There's no big betrayal. Disarmingly charming, DiFranco has made it through the business intact by constantly exercising that quiet self-determination. When I started, people were very defensive, assuming I was a militant, man-hating separatist. It seemed that a woman singing about her own experience was the scariest thing on the planet. Now the music industry has realised that not only do women make music, they buy music.
Women are quite a force in the market, and there's a whole commodification of chick singers.
So many young women performers out there making a noise don't embrace the term feminist. It seems they don't give a shit about how much women had to work before them so they could be there doing what they want to do. It drives me crazy. For now, DiFranco takes solace in the fact that feminism has penetrated at a grassroots level. DiFranco is also adept at making connections with other female artists.