quote:

The lip synch, the artful pose, the mystical illusion, the twirl that seems to floats on air - this is what it means to be Stevie Nicks. And likewise it is the unfathomable, the elusive, the shifting moods and cycles, the feminine mystique, that many see as the essence of what it means to be a woman. But these may seem like the worst stereotypes imaginable of what womanhood means. Don't feminists want women to be strong and certain, rather than galloping around on unicorns and spouting fuzzy-headed mythopoetic verse? Can real power be derived from these femmy qualities, or does a woman have to butch herself up in order to get somewhere in this world?

Far from being an abstract question, these kinds of debates are acted out in the musical realm all the time. On one side you have the Natalie Merchant-Sarah McLachlan axis, and on the other you've got your Suzi Quatros and Joan Jetts. Occupying somewhat of a middle ground, Stevie Nicks definitely rocks more than Sarah McLachlan or (god help us) Jewel, but she is certainly no butched-up Suzi Quatro or Joan Jett either.

Women in a post-feminist world must constantly straddle this line. Be strong and in control, yet at the right moments, pull out the femininity all-stops. Bring home the bacon one moment, and the next become softly yielding and sexually inviting. Female musicians are not at all exempt from this. Artists as diverse as PJ Harvey, Courtney Love, and Tori Amos have taken the Nicks template to the next level, combining unabashed femininity with a willingness to kick your ass into next week. This uneasy relationship between femininity and feminism, as they're both understood, is very much at the wild heart of Stevie Nicks and her fan base, and even more so at an event like NOTS that takes femininity to the extremes of self-parody.