Respected LadyLand - No Tears

This episode features songs about
REJECTING mistreatment
and
RECLAIMING personal power!

Hear the voices of Clara Ward, Billie Holiday, Brenda Lee, Betty Everette, Timi Yuro and many others!

All genders can relate to heartbreak songs, so these tunes can appeal to people other than women.  However, I hear these songs as statement of resistance. 

Women have traditionally been conditioned to believe they aren't "whole" or "accepted" in society UNLESS they are in a relationship with a man. Unmarried women have been labeled as outcasts with terms like "spinster" or "old maid".  If they did choose to get a divorce, they were also viewed as outcasts.  

Often times women have been pressured to protect a marriage at all costs, even if that relationship was abusive and exploitative. Also, let's remember that at certain times in history, women couldn't get a bank account, loans, invest in property on their own. With so much stacked against women, leaving a relationship could have extreme consequences.  With so many deterrents to seek independence, this existence felt like a life in captivity (for many other women, it was literal captivity).

The songs on this episode are largely from the 1960s, the era when women were increasingly questioning these restraints.