I see this song as ambivalent... it is challenging, but also questioning. Are all those fears hurting us? Are we meant to be this? Or that?
I love the ah-ah-arrgh at the end of many of the lines... like a maybe-sarcastic cry of fear -- suburban life, run! I just don't see that as an argument that everyone should be like her.
Woot, proof of my point... I just found this in an interview with Emily Haines:
NIKA: I always appreciated the unconventional way you handled gender politics in songs like "Poster of a Girl" and "Patriarch on a Vespa." You find fault with both sides—it's not just girl power.
HAINES: Totally. On those songs I was exploring my own discomfort and trying to state a way to overcome it. "Patriarch" is about my fears of domesticity and normalcy–I mean, who wants a floral couch? But I never really "took a stand" on the side of women, because I never really experienced my life that way. I don't define myself by my gender. That's not really our battle anymore. It's no longer men vs. women. The topics have changed. Now, the allegiances are more tribal.
"her mouth is full of questions"
I see this song as ambivalent... it is challenging, but also questioning. Are all those fears hurting us? Are we meant to be this? Or that?
I love the ah-ah-arrgh at the end of many of the lines... like a maybe-sarcastic cry of fear -- suburban life, run! I just don't see that as an argument that everyone should be like her.
Woot, proof of my point... I just found this in an interview with Emily Haines:
NIKA: I always appreciated the unconventional way you handled gender politics in songs like "Poster of a Girl" and "Patriarch on a Vespa." You find fault with both sides—it's not just girl power.
HAINES: Totally. On those songs I was exploring my own discomfort and trying to state a way to overcome it. "Patriarch" is about my fears of domesticity and normalcy–I mean, who wants a floral couch? But I never really "took a stand" on the side of women, because I never really experienced my life that way. I don't define myself by my gender. That's not really our battle anymore. It's no longer men vs. women. The topics have changed. Now, the allegiances are more tribal.