I would respectfully disagree with all of the other comments here. I can see the abuse angle, but I feel like the political angle is stretching it.
I think this song is about rape. I think this song is from the perspective of a rape victim, and the whole world is doubting her and telling her it wasn't that bad and that she's ruining the man's life, when all she wants is for the person who hurt her to go to jail.
The first verse says "It was often talked about; it was often raised, but nothing was ever done about it. To hear the way they talked about it, no one could be saved..." This is talking about the arguments that "boys will be boys", that men can't help themselves. Nobody can be saved, nothing can be done. You should know that already, it's your fault if you expected something else.
And then comes "It was oversimplified; it was under-thought, and nothing was ever done to stop it." People are treating it like no big deal. I get the feeling that this wasn't an attack-her-in-an-alley rape, this was a date rape, where he pressured her into sex. And now people are calling her a slut and saying she should have stopped him, and oversimplifying the issue. "Everything was fortified by all the lies we bought" could be talking about a lot of things, but I think it's talking about the nature of rape, how unless the man grabs a woman off the street and rapes her while she screams "NO" and kicks at him it's treated as vague and maybe-it's-not-really-rape. The man's obviously saying that he didn't rape her, he thought she was into it, and maybe it's true or maybe it isn't. But the real lie is that rape is violent and loud, not something that can happen quietly when you just don't want to argue anymore.
There's a sinister few lines that run through the whole song: "Shall I take back everything I've ever said and live my whole life in silence instead?" and "Shall I take back all my attacks? All of my accusations? All my mistrust - we never discussed anyone's reservations." She wants her rapist to go to jail, but she's sick of having to prove to people that she was raped. She wants to put the whole thing behind her. Maybe it really was nothing. Maybe she should just let it go, pretend it never happened. Maybe it's her fault, for not saying "No".
And that idea that maybe she's blowing this out of proportion comes up in the next verse, too. "There was a time when a crime was a crime, but now I think I'm losing my mind, or taking it all too hard." Rape is terrible, and they should just be convicting him, but instead they're focusing on her, on how it was nothing and she's just crazy and trying to ruin his life, and it's weighing on her. She was already raped, and now she has to deal with this backlash of people telling her she wasn't. It's messing with her head.
And then at the end, making her decision on whether she's going to keep trying to convict him; "Maybe you're right. But I don't think so." She's decided that she really is in the right, and that she wants him to go to jail for what he did to her, regardless of whatever everyone else is saying.
Of course, I'm using a male-on-female rape as an example because it's the most talked about kind. It could just as easily be male-on-male or female-on-male or female-on-female. And maybe it was statutory rape. Who knows.
I would respectfully disagree with all of the other comments here. I can see the abuse angle, but I feel like the political angle is stretching it.
I think this song is about rape. I think this song is from the perspective of a rape victim, and the whole world is doubting her and telling her it wasn't that bad and that she's ruining the man's life, when all she wants is for the person who hurt her to go to jail.
The first verse says "It was often talked about; it was often raised, but nothing was ever done about it. To hear the way they talked about it, no one could be saved..." This is talking about the arguments that "boys will be boys", that men can't help themselves. Nobody can be saved, nothing can be done. You should know that already, it's your fault if you expected something else.
And then comes "It was oversimplified; it was under-thought, and nothing was ever done to stop it." People are treating it like no big deal. I get the feeling that this wasn't an attack-her-in-an-alley rape, this was a date rape, where he pressured her into sex. And now people are calling her a slut and saying she should have stopped him, and oversimplifying the issue. "Everything was fortified by all the lies we bought" could be talking about a lot of things, but I think it's talking about the nature of rape, how unless the man grabs a woman off the street and rapes her while she screams "NO" and kicks at him it's treated as vague and maybe-it's-not-really-rape. The man's obviously saying that he didn't rape her, he thought she was into it, and maybe it's true or maybe it isn't. But the real lie is that rape is violent and loud, not something that can happen quietly when you just don't want to argue anymore.
There's a sinister few lines that run through the whole song: "Shall I take back everything I've ever said and live my whole life in silence instead?" and "Shall I take back all my attacks? All of my accusations? All my mistrust - we never discussed anyone's reservations." She wants her rapist to go to jail, but she's sick of having to prove to people that she was raped. She wants to put the whole thing behind her. Maybe it really was nothing. Maybe she should just let it go, pretend it never happened. Maybe it's her fault, for not saying "No".
And that idea that maybe she's blowing this out of proportion comes up in the next verse, too. "There was a time when a crime was a crime, but now I think I'm losing my mind, or taking it all too hard." Rape is terrible, and they should just be convicting him, but instead they're focusing on her, on how it was nothing and she's just crazy and trying to ruin his life, and it's weighing on her. She was already raped, and now she has to deal with this backlash of people telling her she wasn't. It's messing with her head.
And then at the end, making her decision on whether she's going to keep trying to convict him; "Maybe you're right. But I don't think so." She's decided that she really is in the right, and that she wants him to go to jail for what he did to her, regardless of whatever everyone else is saying.
Of course, I'm using a male-on-female rape as an example because it's the most talked about kind. It could just as easily be male-on-male or female-on-male or female-on-female. And maybe it was statutory rape. Who knows.