Thomas, your gender and age biases are showing. I'm sure there are cute girls, and cute boys, who sing with passionate intensity (real or feigned) about topics that are only of interest to them, and will have an appropriately short shelf life. But that does not mean that all "navel-gazers" should be lumped together with them. Some of the deepest, most meaningful music out there is primarily focused on emotional and/or spiritual topics, rather than "stories". A lot of this is really good stuff, and has relatively universal appeal. Think of all the religious music out there -- Amazing Grace, for example. This is music of the soul more than it is music of the world, but it certainly qualifies as folk music. Hell, even Joanie sings it!

As for the "chick with the guitar phenomenon" (your words, not mine), I always felt that Joan Baez was the quintessence of that. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose, but I never found her as impressive as a lot of people seem to. As far as I can tell she was a 1960s Jewel who couldn't write her own songs, so she had to borrow them from other people (and her versions were almost always inferior to the originals).