Robert De Niro's Waiting

I'm not sure why people are talking about rape; I see nothing in the lyrics to suggest this. The wikipedia page also mentions rape, but doesn't link to a source that's still active.

I've always seen this as a girl's perspective on the world around her, and particularly her romantic options, and she finds them boring. She imagines herself with a more appealing lover, more romantic, worldly, a movie star. That fantasy becomes her escape. Because she is different from those around her, she finds them hostile to her.

Maybe it was inspired by a real or possible rape (I can't find a source that seems remotely authoritative), but any indication of that has been removed from the lyrics. For example, when she says "Don't come any closer to me", that's not an indication that the boy DOES come closer to her. It just says that she doesn't want him to. When she says "I don't want to feel your breathing, your touching", that's not an indication that the boy DOES touch her. It just says that she doesn't want him to. And she doesn't say "A boy" is staring and following her... she says "people" are doing that. Unless this is supposed to be about gang rape, that line doesn't scan. You wouldn't have people following her and then one boy raping her. Moreover, the line "I don't need a boy, I have a man of steel" suggests that the romantic options she has are disempowered, not hostile. It also suggests that her rejection is voluntary.

The lyrics aren't logically incompatible with a rape and, again, it may have started with that as an inspiration, but what's left in the lyrics themselves don't say anything that dark or specific. There's a bit of a "school" of song interpretation that the most shocking possibility is the one the songwriter intended. If you apply that, then you can read a rape into this, but it's not in the lyrics. In fact, the lyrics suggests that she rejects options who are weak, not that she suffers in the grasp of an attacker who is strong. The thing she fears isn't assault -- it's boredom.

And, for my experience, this remains a happy song, as the melody indicates. This is the experience of a girl who finds a happy fantasy in boring life and has the upbeat outlook the music works towards.