What does it mean to be a woman? And what does it mean to be woman to a man?
Usually, when your boyfriend says a classic love song reminds him of you, it’s a cause for immediate celebration. Not for me. Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman” was the song that my boyfriend said evoked my image for him and instead of celebration, the nature of the lyrics gave me cause for alarm.
In the song, Joel lists the complicated character traits of a woman he admires, citing characteristics that are hard to distinguish as either positive or negative: she “takes care of herself,” “steals like a thief,” and “can take you or leave you.” As he continuously lists the questionable character traits of his lover, Joel asserts at the end of each verse that, despite what the listener may think about her, the woman he is singing about “is always a woman [to him]”.
This begs the question: what does it mean to be a woman? And what does it mean to be woman to a man?
After I was compared to the woman in the song, I listened to it on repeat until I found the link that connected all of her character traits, whether positive or negative. What I found was that every characteristic listed in the song, in some way, reflected the woman’s independence and autonomy.
