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. I must preface thisstudy with three vital caveats. First, it would cer- tainlybe foolhardyto implythat any singer would neverchoose to learn a song whose lyricsdid not appeal to him or her. Certainlymany other factorsplay into thatdecision, such as a pleasing melodyor the social contextwith which the song is associated.3Second, this discussion is based primarilyon the numberof timesthat a ballad was recorded and the mostcommon version of each ballad.4Although this essay does look at specificversions of songs thatthe School of ScottishStudies has tran- scribed,many recordings remain untranscribed,and it is possible that certainrecordings may contain variationsthat change the meaning of the song. Finally,it must be noted that the traditionalsongs that are most oftenrecorded fromany particulargroup of people are not nec- essarilythe mostpopular among thatgroup or even the favoritesof indi- vidual singers.Fieldworkers may request certain songs more thanothers, or singersmight sing songs theythink the fieldworkerwants to hear. WesternFolklore 61:3 8c4 (Fall 2002): 295-317. Copyright 2003 California Folklore Society 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 296 LYNN WOLLSTADT Nevertheless,the decision to learn and remembera song does require that a singerfind the song appealing or meaningfulin some way; the factthat a song has been learned by a particularsinger means thatthat singer found the song worthlearning. Thus, it is significantthat the songs that appear most oftenin the repertoiresof women-the songs thatsignificant numbers of women foundworth learning-show similar patternsin theirportrayal of gender roles. These patternsare especially noteworthybecause theyare at odds withpatterns in the largercorpus of traditionalballads in Scotland. This essay looks specificallyat the way the ballads popular among twentieth-centurywomen singersconstruct both male and female gen- der roles. What sort of women people these ballads, and what typeof men? Though on the surfacethese ballad narrativesseem to describe womenwho are eitherpathetic victims or heartlesshussies, many can be seen as addressingissues of femalepower. These narrativesnot onlydeal witha woman's lack of controlover her own life,but theydemonstrate by example waysof circumventingthat lack. At the same time,issues of controlalso appear centralto the ideals of masculinityoffered by many of these ballads. Interestingly,the men whom the ballads portrayas "attractive"-sympatheticsupporting characters as well as the male "love interests"-are those who lack power.While Scottishballads generally takefor granted a societyin whichwomen function under male control, the most attractive,sympathetic male charactersin the ballads popular among women are themselvesgenerally vulnerable, or even victimized. The plightsof the femalecharacters in the ballads Scottishwomen sang showthat these songs recognize a culturalsystem of male hegemony,but the factthat the mostpositively represented male charactersare also vul- nerable showsthat these ballads do not celebratethat system. This appreciationof male vulnerability,however, is not typicalof the Scottishballad traditionas a whole. The ballads thatmost often appear in women's repertoiresare much more criticalof men who wield power thanare mostScottish ballads. EmilyLyle's collection of Scottishballads, for example, contains forty-sevenballads that include some sort of romanticmale figure.Almost three-quarters of these (thirty-five)show attractive,romantically desirable male characterswho are in clear posi- tionsof power,often simply because of theirsocial position.Of course, close analysisof any of these narrativesmay reveal subtletiesthat make such broad generalizationsdangerous, but the largerpattern here is sig- nificant.Most of the time,male loversin these ballads are specifically 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 Controlling Women 297 identifiedas "gentlemen":lords, knights, earls, or perhaps squires,with the occasional elfinknight thrown in the mix. Of the twelveballads that do not identifytheir male protagonistsas noble, halfomit any mention of the man's social class.Only six of theseforty-seven ballads depictmale protagonistswho are clearlynot of high social standing:"The Keach i the Creel" (Child 281), 'johny Faa, the GypsyLaddie" (Child 200: "The GypsyLaddie"), and "Bob Norris" (Child 83: "Child Maurice"), "The Shepherd's Son" (Child 112: "The BaffledKnight"), "The Dowie Dens o Yarrow"(Child 214: "The Braes o Yarrow"),and "Bog o' Gight"(Child 209: "Geordie"). Even more pertinently,those "gentlemen"lovers who pervade the ballad traditionare "doers":these men act,and women mustdeal with theiractions. As a tool for consideringhow successfullythe women in these ballads farein thattask, I have found usefulPolly Stewart's essay, "WishfulWilful Wily Women: Lessons for Female Success in the Child Ballads" (Stewart1993). Stewart'sessay categorizes orally derived Child ballads that contain female charactersthat are in agonisticsituations withmen. She evaluatesthe successof the culturaland personalgoals of the women in these narratives,defining "cultural success" as meeting male expectationsand "personalsuccess" as avertingharm or reaching a personal goal. Each ballad thatStewart evaluates can thushave one of fourpossible outcomes:personal and culturalsuccess, personal success but culturalfailure, personal failurebut culturalsuccess, or personal and culturalfailure. Although this system of categorizationcan be clum- sy,and Stewart'sassessments are at timesdebatable, it is a usefulplace to begin a discussionof whathappens to the women in ballads. The ballad "BurdEllen" (Child 63: "ChildWaters"), for example, is a variationon a common plot in Lyle's collection,and Stewartlabels it as one of both personal and culturalsuccess. Lord John leaves the narra- tive'spregnant heroine. She dressesas a page and followshis horse on foot,telling her about-to-be-bornbaby, "Your father rides on highhorse- back, / Cares littlefor us twae."Even afterthe lord acknowledgesher and takesher home, he insiststhere is no hope fora marriageand tells her thathis dogs and horseswill fare better than she: "O mydogs sal eat the good whitebread, / An ye sal eat the bran ... O myhorse sal eat the good whitemeal, / An ye sal eat the corn." Her perseveranceis finally rewardedwhen his motherintervenes on her behalfand he marriesher. According to Stewart'sclassification system, she has achieved cultural successbecause she becomes safelymarried and avoidsthe social disgrace 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 298 LYNN WOLLSTADT of a bastardchild, and she has achieved personalsuccess because thisis clearlyher own goal as well. While the heroine in thisballad demon- stratestremendous tenacity and manipulatesher situationso that she getswhat she needs, she is clearlyworking against her lover,and against the patriarchalsystem he represents. We see a similarsituation in another ballad not collected by the School of ScottishStudies, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (Child 73). Fair Annetis also facedwith a romanticpartner who chooses to marrya wealthierwoman, and again the ballad does not condemn the lord for thisdecision. Lord Thomas remainsa desirable figure;it is the homely "nut-brownebride" who is the ballad's villain and stabs the beautiful Annetwhen she appears at the wedding.Though thisballad ends tragi-