Author Leta Hong Fincher on the album that taught her important life lessons, without her even realising
- The writer explains the impact that children’s album Free to Be ... You and Me, which was influential in promoting gender equality and women’s rights, had on her growing up
Children’s album Free to Be … You and Me (1972), plus a subsequent book and television special, used kids’ songs and stories to promote gender neutrality and combat stereotyping, focusing in particular on girls’ potential. Conceived and produced by actor and author Marlo Thomas after she was unable to find gender-neutral books for her niece, and starring performers such as Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Harry Belafonte, Mel Brooks and Alan Alda, the record unexpectedly went platinum.
Leta Hong Fincher, author of books including this year’s Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China and 2014’s Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China , explains how it changed her life.
My Chinese immigrant mother bought this album for me and my brother when we were very little, living in the United States. She grew up in Vietnam and went to college in Taiwan, then she came to the US to do her PhD, where she met my father. I don’t have many childhood memories, but I do remember going out with my mother and buying it.
I thought I wouldn’t possibly be able to name just one influence on me, but then I realised that I listened to this album just constantly during preschool.
Free to Be … You and Me was a big part of my childhood and a part of the women’s rights movement, at a time when it was pretty strong in the US. I got to know a lot about the movement from my mother. I was strongly influenced by my mother, who was very progressive and unusual, a pioneer for her time.
