ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the possible causes of the gendered division between singer-songwriters and mere performers often embody conservative and old-fashioned values, and this is especially true as far as gender relationwithin the chanson world and provides an insight into what this reveals about the attitude of a society that turned the trio into a myth of national identity. The question of gender relations has always been a crucial one in studies of Brel, Brassens and Ferr. The three singers were regularly accused of misogyny, and journalists who interviewed them unfailingly broached the topic of their conception of women. The world of French chanson, at least during the post-war period, has been widely dominated by men. Behind the liberalism and revolt that the trio is often seen to represent, the three singers actually s are concerned. It can be argued that chanson and the representative trio Brel-Brassens-Ferr actually contribute to the silent rooting of tacit misogyny in French society.
