By Chloe Angyal • @chloeangyal • 12 years ago

Monday morning jams: “In Praise of the Vulnerable Man”

This weekend, Miriam, Vanessa and I went to Penn State as part of the Feministing Offline and Unfiltered college campus tour. We met some awesome young feminists, spoke about blogging, young feminists and the future of the feminist movement, and were able to talk to PSU students about the Sandusky scandal and the reaction on campus.

And, on the drive back, we were able to listen to sweet nineties tunes for five hours straight, because Miriam stopped buying CDs in about 2002, and, well, because nineties tunes are totally awesome. I discovered that both Miriam and Vanessa know every single word to “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boyz II Men. I do not. This left me feeling rather left out (don’t worry, I went home and studied up so I can be prepared for the next singalong).

One of those sweet nineties tunes was courtesy of the great Alanis Morissette, and when I got back to New York I went on something of an Alanis kick. One of my favourite Alanis songs – after the angry post-breakup ones, of course – is “In Praise of the Vulnerable Man.” Something about a woman explicitly commending a man for expressing emotions other than anger and team pride, and promising not to take advantage of his vulnerabilities, gives me hope for the future of feminism.

So on this sleepy Monday morning, here’s a bit of Alanis to get you warmed up and feeling good about the future of the fight against sexism. Lyrics below the jump.

You are the bravest man I’ve ever met
You unreluctant at treacherous ledge

You are the sexiest man I’ve ever been with
You, never hotter than with armor spent

When you do what you do to provide
How you land in the soft as you fortify

This is in praise of the vulnerable man
Why won’t you lead the rest of your cavalry home

You, with your eyes mix strength with abandon
You with your new kind of heroism

And I bow and I bow down to you
To the grace that it takes to melt on through

This is in praise of the vulnerable man
Why won’t you lead the rest of your cavalry home
This is a thank you for letting me in
Indeed in praise of the vulnerable man

You are the greatest man I’ve ever met
You the stealth setter of new precedents

And I vow and I vow to be true
And I vow and I vow to not take advantage

This is in praise of the vulnerable man
Why won’t you lead the rest of your cavalry home
This is a thank you for letting me in
Indeed in praise of the vulnerable man

New York, NY

Chloe Angyal is a journalist and scholar of popular culture from Sydney, Australia. She joined the Feministing team in 2009. Her writing about politics and popular culture has been published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, New York magazine, Reuters, The LA Times and many other outlets in the US, Australia, UK, and France. She makes regular appearances on radio and television in the US and Australia. She has an AB in Sociology from Princeton University and a PhD in Arts and Media from the University of New South Wales. Her academic work focuses on Hollywood romantic comedies; her doctoral thesis was about how the genre depicts gender, sex, and power, and grew out of a series she wrote for Feministing, the Feministing Rom Com Review. Chloe is a Senior Facilitator at The OpEd Project and a Senior Advisor to The Harry Potter Alliance. You can read more of her writing at chloesangyal.com

Chloe Angyal is a journalist and scholar of popular culture from Sydney, Australia.

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