She did what a great artist does: vigorously, aggressively protected her ability to make something vulnerable and tender. Men often have a woman in their lives who does this work for them; the wife who takes the calls, etc., so the man can be the shit in the shuttered chateau. Joni Mitchell was an asshole on behalf of her own vulnerability. Women like Joni Mitchell are the essence of difficult: both the asshole-ness and the vulnerability disrupt the order of things.
