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Do you remember how it was when you bled?
When you loved and burned in those flames that you've kept
Because Vesta's long been sleeping
And now you've come to accept
That your anatomy defines more than a few
Of the gaping holes in our social fabric and it defines
More than a few one night stands, more than a few prison bars melted in, melted in, melted into wedding bands
We've made you all the peasants and we've made ourselves the kings
Our queens are still subordinate as an angel without wings
We make it easy to belong which means it's easy to be wrong
"Put some plastic in your tits, and you'd look better as a blonde"
I remember when you were hopeful
And you never thought your life would be lived inside a coffin with a moral sacrifice and a million social obligations,
Labels and expectations when you were young and modern seventeen in vogue and vague pursuit of a cosmopolitan dream
So when you bled on the bed as you fed those expectations as a whore and not a human
You embraced with hesitation the very parameters of all you can be
Not a mother, not an aunt, not a sister who's not subdued
Because dignity's not physical and your flesh means more than you
Your flesh means more than you;
Your flesh means more than you;
Your flesh means more than
I know we'll wake up one day with a gun to the back of our brains
You'll be asking for your rib and I'll smile and call you brave
Maybe someday when - when this bloody skull has dried I'll know our city is in ruins when the greatest source of pride is a monument of dicks and ribs and gender crowns we wore
Where underneath, a plaque will read,
A plaque will read: "No woman is a whore"
Maybe someday when - when this bloody skull has dried I'll know our city is in ruins when the greatest source of pride is a monument of dicks and ribs and gender crowns we wore
Where underneath, a plaque will read,
A plaque will read
When you loved and burned in those flames that you've kept
Because Vesta's long been sleeping
And now you've come to accept
That your anatomy defines more than a few
Of the gaping holes in our social fabric and it defines
More than a few one night stands, more than a few prison bars melted in, melted in, melted into wedding bands
We've made you all the peasants and we've made ourselves the kings
Our queens are still subordinate as an angel without wings
We make it easy to belong which means it's easy to be wrong
"Put some plastic in your tits, and you'd look better as a blonde"
I remember when you were hopeful
And you never thought your life would be lived inside a coffin with a moral sacrifice and a million social obligations,
Labels and expectations when you were young and modern seventeen in vogue and vague pursuit of a cosmopolitan dream
So when you bled on the bed as you fed those expectations as a whore and not a human
You embraced with hesitation the very parameters of all you can be
Not a mother, not an aunt, not a sister who's not subdued
Because dignity's not physical and your flesh means more than you
Your flesh means more than you;
Your flesh means more than you;
Your flesh means more than
I know we'll wake up one day with a gun to the back of our brains
You'll be asking for your rib and I'll smile and call you brave
Maybe someday when - when this bloody skull has dried I'll know our city is in ruins when the greatest source of pride is a monument of dicks and ribs and gender crowns we wore
Where underneath, a plaque will read,
A plaque will read: "No woman is a whore"
Maybe someday when - when this bloody skull has dried I'll know our city is in ruins when the greatest source of pride is a monument of dicks and ribs and gender crowns we wore
Where underneath, a plaque will read,
A plaque will read
Lyrics submitted by Inoue versus Date
Track duration: 06:22
"Turn Soonest to the Sea" as written by Moe Carlson Arif Mirabdolbaghi
Lyrics © COINFISH PUBLISHING
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Women aren't oppressed in America anymore. In fact, they have more freedom than men.
As far as women having more freedom than men.... where do you get that idea from? Men still get paid more, the only "female dominated" industries have to do with finance, health, and communications. Who do you think dominates the beauty and fashion industries? MEN. Most rape cases are the result of a male offender attacking another person. If a woman sleeps around the way a man does, she is a whore, not a stud. Anyhow, I don't think PTH is talking about prostitution or porn, they're talking about women having sex because they feel pressured to. Kezia submits to losing her virginity because society tells her that it is the only way she will ever get what she wants. A man is more likely to give a woman something (money, food, shelter) she needs for having sex with him, as opposed to giving it to her because she is a human who is in need
These are the inequalities I think PTH is addressing.
If you can name 3 things women have the freedom to do than men do not, I'll be very surprised.
He isn't talking about stuff like women not being allowed to vote. He's talking about a woman being expected to keep the house tidy and make food, a woman being paid less for the same job (and a gov't that refuses to see a problem with this), a woman being considered worthless because she isn't attractive, or how about the fact that a majority of the country is female but our Congress has less than a 20% representation of females? You'd have to be a man to think that women aren't oppressed in some way in America, but luckily you don't necessarily have to think that women aren't oppressed simply because you are a man.
Also, Protest the Hero is made up of Canadians so the America discussion is a little off base in the first place.
Lose the pretentious preaching.
Secondly, perhaps they are saying all these things in their music because, wait for it, they want these things to change (lyrics with opinions written for a reason, oh noes). =O They have liberal opinions and wish to express them through this medium; if you don't want to listen to it, you are more than welcome to listen to songs about having sex, drinking, doing drugs, etc. all you want in the rest of the genre.
Lastly: "They preach against society's ills to a crowd of straight males holding there (sic) sexy blonde girlfriends in there (sic) arms." I don't even know where to begin with this one. If you don't agree with something you see, you preach against it (see: The Civil Rights Movement). Also, you have a very warped view of Canadian/American society if you think it's just straight males with blonde girlfriends.
"I remember when you were hopeful
And you never thought your life would be lived inside a coffin with a moral sacrifice and a million social obligations"
This is stated by someone who has obviously known Kezia since she was young (>17), before she was tied down by the expectations of society and presumably before she gave up her virginity ("bled on the bed as [she] fed those expectations"). She hesitated to fill the role set before her by society which was a strict boundary of what she couldn't be: "Not a mother, not an aunt, not a sister who's not subdued."
"I know we'll wake up one day with a gun to the back of our brains
You'll be asking for your rib and I'll smile and call you brave"
The above lines are a bit confusing. It may be that the "we" refers to the author of the note and Kezia and that they'll both be martyrs for the cause of egalitarianism. Or it may be that the "we" refers to men as a whole, in which case I feel that the next lines must be interpreted entirely differently, as it would seems that the women would have turned the tables and be instead the oppressors of those that had oppressed them (mankind). Or it may be something completely different (feel free to comment).
"Maybe someday when - when this bloody skull has dried I'll know our city is in ruins when the greatest source of pride is a monument of dicks and ribs and gender crowns we wore"
If it is the first case, and the gun is also to the back of Kezia's head (and the author's), then the bloody skull belongs to either of them and its drying obviously refers to the event occurring (long) after they have died. The city may be in ruins, but the monument to what has been accomplished is still intact. However, I find the other scenario to be more plausible. The "we" refers to "man" and they are in turn oppressed in the same manner as women were once oppressed. The city (world) would then be in ruins when instead of the objectification of women you have a similar idol set to the dicks and ribs (rather than breasts, as now) and other gender symbols of man. The plaque's reading then takes on a new meaning of an oppressive regime rather than a message of hope.
Also, good catch AmpleVoltage. I didn't know that Young and Modern was a magazine, but it certainly makes sense that they would slip in more examples of objectification in society.
Dunno if anyone noticed but in this line, there's references to three pop-culture magazines: "Young and Modern (YM)", "Vogue", and "Cosmopolitan."
Maybe saying that being a whore is the popular thing to do?
Some things I THINK it's saying I totally agree with, in that I hate the way women are used by the industry to sell things with sex and how the media forces an image and behavior on girls.
Other lines make me feel like he's saying women are still massively oppressed and that's BULLSHIT. After all the horrible things the opposite sex has done to me on a personal level, after all the sexist femini-nazi women I have met, after all the double standards I've seen women take advantage of, after all the manipulative crap I've been put through, after all the man-bashing I've had to hear throughout my life when I've been nothing but a gentlemen and looked at Women as equals, the LAST fucking thing I wanna hear is a song about how oppressed women are today and this song is potentially really offensive to me.
Now I'm all for equality among the sexes, but we are different and that's never going to change, so problems are going to arise. I hate chauvinism, I hate porn, I hate Playboy, I hate all that sex garbage, and I realize that stuff can be considered as "oppression", but when you've worked in a clothing store that decides to change over to only carrying girl's clothes and hangs up giant signs that say, "Proud to be Sexist", and "Stop Equality" and no gives a SHIT because it's reverse sexism pointed at men, it's a little hard to feel sympathetic to women (at least in America & Canada).
Other countries... yes... there's horrible things STILL happening.
So I really don't know how I feel about this song. Is he saying with "No Woman is a Whore", that women should be able to go out and go out and have casual sex with random people like some (disgusting) men choose to, and not get called names? While I realize men can get away with it and not get called "whores", I have just as little respect for men that sleep around as I do women that sleep around and I call them names as well.
Or is it more in reference to "whoring" women to sell things?
As for the meaning, I think you guys pretty well have it covered. I think the whole rib thing is referring to how men have power over women in the stories of the bible, i.e. women wouldn't exist if Adam didn't give up his rib so Eve could exist, so women owe men, in a sense. The bible is very sexist, I mean, it places the responsibility for the existence of sin on women (Eve ate the apple). I think that is the main criticism being leveled, because Protest covers comments on both religion itself and societies views on women in this album, which is awesome, if I didn't mention that before.
Anyway, before my stupid comment becomes any more long-winded, Protest rocks, and that's about all you need to know to enjoy this song.