I had always figured that the girl is a child prostitute on the literal level, but also a reference to the Virgin Mary & Mary Magdalene of the Bible, who personify the (virgin)madonna/whore view the Church has towards females. Either we're innocent virgins laughing naively (clueless about things like poverty) as we romp on the playground having fun with our male peers, OR we're coldly calculating sexual opportunists that only see the opposite gender in terms of what we can get out of them. There's no middleground in the attitude like in real-life people.
What drove me to come here, though, was when I read Wikipedia's page on the song... To my complete shock, the explanation given there is that Cross-Eyed Mary is a pious thief stealing money from the rich and giving it to poor homeless beggars like Aqualung. After seeing that interpretation, I decided to come see what others thought about it here and find out whether my belief was the bizarre & unusual one, or if the wacky one is whoever posted that theory to Wikipedia!
Haven't read the last page of interpretations here, so I might be repeating somebody. I was thinking about the "Robin Hood of Highgate / Helps the poor man get along" lines and Wikipedia's claim that it's a literal "steal from the rich" situation...
Haven't read the last page of interpretations here, so I might be repeating somebody. I was thinking about the "Robin Hood of Highgate / Helps the poor man get along" lines and Wikipedia's claim that it's a literal "steal from the rich" situation...
I'm certain she's a child prostitute, and like someone else said, doing rich men since they'll pay better; I've also heard it referred to as stealing from or extorting lonely men desperate enough to pay in money & gifts for the intimate contact. (Sometimes because they're spoiled jerks, sometimes because they've let work take...
I'm certain she's a child prostitute, and like someone else said, doing rich men since they'll pay better; I've also heard it referred to as stealing from or extorting lonely men desperate enough to pay in money & gifts for the intimate contact. (Sometimes because they're spoiled jerks, sometimes because they've let work take over any hope of a personal life...) She might also be stealing on a literal level if allowed into their home. But instead of spending the money on all the things she can't get from her poverty-stricken family, she's giving it to her father to help support the household -- very much what a girl who is making a good wage does if her parents are poor.
It's also possible that having the crossed eyes means that Mary can't do well in school because of sight issues, and figures nobody will hire or or want to be with her romantically because of her disfigurement -- basically wiping out both her chance to support herself or find someone else to support her. Left with THAT future, it would make sense that she'd take whatever money & fake affection she can get even if it does mean prostitution; heck, I know normal attractive well-educated/successful women that are like that in rapid serial monogamy because their self-esteem was always so low.
All of the above might also explain why she's not interested in the little boys, now that I think about it from the "she's got a hard life, a hard future, and doing the mature thing to help out" angle... Having to grow up that harshly, and that young, does create a barrier between a person and others that had a nicer time. I had a number of very nasty problems to deal with as a child on an everyday basis and while I still laughed at things, I felt disconnected from classmates that complained of having a horrible day simply because they got the wrong snack or (later on as teens) were just angsty for seemingly no reason.
I had always figured that the girl is a child prostitute on the literal level, but also a reference to the Virgin Mary & Mary Magdalene of the Bible, who personify the (virgin)madonna/whore view the Church has towards females. Either we're innocent virgins laughing naively (clueless about things like poverty) as we romp on the playground having fun with our male peers, OR we're coldly calculating sexual opportunists that only see the opposite gender in terms of what we can get out of them. There's no middleground in the attitude like in real-life people.
What drove me to come here, though, was when I read Wikipedia's page on the song... To my complete shock, the explanation given there is that Cross-Eyed Mary is a pious thief stealing money from the rich and giving it to poor homeless beggars like Aqualung. After seeing that interpretation, I decided to come see what others thought about it here and find out whether my belief was the bizarre & unusual one, or if the wacky one is whoever posted that theory to Wikipedia!
Haven't read the last page of interpretations here, so I might be repeating somebody. I was thinking about the "Robin Hood of Highgate / Helps the poor man get along" lines and Wikipedia's claim that it's a literal "steal from the rich" situation...
Haven't read the last page of interpretations here, so I might be repeating somebody. I was thinking about the "Robin Hood of Highgate / Helps the poor man get along" lines and Wikipedia's claim that it's a literal "steal from the rich" situation...
I'm certain she's a child prostitute, and like someone else said, doing rich men since they'll pay better; I've also heard it referred to as stealing from or extorting lonely men desperate enough to pay in money & gifts for the intimate contact. (Sometimes because they're spoiled jerks, sometimes because they've let work take...
I'm certain she's a child prostitute, and like someone else said, doing rich men since they'll pay better; I've also heard it referred to as stealing from or extorting lonely men desperate enough to pay in money & gifts for the intimate contact. (Sometimes because they're spoiled jerks, sometimes because they've let work take over any hope of a personal life...) She might also be stealing on a literal level if allowed into their home. But instead of spending the money on all the things she can't get from her poverty-stricken family, she's giving it to her father to help support the household -- very much what a girl who is making a good wage does if her parents are poor.
It's also possible that having the crossed eyes means that Mary can't do well in school because of sight issues, and figures nobody will hire or or want to be with her romantically because of her disfigurement -- basically wiping out both her chance to support herself or find someone else to support her. Left with THAT future, it would make sense that she'd take whatever money & fake affection she can get even if it does mean prostitution; heck, I know normal attractive well-educated/successful women that are like that in rapid serial monogamy because their self-esteem was always so low.
All of the above might also explain why she's not interested in the little boys, now that I think about it from the "she's got a hard life, a hard future, and doing the mature thing to help out" angle... Having to grow up that harshly, and that young, does create a barrier between a person and others that had a nicer time. I had a number of very nasty problems to deal with as a child on an everyday basis and while I still laughed at things, I felt disconnected from classmates that complained of having a horrible day simply because they got the wrong snack or (later on as teens) were just angsty for seemingly no reason.