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Shania Twain on the divide in the country music world regarding LGBTQ+ pride:
“As a race, as a human race, we’re all being put through so many stresses. I know with my family, we talk about things, we get confused, sometimes we have to talk things through and really try to understand. So I’m not surprised that there’s a lot of divide on many levels. But I think in the end that if you put love first — if you really, really do — and you put inclusion first, you will find the right answer. I have a bleeding heart; I have a hard time understanding hate. We need each other. So it makes me sad that we have all of this conflict [in the country music world, regarding the LGBTQ+ community], but we have to just appeal to our humanity, our love and the goodness in ourselves.”
On the inspiration behind Man! I Feel Like A Woman:
“When I was in my late teens, I was sharing an apartment with friends. They were all going to college, and I would stay home during the day and write songs. But Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we would all go to the gay bars together. All the guys in our group would wear makeup, and they would help me — I didn’t know how to wear make-up. I dressed more like a boy. I didn’t love being female. I didn’t love being undressed by men with their eyes and stuff like that. It just made me uncomfortable, so I down-dressed my body, and I didn’t enjoy my femininity. But the guys would dress me up, and they would put makeup on me, and we would share this experience together. And then I would go to clubs, and I felt safe there. I could shake my body around and feel good about being female, and it was liberating. I wasn’t self-conscious about it. So when I wrote Man! I Feel Like a Woman! I reflected back on how sad it was that it had taken me so long to embrace my curves, and reject the sexism and embrace, for the first time, a confidence in being female. That’s why it was such a statement — not just “I Feel Like a Woman,” but “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and I love it and I’m enjoying it and I’m wearing it well.”
On drag queens getting so much hate:
“I find it sad that there’s so much room and time to criticize each other and to judge each other for our personal decisions and choices. The only place I could feel safe wearing anything form-fitting was in a gay club. How can that be right? So I’m a bit sentimental about how it feels to not be accepted and to be objectified or judged, or not being able to be yourself and who you truly are. Of course you have to be who you truly are. That goes without saying.”
Fabulous messaging, Shania!! via The Messenger
[Image via UMG/Amy Price/imageSPACE /MEGA/WENN.]