Ben Lee takes on inequality with The Rebirth of Venus

By Aiden Landman
Published: April 28th, 2009 | 4:50am

Studying Hinduism for his wedding ceremony to Ione Skye last December led Ben Lee in a new thematic direction. His latest release, The Rebirth of Venus (New West), is a celebration of the feminine and of informed gender roles. “The type of Hinduism I've been studying is a devotion to the divine mother,” Lee says. “It made me think about how a lot of the problems in the world have to do with the shift toward masculine thinking: capitalism, being shut down emotionally, not being nurturing or compassionate. There is really a whole other way to look at the divine. I wanted to make an album that was a tribute to lightness, to not looking at life as this heavy and punishing way of looking at the world, but that this world is a mother that wants to help us grow.”

Known for being a songwriter who can find the humor and absurdity in life's idiosyncrasies, Lee seems at home with these topics. “I Love Pop Music,” one of the record's singles, uses the tenets of protest music while rolling across a bed of programmed drums. The song is a listing of the world's ills accompanied by a sing-along chorus. This persistent optimism is present throughout; transforming what could be bleak condemnation into “politics you can romance to.”

Equally political, “Boy with a Barbie” challenges established gender rules, positing the idea that they are invalid and to be ignored. Barbie, long the archetypal symbol of femininity, elicits a cautionary tale from Lee. While watching a movie with his daughter in which Barbie and her friends go on a long journey, Lee noticed something troubling about the role model: “The Barbies never eat. The messages going to both men and women are quite horrendous. It doesn't give anyone the permission to be three-dimensional.”

With hope of helping others make their lives “three-dimensional,” Lee will donate a portion of Rebirth's proceeds to FINCA, an organization that provides loans to struggling entrepreneurs in developing countries, many of them women. Lee says that he made the choice because people in those countries aren't given the same access to credit that we in the West are used to and he wanted to help change that. “If you give someone a $500 loan or a $1000 loan that can be radically transformative — not only for them but for their families. It’s very in line with the message of the record.”

With a strong leading lady in his life and his Hindu reverence, peaceful left-leaning outlook, and philanthropic efforts, comparisons could be drawn between Lee and another songwriting activist, John Lennon. It’s an analogy bolstered further by Lee's stirring and faithful cover of the John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band classic “Woman is the Nigger of the World,” a song that takes issue with the social acceptance of women as subservient to men.

Lee's rendition of the 1972 original found its way to Yoko Ono through her personal assistant and YouTube. Ono was touched by the tribute and let Lee know by commenting on the video. “It was one of those things that was purely organic and super rewarding to have Yoko recognize it. That was like the coolest day of my life,” Lee confesses.

He’s long been a fan of Ono, he says, and takes issue with the way that she has been portrayed in the media since the dissolution of the Beatles, a grievance addressed on his ode “Yoko Ono.” “The way she was vilified, socially and culturally, there was an inherent misogyny and racism to that,” Lee says. “John achieved everything you would want to achieve but Yoko provided him a sense of artistry, a sense of soul. I think that was threatening to Western culture. Their love for each other and the universe they created between them is what kept it running. It is a very inspiring story.” Spoken like a man newly committed to the world.

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