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Good, if possibly depressing, article on what happens to partners when their other half has a famous career, covering sexism, being left at home and as a coda at the end, the Yoko factor, containing this quote. I've always had a soft spot for Yoko (despite loathing "Imagine" with all my shrivelled black heart)…
"Yoko was, and is, interesting in her own right. She's a remarkable artist and a unique thinker. All of the things you think of John Lennon doing in the late-60s and early-70s were inspired entirely and directly by Yoko: the avant-garde art, the politics, the whole peace and love thing. She is responsible for the Lennon we remember and love today, and yet she is at best ignored and at worst vilified… For what, exactly? Being loved by him?"
I have long felt that if Yoko hadn’t met Lennon, she would have ended up with the Patti Smith/Mapplethorpe New York artsy crowd, and would be much better thought of now.
Yeah. She’s produced a lifetime of art and leant her voice and time to a staggering amount of good causes (however much one might argue that it’s easier to do all that when you’ve get a share of the a dead Beatle’s cash, it’s not like she *had* to do it) and yet the think she’s most thought of as is a dead man’s wife, and worse, she’s *badly* thought of as a dead man’s wife.
I’m trying to think of a male equivalent, and failing, which is telling on so many levels…