There’s a Land That I See...

Free To Be You And Me (Link to YouTube video because for some reason it didn’t come up when I tried to add it as a video)

So talking about “Herland” got me thinking about this album of songs and stories that my parents used to play for me when I was a kid. Basically the entire album is about the deconstruction of damaging social norms, especially those relating to gender. There’s a story about a boy who wants a doll, a story about a princess who wins a race for her right to not marry a prince, a song about how it’s alright to cry, etc. I loved this album as a kid, and as an adult it’s both super nostalgic for me in terms of the music and super important to me in terms of the fact that we need more of these narratives. In terms of relating this all back to the class more strongly, I think that “Herland” actually sets forth one of the few visions of utopia that has a chance of being realized. A lot of the other systems we’ve looked at seek to eliminate all of our problems as a species, and end up being infeasible at best. But I agree with the song; I think there really is “a land that I see, where the children are free” and that it “ain’t far, ain’t that far from where we are.”