Lady GaGa – Scheiße

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  My Interpretation:"I don't speak German but I can if you like."
  
  When she says this, then pretty much speaks jibberish, I interpreted this as her basically showing that a lot of women will put on a front (a mask) and pretend to be something they are not to please others around them (in the context of this song, to please men).
  
  Love is objectified,
  By what men say is right
  Scheiße, Scheiße be mine
  Bullshit be mine
  Blonde high heeled feminist,
  Enlisting femmes for this
  Express your women kind,
  fight for your rights
  
  This is basically the meat of the song, in my opinion. It describes the whole point of it.
  
  "Love is objectified by what men say is right."
  
  Basically saying that men (in a male dominated society) are determining what is right in love. Women must remain truthful, faithful, loyal, and pure, while society says that men can go watch porn, go to strip clubs, some sects of society even condone men cheating or treating their partner poorly.
  
  "Blonde high-heeled feminist, Enlisting femmes for this, express your woman kind, fight for your rights."
  
  Basically saying that she, along with other feminists of sorts, are encouraging other women to stand up and fight for equality in relationships. To not be the only gender held to extreme standards and damned when they fail... while the opposite gender gets away with expressing their sexuality and can even get praised for lying, cheating, sleeping around, etc.
  
  I don't think she's bashing being sexual, but moreso, bashing that the genders can't be equal in regards to sexuality. How women are damned for being sexual in any way, but men are praised for it (overall).
  
  But more importantly, how you don't need the approval of the opposite sex to feel and be a strong human being. You just need to be content with who you are as a person.

  Flag Raphaeliteon May 09, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:I am absolutely clear
  I bear the name Monster
  I wish we all could be blind
  It become easy (easy) out there

  Flag ds4269on March 10, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:First off, the beginning of the song was made more or less out of "gibberish-german" intentionally by Lady Gaga. She had written it after a night of clubbing in Berlin. "Sheiße" means shit, or dammnit it German abd she's using it in the context that her and every other woman should have the freedom to be bad, strong, or whatever it is they want to do, without all the "shit" that comes with it. These are Gaga's words anyways. :)

  Flag brittanyjuneeon January 26, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:This song's German lyrics have been gnawing (schnauzering?) at my heels for awhile now. It's been 15 years since Frau Bald's German class, but...
  'Monstere' in 'madre monstere': Madre is Spanish for 'mother', monstere is German ('Classical', poetic) for monster(s). [Same origin as in English: from Old French from Latin monstrum: divine warning from monere to warn.] The -e on the end of the word is for German case/gender agreement: the Mother of Monsters/Monsters' Mother would be female. [In German, 'monster' is pluralized like 'deer': it ain't!]
  The song's main thrust is a lament on the artificial barriers created by everyone that interfere with real, honest communication. When the Lady (never plain! Gaga) sings 'I don't speak German, But I can if You like', it is a statement on two levels. First is the actual vocabulary and its usage.
  Much of which stumps me. But the Lady is from NYC, which has populations of both German and Yiddish speakers. So some of it may be dialectical German, as well as the 'borrowed' words from French and Spanish. Other words are perhaps just 'approximations', word-mimicks to make the song's lines 'round out' so they scan better / sound better.
  The other meaning: In German, the phrase 'Let us speak German' (Sprechen Wir Deutsch) euphamistically means 'Let us speak plainly.' As in, no egotistical posing and aloof banter. When the Lady says ' [she doesn't] speak German, but [she] can if [we] like' it is a cue for her lamentation on the Scheiße that people erect between one another, especially when their intent, theoretically, is to get to know one another.
  Frau Bald told us that Germans do not 'near miss' cuss as we do, never 'shoot' (Schieße) for '[expletive]' (Scheiße). No. Instead they would down-grade the 'Scheiße' to 'Mist'. Animal manure. But if the stuff of which they describe is very, very offensive... then it might be described ('poetically') as Scheiße. That and (with more exposure to world culture) Germans have perhaps been getting more vulgar since Frau Bald's day.
  In any event, the Lady's not from Germany, she's from NYC. Where people do tend to... spice up most things they say with a bit of vulgarity. Especially when they say something important.
  As for her pronounciation of the title word as 'shy-beh'...
  This may be a 'skirting' of the Censors: a Sharp S (ß) is pronounced as an 'ss' sound, alternately spelled as such. A Censor hearing 'shy-beh' might mistake the lyrics as being an admonition against shyness. Not a lamentation on the prohibitive self-editing we all engage in, in our social dealings with one another.
  On the other hand... I said 'mah-kah-breh' as a child, because I'd only seen 'macabre' in print, not spoken. Maybe the Lady is (gasp) only (delectably) human. And can be forgiven one little fox's paw .. faux pas.
  Contrariwise, she is conversant with Germany. So wouldn't be too likely to mistake a Sharp S for a capital B.
  It may be just her toying with us listeners, seeing if we're paying attention. Or just going through the motons.
  'Mist' would confuse us only-English speakers, who wouldn't have the foggiest that she wasn't talking about...fog. And it's just too cute-sounding a word, too mild, for somthing that gets on her nerves.
  'Shy-beh' could be a 'shorthanded' way of saying 'being shy', but really just foolishly building posers' walls about themselves and their emotions. Instead of just speaking German to one another.

  Flag Lagniappeon January 05, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:Scheiße means sh** in German.
  
  The rest of it is gibberish that GaGa made up that sounds German.
  
  "I don’t speak German but I can if you like.
  ^^GaGa is announcing to start speaking gibberish with this line.
  
  I feel as if GaGa is taking a very strong and feminist approach to this song. I interpret this song as a portrayal of how women are treated unfairly about their sexuality in society, whereas men are praised for it.
  
  As for the fake German part, I don't understand. Maybe she is using it as a metaphor, possibly comparing to how she does not speak the language of modern society.
  
  

  Flag jillmlnon December 27, 2011   Link

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  My Interpretation:I've felt these lyrics are a spell to encourage the matriarchal society to rise from the ashes of the anal-patriarchal system that's already crumbling down.
  
  The use of scheiße indeed refers to anality of the society that men rule – body parts, functions and secretions are seen as "dirty" or "smutty" or even "sinful", and sexual freedom is discouraged. In patriarchal society, there's a father figure (Male God, "Our Father") or war god you need to ask for permissions and be careful not to do anything he'd dislike – thus "If you're a strong female, you don't need permission", "do whatever you like" – when the matriarchal, loving, caring and soft society (strong female) rises, you don't need anyones permission to do what makes you happy if you care about others too and let them be happy in their own ways. "I wish I could be strong without somebody there" - I wish I could take care of myself without having to give all of my own responsibility to a restricting big man who protects you from the likes of him but tells you how you must live to earn his protection.

  Flag arethemsiaon August 07, 2011   Link

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    Oh yeah, I forgot, also the part "love is objectified by what men say is right" fits the whole thing.
    
    "Blonde high heeled feminist, enlisting femmes for this, express your women kind, fight for your rights" could refer to some feminists seemingly fighting for female rights, but the result of their actions would the same as the actions of fundamental christians or muslims who want to supress womanity. It's not wrong to enjoy your femininity and sexuality, it doesn't make women empty sexual objects if they *want* to look pretty and feel sexy and enjoy their bodies, it *frees* womanhood from the chains of chastity.

    Flag arethemsiaon August 07, 2011  
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  My Interpretation:Personally I think it's about how people try too hard to impress others and in extreme cases they even pretend to be someone they're not.
  
  By saying "I can't speak German but I can if you like" and then going on to make up "German" words, she's showing the extremes that people will go to and it's obviously had the desired effect as some people have pointed out that she is using a French accent and that her words are wrong which is what I think she was trying to achieve. She wanted you to notice, because when people try to be someone they're not, others notice and it can end up in embarrassment.
  
  Also, she says "I wish I could be strong without the Scheiße yeah", (Scheiße meaning shit), so she's saying that she wishes she could strong with out the shit, without having to lie to people and pretend that she is a strong person. She's wishing that she could just be strong on her own.
  
  I think the meaning of this song is confirmed in the lines "I’ll take you out tonight, say whatever you like/Put on a show tonight, do whatever you like" as once again she is taking on the persona of someone wanting to impress another by "doing whatever they like". By then going on to sing about female empowerment, I believe she is taking on another persona to say to the women who try to be someone they're not that they shouldn't and that they can be strong without the "Scheiße".
  
  This is just a personal opinion though, I don't know if anyone else has already said pretty much exactly what I have but never mind :-)

  Flag caitlinmulgrew1on July 26, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I think the Scheisse she's talking about is the way that women are constantly analyzed and judged in the music and entertainment industry.
  
  In Ani DiFranco's Little Plastic Castle, she makes a similar observation, "People talk about my image/like I come in two dimensions/like lipstick is a sign of my declining mind/like what I happen to be wearing/the day that someone takes a picture/is my new statement for all of womankind ... quick, someone call the girl police/and file a report!"
  
  Women are constantly judged and assessed and their every angle psychoanalyzed, Gaga in particular. She just wants to have fun without having to always be selling a message. She wants to be free to be a woman without being interrogated and attacked for her sex.

  Flag AntebellumInnocenceon June 22, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:The first verse in this song seems like she is catering to what a man wants but that is in fact the whole problem she has with society.
  She wants to be with someone and sexually (or otherwise) give into them and not have it mean she is weak and conforming to a feminism that doesn't work for everyone.
  
  She says "shit, be mine" because she wants to own it and put her own image of a strong woman onto society's crappy, restrictive version.
  
  There's my two cents.

  Flag tanteion June 19, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:The German gibberish part is her playing around with sounds that sound like German. "madre monstère" for example.

  Flag metalspikes82on June 14, 2011   Link

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