leonardcohenforum.com

Hi,

Which songs do you feel are most strongly representative of male sensibility and experience?

I'd say "Don't go home with your hard-on" but that would be too easy.

I don't think male sensibility & experience is a unitary thing... all of Leonard Cohen's work represents his own sensibility and experience at some level (he's a poet, not a reporter) so all of it reflects facets of one male's sensibility & experience.

But if you want specifics (and yes I feel silly answering this post as a woman) how about:

I stumbled out of bed
I got ready for the struggle
I smoked a cigarette
And I tightened up my gut

Or how about

"You handled me like meat.
Only a man knows how good it feels."

My first lover's favorite song of Leonard's was Tonight Will Be Fine, which has since seemed like a manly sentiment to me. I fear saying too much will perpetuate the myth that sex always has an emotional element for women, a myth I promise! Nevertheless, it's as a woman that I respond to the song- I suspect that nothing's ever quite what's meant by 'fine' for me.

And how about

The beast won't go to sleep.

Steven,

Why is it the only responses you have received are from women

Because we men are too sensible and experienced to answer questions such as this ...

Hartmut wrote:Because we men are too sensible and experienced to answer questions such as this ...

That answer works for me!

MaryB wrote:Steven,

Why is it the only responses you have received are from women

Hi MaryB,

Way too small a number of responders to conjecture as to why there's a 100% female response base.
Generally, though, men are more reluctant than women to speak much about the kind of stuff that
may be connected to the subject of the thread (and some Leonard Cohen songs).

I had a hard time getting my head around what male sensibility is. Gender surely is a social construct that changes over place and time? What it means to be a man is always in flux. These qualities we call gender seem distributed across both sexes. I love it when people are not tyrannised by these constructs and I hate it when we are divided by these rigid ideas of what men and women should be. Emotion, horniness, longing, loneliness, vulnerability, tenderness, anger, detachment... they are all there in the songs in some measure ~ How should we assign a gender sensibility to them?

Hi Jonnie,

Yes, gender (as a social construct) changes (or can change) over time. More resistant to change are some
gender based distinctions caused by biology (hormones, etc.). I like that you identified some of the
qualities found in the songs. "Rigid ideas" that are imposed on people sometimes result in disconnects
that limit happiness, creativity, etc.

Hi Steven,

I'm still left wondering which gender based distinctions caused by biology would constitute a male sensibility? (I mean I understand there are some biological sex based distinctions.. genitalia, reproductive capacity, facial hair, fat distribution etc.)

I've read somewhere that males are genetically more inclined to, er, cross pollination. Historically, it's certainly been less costly.

I read the article a while back so scientific theories may have shifted.

I'm Your Man would seem an obvious choice.....if it weren't for the fact that Anna Calvi, a woman, has since recorded a song called I'll Be Your Man.

Dress Rehearsal Rag seems to have a masculine bent. Shaving, santa claus, suicide etc.

I'm Your Man doesn't really illustrate what most are hinting male sensibility is since it's about weakness and vulnerability. The male is not the one holding the cards in this little power play.

Hi Jonnie,

I was thinking of testosterone, especially. It's usually found in higher amounts in men and is linked to
traditional frames of male sensibility that include expressions of aggressiveness, dominance, and competitiveness.
Was also thinking of some research that points to gender-based brain diffferences that could account, in part, for what is reported to be some greater verbal ability in adult women over men. My personal guess is that culture has a larger role
than brain differences in any variance in verbal ability between the sexes. I'm no expert on any of this.