| Marina and the Diamonds – Sex Yeah Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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So here's something I want to clear up. While doing a project comparing this song to Holden (Catcher in the Rye), I came to a realization. Everyone talks about this song being about sex, sexual bias, gender bias, all that good stuff, but it's not. See, for the most part, it seems like it is. At face value, it seems pretty clear, too. There really isn't much to go against it. The thing is, though, with metaphors and symbols, you don't want to make it too clear that what you're talking about is just a placeholder, though you also don't want to make it seem like the actual thing. You know what I mean? So, for instance, if you were comparing home to your romantic partner, and you start writing about feeling loved and welcomed in your home, you don't want to suddenly switch to having sexual intercourse with your home. That's too blunt. At the same time, though, you also don't want to make it too realistic, or no one will understand that it's actually supposed to be your lover. The best way to go about solving this issue is by leaving subtle hints that people have to pick up on and interpret. I think Marina does this nicely. For the most part, it seems like she's talking about sexuality in society. Y'know, that's great. But the thing is, that just seems too...shallow? I mean, just listen to the instrumentals. I love the instrumentals, and I love the lyrics, but not together. At least, not until I realized this. The lyrics seemed too shallow and the instrumentals gave the feeling that they should be backing a deeper message. It's like going into a kiddie pool with full-on diving gear. Just didn't seem right. There were also some lines that didn't make sense. "Question what the TV tells you Question what a pop star sells you Question mom and question dad Question good and question bad" What? You can question your sexuality, sure, you can question society, sure, but this really doesn't make it seem like it's talking about sexuality, sex in society, or anything like that...maybe pop stars are selling sex? That's the best I can pull from it. "If history could set you free (from who you were supposed to be) ... 'Cause all my life I've tried to fight what history has given me" This makes even /less/ sense! How does this have anything to do with genders or sex!? So people were divided in history based on their sex!? Is that what you're talking about!? Because you sure don't make it clear! However, comparing this to Catcher in the Rye, I realized that it's not talking /just/ about sex, gender, etc. No, sex isn't the message, but the method of delivery. A symbol. It's one aspect Marina pulled to represent everything that people grow into. Loss of innocence. Growing up. Think about it: losing your innocence can be described both sexually and as growing up. The two are perfect representations of each other. In the aforementioned lines, history has told us that we have to grow up to be this or this; previous generations insist that we need to fill their shoes, do their work, etc. We're the ones left to clean up after the last generation. We have to maintain traditions. Marina saying she's fighting history is her saying she's fighting the values that have been forced upon us. This works with the "question" stanza as well. After all, what better areas of life to push tradition and values than media (T.V.), idols, parents and the morally "good" and "bad"? Then we look a bit farther. "We wouldn't have to feel the need to show our ass- -ets to feel free" This is an important line that I'm going to correct after posting. She's hinting again that this is symbolism, either that or censorship. We think she's going to say ass, but it actually turns into assets. If we're talking symbolically, at face value, we thought she was talking about sex, but actually she was focusing on an even broader area, assets. Censorship wise, well, that's pretty obvious. This generation is looser than the last on censorship, so simply extending a word into another word is considered okay and even funny. Another generational change. "Been there, done that Got the t-shirt Sold my soul And yeah the truth hurts Tired image of a star Acting naughtier than we really are" In this stanza, the only line to really mention sex is the last one. "Been there, done that" is referring to her gaining more experience as she grows, as most of us do. Getting the T-shirt is getting the physical objects we desire in life. We get them, and then we just sort of...move onto the next object. Like, there's no appreciation. "Oh, hey, we finally got it! Awesome! Now how do we get the next thing?" At first, I thought selling her soul might be to a record company? I don't think Marina did that, though...I'm not entirely sure. Maybe she's just talking about work in general, how we a lot of time to a job not many of us are happy with just for money. The truth hurting is that the last generation made everything seem so much better after we grew up, but, oh crap, it's not. It's not at all. We're tired of this, but we "act naughtier than we really are" by acting happier than we really are. Well, that's how I see it, anyway. It at least lets me appreciate the lyrics with the instruments now. |
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