About this episode

The episode discusses Bob Dylan's music through the lens of gender expectations and the treatment of female artists in the industry.

In this episode of the Bob Dylan Hotline, we give our opinion on Bob Dylan ~as women~. Is that different from other episodes, you might ask? Not really, but this time we're talking about talking about Bob Dylan as women. The conversation took us in many different directions because we had a lot to say. A few notes: 00:18 - A note on the almost impossible popularity of Dolly Parton. The phenomenon of a woman becoming very popular very quickly until the public turns on her and starts tearing her down has now been dubbed as “getting womaned”, since it rarely happens to men to this extent. 00:22 - There are luckily a few examples for “kookie” women, from Björk to Kate Bush to Erykah Badu to name just a few, but I think Rebecca’s point was more regarding how willing the public is to accept that kookiness as part of Bob Dylan's character, while female artists are more likely to be reduced to their kookiness. 00:35 - I’m really interested in how some of Dylan’s early songs challenge the conventional gender dynamic. “It Ain’t Me Babe” is a rejection of romantic stereotypes, but songs like “Hero Blues” and “John Brown” are about women encouraging a harmful masculinity rooted in violence…

People in this episode

Host: Laura Tenschert

Topics covered

• gender expectations
• Bob Dylan
• female artists
• popularity of women
• kookiness
• masculinity
• music commentary

Keywords

• Bob Dylan
• Dolly Parton
• gender dynamics
• female artists
• kookiness
• masculinity
• music commentary

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: It Ain't Me Babe, Hero Blues, John Brown, To Be Alone With You

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• Bob Dylan's Fashion (Bob Dylan Hotline #12) · August 24, 2026 · 1h 16m
• Our Favourite Bob Dylan Vocals (some of them) (Bob Dylan Hotline #11) · August 10, 2026 · 35 min
• The State of Dylanology (Bob Dylan Hotline #10) · July 27, 2026 · 1h 3m

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