So what do we have today? Well, a song about love – nothing too surprising there although this one is particularly lush in its arrangement – but more than that: it’s a questioning of roles and in particular what it means to be a man. Is it OK for men to show emotion, and “embrace their feminine side“? Err…yeah, obviously. Not everyone sees that though, as Josiah Johnson explains when talking of ‘Woman in a Man’s Life.’
“For a long time I held onto a lot of shame around the softness and sensitivity – around the nurturing parts of myself. We are beginning as a culture to reckon with gender roles and expectations, different standards and power dynamics. As someone who can fall back on presenting pretty straight, but has known I’m queer for a long time, I have been in process shedding my internalized homophobia and claiming my sensitivity, nurturing nature, my yin qualities as strengths. So when I sing “I’m a woman in a man’s life,” it holds empowerment for me.“
Josiah Johnson’s ‘Woman in a Man’s Life‘ is taken from the album ‘Every Feeling on a Loop’ which is out on September 4th.
Photo: Sela Shiloni
