Controlling Women: "Reading Gender in the Ballads Scottish Women Sang" Author(s): Lynn Wollstadt Source: Western Folklore, Vol. 61, No. 3/4 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 295-317 Published by: Western States Folklore Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1500424 . Accessed: 09/04/2013 10:20 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Western States Folklore Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Western Folklore. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 143.107.8.10 on Tue, 9 Apr 2013 10:20:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ControllingWomen ReadingGender in theBallads ScottishWomen Sang LYNN WOLLSTADT The Scottishballad traditionhas alwaysbeen a traditionof both sexes; since ballads startedto be collected in the eighteenthcentury, at least, both men and women have learned and passed on these traditional songs.1According to the recordingsmade of traditionalsingers by the School of ScottishStudies at the Universityof Edinburgh,however, men and women do not necessarilysing the same songs.The ten songsin the School's sound archives most often recorded from female singers between 1951 and 1997, for example, have only two titlesin common withthe ten songs mostoften recorded frommen.2 Analysis of the spe- cificballad narrativesthat were most popular among female singersin twentieth-centuryScotland suggestscertain buried themes that may underlie that popularity;these particularthemes may have appealed more than othersto manywomen singers.