently kind 

And she's suddenly cruel 

She can do as she pleases 

She's nobody's fool 

And she can't be convicted 

She's earned her degree 

And the most she will do 

Is throw shadows at you 

But she's always a woman to me 

Coming back to Billy Joel’s song … there's a sort of haunting melancholy in the song. The man cannot reconcile the things the woman can do to a man with the chivalrous notion he seems to hold of a woman. She's on a pedestal like a Goddess … even though he seems to know she shouldn't be; and now that she has fallen off, he alternates between cynicism and admiration for her. The song captures the duality a man can feel when he's involved with a woman who has embraced liberation in context of society's stereotypical expectations of what it means to be a woman. The woman does not appear to either seek or need approval from others, and she's not taking responsibility for others reactions to how she is. She is her own person, has accepted it and is proud of it. So he chooses to blame himself, “Blame it all on yourself"… for he still loves her and recognises her as still being very much a woman. The song does not speak of the perfect woman, it speaks of a woman and the man who loves her for who she is and can be.