Re: Pete the sexist?

[Brian Steven Cady <cadyb@mindspring.com>]

At 11:28 AM 7/14/98 -0400, Mark Leaman wrote:

>That was exactly my thought. But I would say to you and any other woman
>offended by this line and any others on this particular album: this
>isn't Townshend but Jimmy saying this. So as the character might have
>been a sexist, which isn't surprising since it was the early `60s and it
>was still OK then...encouraged, in fact...and, too, he was young and
>recently burned by a woman he was in love with. In this sort of
>circumstance, I would say it's no worse than a woman muttering "Men!"
>As for the "rape" part, the character was drunk...so again, I don't
>think Pete was looking for a way to express his OWN views, but instead
>to define Jimmy. Like stage acting, it means sometimes one must
>"overact." After all, Pete only had 90 minutes to get it all across.

Just to help your point, here's Pete on that song from an interview:

"And this is why ‘Quadrophenia’ is going to be the last album of this type.
 I found it very, very hypocritical to write a song like ‘Doctor Jimmy.’
I’m not different from the way I was when I was young — I feel all the same
things — but I was sort of writing about somebody else.

"Like the part where he says, ‘What is it, I’ll take it.  Who is she, I’ll
rape it.’  That’s really the way I see Keith Moon in his most bravado sort
of states of mind.  It’s not necessarily the way I feel.  It’s just
something that I can identify with, like sitting and watching a movie."

			-Brian in Atlanta