Part of me really doesn't like the ghost theory. Actually, all of me doesn't like it. There's something about it that makes me think it's deeper, like it's about sexual abuse of a girl.
I believe the character singing it is the one who was abused sexually. Many times, when events like that happen, the female (or male) tries to detach themselves mentally and emotionally from the situation at hand, which can make it easier to handle, by pretending it wasn't you it happened to, but someone else.
"I could hear her breathing / No one believed me, no one believed me" -- After the attack. Ragged, broken breathing--trying to catch her breath and get her senses together. She tells people what happened, but no one can believe her, or no one chooses to believe her.
"I could hear those voices / So deceiving, so deceiving" -- Often in sexual encounters involving abuse, the attacker is someone that the victim knows personally. She hears the voice(s) the she recognizes as people she knows, and realizes how she has been deceived, how they have led her into being trusting, which she later reminisces on by seeing how wrong she was to trust them.
"Cool wind on my face" is something that seems calming, soothing. Along with detaching oneself from the body and event, imagining pleasant situations while it is happening probably makes it easier to take. Cool wind would be such a situation.
This is the point of the song that really makes me think it's about sexual abuse: when she asks, "Do you know what it feels to be afraid? Lying there frozen, with my eyes wide open?" She asks this because she has felt fear at the very core. She couldn't do anything about it, couldn't escape from the situation, she was frozen. Eyes being wide open may be metaphorical--a loss of innocence, the event has opened her eyes to the cruelty and sad reality of the world; not everything can be perfect.
"I know your secret / I can feel you calling" -- She knows the truth; she knows her secret. Something inside her is dying to let people know, but she is unable to. Perhaps fear of not being believed again, or fear of reliving the experience. "I know that you're there" shows she can not deny what happened to her, she knows the girl who was raped/sexually abused is her.
By keeping alive the memories, she is showing that she won't forget what happened to her. She will carry them with her and not bury them and try to forget.
"I heard you / I felt you / I know, so what do you want from me?" -- She heard him, she heard his voice and recognized it. She felt him, she knows who he is (the attacker). She knows that is wasn't a dream, that it was real, and now that it's done and over, she asks what is left? What does he want from her that he hasn't already taken?
And the end, she retreats once again to the calming situation of a cool breeze, to retreat from the painful memories again.
@mandolin It seems you were right! I read Jessica Simpson's memoir where she talked about being sexually abused by a girl at night and that Ashlee was laying in bed next to her. I wondered if Ashlee knew what was going on and just now when I heard this song for the first time, my jaws dropped. I immediately googled the song because it sounds like Ashlee was verifying that she knew what was happening. "Lying there frozen with my eyes wide open" and "I know your secret" and also "no one believed me"... Jessica spoke up once about it...
@mandolin It seems you were right! I read Jessica Simpson's memoir where she talked about being sexually abused by a girl at night and that Ashlee was laying in bed next to her. I wondered if Ashlee knew what was going on and just now when I heard this song for the first time, my jaws dropped. I immediately googled the song because it sounds like Ashlee was verifying that she knew what was happening. "Lying there frozen with my eyes wide open" and "I know your secret" and also "no one believed me"... Jessica spoke up once about it to her parents and she was believed, maybe because Ashlee had been telling them and they didn't believe until Jessica verified it.
I think the ghost interpretation is a cover up because the real story was not ready to come out yet...
Part of me really doesn't like the ghost theory. Actually, all of me doesn't like it. There's something about it that makes me think it's deeper, like it's about sexual abuse of a girl.
I believe the character singing it is the one who was abused sexually. Many times, when events like that happen, the female (or male) tries to detach themselves mentally and emotionally from the situation at hand, which can make it easier to handle, by pretending it wasn't you it happened to, but someone else.
"I could hear her breathing / No one believed me, no one believed me" -- After the attack. Ragged, broken breathing--trying to catch her breath and get her senses together. She tells people what happened, but no one can believe her, or no one chooses to believe her.
"I could hear those voices / So deceiving, so deceiving" -- Often in sexual encounters involving abuse, the attacker is someone that the victim knows personally. She hears the voice(s) the she recognizes as people she knows, and realizes how she has been deceived, how they have led her into being trusting, which she later reminisces on by seeing how wrong she was to trust them.
"Cool wind on my face" is something that seems calming, soothing. Along with detaching oneself from the body and event, imagining pleasant situations while it is happening probably makes it easier to take. Cool wind would be such a situation.
This is the point of the song that really makes me think it's about sexual abuse: when she asks, "Do you know what it feels to be afraid? Lying there frozen, with my eyes wide open?" She asks this because she has felt fear at the very core. She couldn't do anything about it, couldn't escape from the situation, she was frozen. Eyes being wide open may be metaphorical--a loss of innocence, the event has opened her eyes to the cruelty and sad reality of the world; not everything can be perfect.
"I know your secret / I can feel you calling" -- She knows the truth; she knows her secret. Something inside her is dying to let people know, but she is unable to. Perhaps fear of not being believed again, or fear of reliving the experience. "I know that you're there" shows she can not deny what happened to her, she knows the girl who was raped/sexually abused is her.
By keeping alive the memories, she is showing that she won't forget what happened to her. She will carry them with her and not bury them and try to forget.
"I heard you / I felt you / I know, so what do you want from me?" -- She heard him, she heard his voice and recognized it. She felt him, she knows who he is (the attacker). She knows that is wasn't a dream, that it was real, and now that it's done and over, she asks what is left? What does he want from her that he hasn't already taken?
And the end, she retreats once again to the calming situation of a cool breeze, to retreat from the painful memories again.
@mandolin It seems you were right! I read Jessica Simpson's memoir where she talked about being sexually abused by a girl at night and that Ashlee was laying in bed next to her. I wondered if Ashlee knew what was going on and just now when I heard this song for the first time, my jaws dropped. I immediately googled the song because it sounds like Ashlee was verifying that she knew what was happening. "Lying there frozen with my eyes wide open" and "I know your secret" and also "no one believed me"... Jessica spoke up once about it...
@mandolin It seems you were right! I read Jessica Simpson's memoir where she talked about being sexually abused by a girl at night and that Ashlee was laying in bed next to her. I wondered if Ashlee knew what was going on and just now when I heard this song for the first time, my jaws dropped. I immediately googled the song because it sounds like Ashlee was verifying that she knew what was happening. "Lying there frozen with my eyes wide open" and "I know your secret" and also "no one believed me"... Jessica spoke up once about it to her parents and she was believed, maybe because Ashlee had been telling them and they didn't believe until Jessica verified it.
I think the ghost interpretation is a cover up because the real story was not ready to come out yet...