to me it seems like his view of women was somehow a little off. I remember him saying in an interview something to the effect of, "I work with a lot of women because I don't get mad at them like I get mad at men." That's a little strange. How different must he have viewed men and women? And it sounds to me like he was being honest. I don't think he hires a bunch of women to work with behind the scenes because he wants to sleep with all of them or because he wants to look cool.

ETHERSPIN said:

fusk said:

Prince and Lisa dated circa 1980. Some of you may not be aware of that.

Yup...Even wrote a couple of songs about her.

My guess is that Prince was a complex guy, full of complicated mixed if not ambivalent emotions.

My guess is that he was somewhat Aspergers/Narcissistic (a bit of an autistic genius type) and that he had very thin boundaries that, like Jung would put, allowed him greater access to his anima (female part of his mind) and that probably also influenced his sexuality - again, bisexuals are also hornier period. It goes with being intenself sensitive. He was like an American Indian "Two Spirit" with special access to the spirit world (he arguably had psychic ability) as well as access to the female brain (see his interview with Oprah and how he describes having an almost second female personality within him self).

So, to me, like all gender inbetweeners and/or bisexuals, life is pretty difficult. Whether you are male or female you cop A LOT of flack -you really do. It is very hard to be in between -even though it is also the precise place where the greatest creativity or potential for it certainly exists -if you can sustain "the conflict between polar opposites" (see Jung's ideas) ...if you can manage it you attain a kind a genius -a new creation, it's a God space -but if you can't handle it, you become swamped, and fall into a sort of confusion or otherwise are just off the mark -as in, these sorts of people tend to be addicts or control freaks, if or when they can't handle all the "flow".

Anyhow, I have known a person like this and I consider my self to be somewhat like this my self -I have found a "male person" within my self -although I do not consider my self transexual or even necessarily gay -I would say, somewhat bisexual.

As for attitudes towards the opposite gender... very good question. would depend on how he could resolve any sense of inner conflict.

My guess is that he was a complicated mixture of self interest and empathy towards women and feminity.

Also, that he was simultaneously giving freedom to his own feminine side by including female musicians more. ..

RiotPaisley said:

fusk said:

to me it seems like his view of women was somehow a little off. I remember him saying in an interview something to the effect of, "I work with a lot of women because I don't get mad at them like I get mad at men." That's a little strange. How different must he have viewed men and women? And it sounds to me like he was being honest. I don't think he hires a bunch of women to work with behind the scenes because he wants to sleep with all of them or because he wants to look cool.

What is strange to say or off about that? He just related to men and women differently. I think that's pretty normal. Women probably worked harder because we always have to prove ourselves, especially in the recording / music industry.

I'd say it's normal up to a point. In business dealings it really shouldn't matter if you're talking to a man or a woman, but he makes it sound like he argues with the male employees/managers/contractors and gets soft with the women. That kind of thing is totally normal, but I think usually people try to put that alpha-dog nonsense aside when it comes to business.

I could be wrong, though. Maybe business dudes only put up with other business dudes because they don't have the option to hire a bunch of women.

Anyway, my point isn't very clear. It's just a feeling I got. If Prince really didn't like dealing with men, that sounds like some kind of unhealthy ego problem to me. And if women don't trigger the anger response in him, what does that mean? That they're not a threat to his ego? Or maybe he just wants to please them? I don't know. I definitely have written far too much about stuff I have no clue about.

fusk said:

bigbrother said:

I do think he brought out the best in each musician he worked with.

On a side note, after listening to a lot of my Prince collection these past few weeks, I've noticed most of my favorite songs have a strong female presence, especially in the vocals.

[Edited 5/15/16 6:44am]

captiveunicorn said:

Was there ever a man in the industry who did more to promote female artists and mentor emerging female artists? Not in my opinion. In fact, I think this is part of his legacy and a great example that I hope some other notables will follow in years to come. Even if he did sleep with all of them - which I highly doubt - have any of them ever complained about unwanted advances or attention? No. Over 30 years of mentoring protégés and no one had a bad word to say about him, ever. If he was some kind of lecherous pervert I think someone would have blown the lid on him being a sleaze by now. It's basically completely bizarre to me that anyone would suggest he mentored women or offered to help them just to get some. Basically Prince was a feminist. He respected women and said he liked female energy. Yes he also loved beautiful women. But when it came to music, dance or art he wanted to help talented people. He valued his time too highly to waste it promoting talentless bimbos. He used his star power and experience to help talented women he liked get a leg up in the industry. Shame there's not more men like him.

My personal opinion would be that it was more complicated than this...

For one thing, I am reading a biography on Prince - "Thieves In the Temple"- and in it the author describes how Prince sacked all/or most of the males in his band just before forming The Revolution and hiring Wendy and Lisa. And the author believes that the males in his group were a threat to him, whilst females were felt as not being a threat.

I think that he was a highly complicated person -a mixture of emotions. This is an opinion that I have read about him else where.

Also, whilst he may have been mostly great to women in the music industry, he does not seem to have had the smoothest of images in his personal life -by which I mean that more than one of the women who went out with him supposedly dumped him for being "too controlling" including of their careers.

So, yes he included women, but he may still have had some issues.

I don't say this to be mean: no one is perfect.

I still consider him to be a truly interesting and one of a kind wonderful sort of person.

My impression however is of an individual who had a lot of flaws as well as remarkable gifts.

And I don't believe there is anything wrong with that.

EloiseEloise said:

EloiseEloise said:

And the author believes that the males in his group were a threat to him, whilst females were felt as not being a threat.

Im not sure its a gender thing as much as an ego or conflict of personality thing. He's obviously worked with many men for loong periods of time (morris i think was the longest)