This is a powerful song, and I highly recommend you see the video. I've seen it numerous times on VH1 Classics.
This song is about how society is changing men for the worse. Joe Jackson was observing that even back in 1982 society was destroying traditional notions about what it means to be a "real man", and I appreciate his anger at the situation. If you've seen the video you'd understand. Although he mentions gays in the song it is by no means about gays (male or female) at all - sorry.
Rather, the protagonist in the video is a chivalrous idealist who grows up watching old movies of Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and James Dean. The first scene shows him as a child as he rescues a girl from a pack of bullies. Later he is shown as a teenager with a girlfriend (maybe the same girl from the first scene), however she is cold and distant from him because society no longer sees him as a "real man". As they drive along he passes by two gay men and is bewildrered and struggles with these changes. In the end she ends up going to a bar and hooks up with the same bullies that abused her as a child because they are "real men". Brokenhearted and angry he ends up driving his car off a cliff a-la James Dean who also died in a car crash. Thus symbolizing the death of the traditional notion that a "real man" is chivalrous.
Twenty five years later we have to ask ourselves - what is a "real man"?
re: "This song is about how society is changing men for the worse."
I think you've got it dead wrong.
Jackson questions whether Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and James Dean are valid role models for men in the video.
Without the video, the song on its own, the tone of voice with which he sings can best be described as "bitter"; and questions whether being the kind of "real man" people think of when people think of real men is actually an authentic (real) man at all.
re: "This song is about how society is changing men for the worse."
I think you've got it dead wrong.
Jackson questions whether Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and James Dean are valid role models for men in the video.
Without the video, the song on its own, the tone of voice with which he sings can best be described as "bitter"; and questions whether being the kind of "real man" people think of when people think of real men is actually an authentic (real) man at all.
This is a powerful song, and I highly recommend you see the video. I've seen it numerous times on VH1 Classics.
This song is about how society is changing men for the worse. Joe Jackson was observing that even back in 1982 society was destroying traditional notions about what it means to be a "real man", and I appreciate his anger at the situation. If you've seen the video you'd understand. Although he mentions gays in the song it is by no means about gays (male or female) at all - sorry.
Rather, the protagonist in the video is a chivalrous idealist who grows up watching old movies of Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and James Dean. The first scene shows him as a child as he rescues a girl from a pack of bullies. Later he is shown as a teenager with a girlfriend (maybe the same girl from the first scene), however she is cold and distant from him because society no longer sees him as a "real man". As they drive along he passes by two gay men and is bewildrered and struggles with these changes. In the end she ends up going to a bar and hooks up with the same bullies that abused her as a child because they are "real men". Brokenhearted and angry he ends up driving his car off a cliff a-la James Dean who also died in a car crash. Thus symbolizing the death of the traditional notion that a "real man" is chivalrous.
Twenty five years later we have to ask ourselves - what is a "real man"?
re: "This song is about how society is changing men for the worse." I think you've got it dead wrong. Jackson questions whether Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and James Dean are valid role models for men in the video. Without the video, the song on its own, the tone of voice with which he sings can best be described as "bitter"; and questions whether being the kind of "real man" people think of when people think of real men is actually an authentic (real) man at all.
re: "This song is about how society is changing men for the worse." I think you've got it dead wrong. Jackson questions whether Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and James Dean are valid role models for men in the video. Without the video, the song on its own, the tone of voice with which he sings can best be described as "bitter"; and questions whether being the kind of "real man" people think of when people think of real men is actually an authentic (real) man at all.