S2 E10: A Conversation About Sexism With Paula Cole

This week on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast we have Grammy Award winning musician, singer, songwriter and producer Paula Cole. You may know Paula from some of her greatest hits such as “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone” and “I Don’t Want To Wait.” And Paula has a new album out May 21st called American Quilt that you can preorder now.

One of the most important principles of humanistic psychology is the fundamental value of human beings and the hope that they will self-actualize, meaning that they find their authentic purpose and achieve it. And one of the most important things that we try to do as humanistic therapists is to remove the barriers that interfere with someone finding their authentic self. And unfortunately, a very powerful force that interferes with people pursuing their purpose in life is stereotyping. There is substantial research that stereotype threat – or the activation of harmful biases – can hamper performance on tasks such as academic tests. Further, evidence suggests that sexism in the form of gender discrimination can adversely impact mental health.

Over the course of her career and life, Cole has consistently written and spoken out about the harmful effects of sexism in our society. And in our conversation, Cole talks in particular about how sexism has interfered with her ability to find her authentic voice both personally and professionally. She shares a story that unfortunately is common for many female artists, in which she was encouraged to “tone down” her passionate and energetic stage performances. This criticism is consistent with sexist stereotypes that suggest women should be more docile and controlled in order to be accepted and appreciated. This type of stereotype has the potential to be not only horribly damaging to people who are trying to express themselves and find their place in the world, but also some of our best artists are the ones who specifically refused to abide by these absurd and arbitrary societal biases.

Cole explained how she understands and confronts this bias. And one of the things that was really interesting to hear about was what Paula refers to as her “jazz self.” And that is something that is a deep and enduring yearning to be improvisational. It is a drive to explore new forms of expression and ways of looking at the world. It’s the exact opposite of the limits that stereotypes and bias have put on her. Cole’s embrace of jazz as an open-minded and expressive art form gives us a really in-depth sense of how jazz as a style and culture influenced her worldview and music. And whatever music or musical culture we enjoy, there is almost always a strong part of it that comes from open-minded, exploratory and divergent thinking. And if we can take a cue from our favorite artists like Cole and think about how we can be open-minded and creative in our own life, we can challenge the biases that others have for us as we shatter barriers and pursue our purpose in life.

Photo credit: Ebru Yildiz