#I did it I saw the fucking nu-Little Women view

[gayamulet]

Cat-sat this past weekend and went to some nice spots

[makyougenkai10]

STOP CALLLING EVERY 80′S SHOW SEXIST BECAUSE YOU DON’T LIKE THEM!

I was a little girl back in the 80's, when She-Ra and Jem were in their first run.  Shows like these were incredibly empowering.  We really didn't see competent women.  We usually saw damsels in distress (think Daphne though she was slowly growing out that) or nerds (think Velma or Penny though they were more competent than their bumbling male counterparts). But here we got a woman warrior as competent as any of the men.  In Jem, we got a woman CEO.  These things were HUGE.  People today trying to claim that shows like these are sexist are fucking idiots who should try talking to those of us who were the actual target audience of shows like this, and ask us what we think.  Yeah, She-Ra had her crystal castle (I remember getting that castle, and it made my life up until that point), but she was also knock the bad guys in their place.  She could have girly aspects while still kicking asses and not taking names.  In this show, as well as He-Man, the people with the most power tended to be women.  Yes, even in He-Man.  By the way, in He-Man, the woman who often assists him (he kinda needs her held despite being frickin' He-Man), Teela, is the daughter is the sorceress of Castle Grayskull, and the sorceress is the one with the most power.  That kind of show didn't treat kids like we were stupid and shallow.  Neither did She-Ra.  Those shows treated us like we were competent, which was amazing. This not-a-reboot is an insult to what She-Ra and He-Man really are all about.  Even my 9-year--old thinks this new show is stupid, an likes the old one.  (And no, it's not because that's my view--she's more likely to like something I don't just to spite me.) 

She-Ra was never meant to be a “girly girl” show. Like He-Man, she was strong and powerful.  This Reboot is a fraud. A poser. Wanting to be She-Ra without knowledge about She-Ra. It represents the type of women that made it. Selfish, insecure women.

“She Ra was meant to be an elaborate Ad for kids , so that Mattel could sells Girls She Ra dolls and toys... People should stop deluding themselves, the show was garbage at the time, there's no way, that anyone in today's age is gonna make something good out of it... Nostalgia give everything a nice Look, but it is dreadful to watch.”

it’s people like this who ruin things for everyone because they never experienced true happiness, because they’re over analyzing everything. Let people be happy and stop being a wet blanket.

I'm sorry, but am I missing something here?  I thought “She-ra and the princesses of power” was meant to target "progressive feminists”. The very same people who attack Barbie for being too pretty, and seem to hate anything and everything that represents being feminine or girly, ya know, like wearing dresses, ball gowns in particular, and dances, because “that's not progressive”!  Because being all glam up and pretty to go to a dance is somehow the most disempowering thing a girl can do these days, just ask Cinderella and Barbie.  Yet prom is the episode people praise and is the one to get plot moving? Again, did I miss something? These characters look plain...I watched She-Ra back in the 80s and the story development was so much better. Once again this is an attempt to make characters, especially female characters, powerful when it is not necessary because if the creators had done their research they could have made something great for everyone to share and appreciate, but unfortunately it is all about the $$$$$.

At this point, I'm Convinced that These Rebooted iconic Cartoons are Intentionally Made to Piss off People who Grew up on the Originals. Just like the So called Jem Reboot did. I'm sooooooo, Glad Jem Bombed at the Box office.

And In the end, Nu!Ra is just another shitty tween girl show that we saw a-plenty back in the early 2000s. What Noelle is presenting to us isn't groundbreaking in the least and let me tell you from my own experience having seen those same shitty cartoons back then. Noelle is no better than the 'toxic males' she and others often site as being out of touch with female viewers because she's pulling the same stops but just adding a lot of unneeded sexual drama to a bunch of pre-teen characters. What Nu!Ra reminds me of is an even less comprehensible and more overly dramatic Trollz, the TROLLS reboot that was so bad that the Damm family (the family of the man who created the dolls) SUED DiC entertainment and later sold the rights of Trolls to, guess who, DREAMWORKS which is why Trolls made their semi-kinda-almost faithful rebound a while back. But if you remember TROLLZ it has the same elements to Nu!Ra right down to how the rights were just thrown around and even the whole magical girl elements and trying to make the series for girls despite both, Trolls and the MotU series, being an overall series that could be picked up by anyone, regardless of their gender. As a result, both failed because they were being handled by people who didn't understand the universal appeal to the series and tried too hard to look like they were doing something. With Trollz, the promise of girl-power sort of series was bogged down by the fact that our main heroines were all stereotype girl characters anyway even with their massives responsibilities. One of the biggest parts of the series was that only female trolls could use magic at all after a power split between the trolls and ogres, with the trolls defeating the ogres but then coming up with this confusing reason why only females could use magic. And even then, they couldn't balance how magic and technology existed because Trollz took place in what was supposed to be modern day 2000s but we're made to believe that magic exists yet it does so along the same modern conveniences that people had but somehow those things were POWERED by magic yet even male trolls could use some of them which sort of negates the reason to even use magic at all given the main five were the only ones who seemed to even use it outside of pulling pranks and using it for makeup. The show was that shitty and it was written by a bunch of out of touch guys who just assumed this was the only thing that girls would like rather than just making something, I don't know, enjoyable? Nu!Ra is suffering from the same problem but in this case, the show isn't being lead by some out of touch old guys but an out of touch old woman (I know age is a stretch with Noelle but it's the same sentiment) but rather going in with the misguided intentions the Trollz guys had, Noelle and her crew have loudly made it clear that this is what they want and that people have to accept it for how it is and accept them as well by obligation. The way Trollz was handled can come off as DiC and Hasbro being massively clueless and trying too hard to mix tech with Harry Potter but Noelle is just spiteful. She is using a show she had no hand in and never liked to begin with to flag around her inner unclaimed fantasies of her past, giving off a somewhat creepy look into a stunted, bitter person who wants to take everything she can from other people and wave it around gleefully when they can't reclaim it. Noelle already has success with Lumberjanes but it's one of those things where it's 50/50 in people sort of know it but then there are people who are like 'Wut?' about it. It's a niche comic that satisfies a certain demographic and when I did use to watch her when I began using Twitter, she was nice enough but the more and more she complained about OTHER people not giving her what she wanted, the more uncomfortable I got until I just unfollowed her. And as I watch Nu!Ra, those feelings of hers are just leaking out of my computer and onto the floor in a big, sticky, nasty mess. What we have been watching isn't She-Ra but rather an idea that Noelle and her friends shared among themselves and with the way it is going on, we can see for ourselves that it was a very weak premises that would have gotten no one but the small Tumblr crowd everyone jokes about. The problem with the OG She-Ra vs Noelle's version is just this; filmation made a series that anyone could fall into and I know it might sound weird but this is what I mean. With the OG She-Ra, the way it was written, designed, and overall played out was simple enough for anyone of any demo to get around. It didn't matter that She-Ra was an adult, White, and fit but what could get girls and boys into her were her ACTIONS and HEROISM. The outer image of She-Ra that we see is but a part of her and even if you see her looks as goofy for their time, kids loved her for being powerful and that goes ditto for her teammates and He-Man as well. Yes, their looks were good but it was like an added bonus. There was a full package given to you and if you didn't like one thing, there was at least something else you could find and adore. With Nu!Ra, all of that has been stripped away and replaced for the excuses of 'safe'. Let's ignore that She-Ra herself is a kid. If she had been given a somewhat similar ATTITUDE to Adora from the OG show, I would have been fine because she still would have been a HERO. She still would have held onto that heroic sense that makes her worth looking up to in the world her story belongs to but we don't get that. Adora isn't even a coming-of-age type of person as she is always clumsy, always antsy, always unsure and she never learns. She never grows as a character and that's the problem with EVERYONE. Everyone in this series is a broken, horrible person but unlike a GOOD series they don't have character growth where they are shown to develop from these kinks of theirs to become the heroes they are meant to be. Instead, all the aspects that would make them terrible people to be around are meant to be seen as their POSITIVE traits. We're supposed to love Glimmer because she is argumentative and dismissive, we're supposed to love Bow because he is useless and only comes in handy when the time calls for it. We're supposed to love all these horrible characters for their 'quirks' and why? Because these characters ARE Noelle and her friends. It's why they act so pained and hurt when you call out these characters because they ARE these characters and takes these comments as personal attacks on them. And the reason they don't grow is because they believe themselves to be fine just the way they are and it's everyone else who is at fault. This is the type of people they are and these are the types of stories they write. Nu!Ra is yet another example of why you shouldn't hand series off to armchair activist who have no idea how animation works or basic storytelling at that. The reason reboots and movies that have been done in this fashion don't work is because these people are not telling stories, they are making the audience listen about how they wish their lives could be. It's bragging and no one likes a braggart.

The reboot is a joke and an insult to the original She-Ra, its voice actors, and its creators. It could have been good, but Noelle and her friends/team ruined it. This series couldn’t have come to an end fast enough.

[crimsonadri-fanfiction]

In Pieces (Chapter 2)

Fandom: House of Wax (2005 Movie)

Genre: Romance, Hurt/Comfort,

Pairing: Vincent x OC

Rated: M

Warnings: Language, Violence, (future) smut, (probably very poor representation of someone with-) DID/Mental Illness,

(First/Previous Chapter)

Vincent had heard the two women come into the House of Wax and had snuck up stairs through the door in the kitchen. He accidentally bumped a chair and immediately froze.

“What was that?” he heard one of the girls say. She was clearly uncomfortable and jumpy.

“Hm? I didn’t hear anything,” the other said. Her voice was lighter, more carefree.

“I heard something.”

“Well wax doesn’t make a sound does it? So you must have imagined it.”

“No…I…” The girl sighed. “You’re probably right.” Vincent poked his head out of the kitchen before slowly moving through the dining room. The bright green hair caught his attention as the girl walked into view, over to the smaller half human half animal figurines he’d made.

“I wonder if this Vincent guy made any of the wax figures,” she mused as she admired them.

“Don’t people normally put their names on things they make?” The other girl asked as she walked to stand beside the girl. “Just check the bottom.”

“I’m not supposed to touch anything, remember? I promised Bo,” the other said. “Though he said nothing about you touching anything,” she reminded the other girl with a small smirk as she turned to look at the blonde.

“No thank you,” she replied.

“Awe, come on, Ellie, please?”

“If you wanna know then you look.” Ellie said.

“But Ell-ie,” the girl whined. “Come on, do it for your baby sister,” she begged with a pout and puppy dog eyes. Ellie sighed.

“Fine,” she said as she picked up one of the figurines. “There see, ‘Vincent’.” She showed the bottom to the girl before she put it back down. “Now you know. Happy Harley?”

“Yay, thanks sis!” Harley exclaimed. Vincent saw her turn towards the dining room and quickly moved back and hid in the corner. She didn’t notice him as she looked along the table. He saw her notice the old high chairs behind the door and tilted her head. Vincent saw her mouth out his name then Bo’s with a frown. She turned and smiled. “El, come look at this dog,” she said as she walked over to Vincent and Bo’s black and white dog.

“Dog?” Ellie came into the dining room to see the Harley reaching out to the dog. As her hand grew close the dog snapped at her with a bark before it ran off. Harley fell back onto her bottom and started to cry. “Harley!” Ellie gasped as she rushed to her. “It’s alright, he didn’t get you. You’re okay.” Harley sniffled and wiped her eyes. “You’re okay.” Ellie smiled down at her. She helped the girl up and they left the room, all without noticing him.

“Hello?” Bo called as he entered the House of Wax.

“In here!” Harley called before she came skipping out of the piano room and towards him. She stopped a few feet from him and held her hands behind her back. “I was good. I didn’t touch a thing,” she told him with a big smile as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet.

“Well, guess I can’t cut off your pinkie, now can I?” Bo asked with a smirk and a chuckle.

“Nu-uh!” Harley agreed with a giggle. Ellie walked into the room.

“Did you change the tire already?” she asked.

“Well seein’ as how the spare's locked in the back and I don’t have a key…”

“Right, sorry.” Ellie reached into her bag and pulled out her keys.

“Do we have to leave?” Harley asked with a frown.

“I’d rather you stay with me,” Ellie said. Harley crossed her arms and started to pout.

“She can stay, I trust her in here,” Bo said. Harley’s eyes lit up and she bounced on her feet with a big smile.

“Alright…” Ellie said. “Just come down to the station in…” she looked at Bo.

“Oh I’d say about 10 minutes,” he said with a smile. Ellie looked at Harley.

“Got that?”

“Mhm.” Harley nodded before she turned and left the room. Ellie sighed and followed Bo out.

Harley stood in the piano room and hummed as she twirled around to her own music. She stopped and frowned down at her clothes.

“I wish I had a pretty dress…” she said quietly with a pout as she pulled on the bottom of her black tank top. She looked at her watch. “Guess I should go find Ellie. Goodbye House of Wax, I enjoyed looking at you very much!” she said to the house before she left. As she closed the door behind her Vincent came out from where he’d been watching her.

Harley walked up to the gas station and heard music playing on the radio. She walked inside and frowned at the radio before turning it off. A moment later she heard a crash in the back. As Harley walked into the backroom she heard Ellie scream.

“Harley run!” Harley turned her head to see Bo holding Ellie to his chest, a knife to her neck as she struggled. The moment Harley saw the knife her eyes locked onto it and she stared. Ellie swallowed. “Ha-Harley…” Ellie gasped as she trained to catch her breath. Bo smirked at Harley as he recognizing the look in her eyes.

“Tell you what,” Bo started. Harley looked at him. “you finish her off, I’ll let you stay here alive.” Harley’s eyes had lit up before he even finished and she started to smile as she took the knife Bo was holding out to her. Bo pushed Ellie down on the ground as Harley smiled at the knife.

“Harley please! We’re family, remember?!” Ellie shouted desperately. The smile dropped from Harley’s face and she slowly turned her head to look down at her sister.

“I know I'm adopted, Ellie. Seriously, I'm not stupid.” She rolled her eyes. “Tom and Barbara may have 'kept it secret'," she used air quotes. "But how bad do you think memory of a five year old is? Especially considering the circumstances,” she added in a mumble.

“H-Harley, you need me. You know what happens when I’m not around to-to protect you, to help you! You know what happens! It's too dangerous! Don't you remember what the doctors said?!”

“They think I have DID,” Harley said with a scoff. “That I need help.”

“Harl, please the doctors-”

“Should've minded their own fucking business!” Harley shouted as she leaned down to get right in Ellie's face. Ellie was shaking. “I’m just fine! I don’t need a stupid fucking prescription! She's no way in hell I was gunna just get doped up on pills!” she spat. Ellie's eyes widened.

“H-Har, please… you…you’ve been taking your meds it’s been going so well…”

“I'm not sure if I should be surprised you didn't notice...” Harley said with a chuckle. "You never were the brightest, Eliza." Ellie looked terrified and Bo raised his eyebrows at the scene before him.

“N-no...I’ve see you take them, I always see you take them! You couldn't have-!”

“Placebo pills you dumb bitch.”

"B-but I kept them in my purse-."

"Seriously?" Harley asked with a laugh. "You do realize we share a room right? You don't take that thing with you everywhere. It wasn’t that hard."

“All this time…?” Ellie asked as her voice shook. Harley grinned and leaned down to whisper.

“I never left.”

When Vincent walked into the gas station he wasn't surprised to hear Bo’s laughter. He’d expected it. What he didn't expect to hear was one of the girls from before laughing with him. He went down to the basement and saw Bo holding his stomach as he continued to laugh and the green haired girl was laughing over the mangled and bloodied body of the other girl, a blood soaked knife in her hand. Bo noticed his brother and quieted his laugher as Harley did.

“Vince, this is Harley. She's gunna help us with our lil project,” Bo said with a grin as he threw an arm around the girl's shoulders. Vincent looked from his brother to the girl as she turned her head to look at him. Blood was splattered on her face and a bit in her hair as she grinned. “Harley, this is my... twin brother Vincent.”

“Hiya,” Harley said with a little wave. Vincent just stood there.

“He doesn't talk much. Come on, let's get you cleaned up, then we’ll talk,” Bo said with a smirk before turning to his brother. “You take care’a this one and get Harley here some clean clothes. Sorry bout the mess, she went a little overboard,” he teased making Harley giggle. Vincent nodded; he hesitated before leaving the room.

That couldn’t be the same girl who had cried because of their dog ... Could it?

Harley sat at the kitchen table, freshly showered in a dark blue dress Vincent had brought up for her from the basement. Bo stood in front of her and Vincent was in the background not quite in the kitchen but still visible to her. Both men had noticed her demeanor had changed since she’d come out of the shower.

“So talk to me, what's a DID?” Bo asked.

“Dissociative Identity Disorder,” Harley said. Bo raised an eyebrow. “In other words multiple personality disorder.”

“Then you're not just bipolar,” Bo muttered. “Shit. How many you got?”

“I don't know,” Harley said with a small shrug.

“Can't ya just count’em?” Bo asked with a frown.

“I wish it were that simple… it’s different for everyone who has it… I don't remember them... Or what they do… I mean I do in a way but… They're me but ... they're not...” She looked up at him sheepishly.

“You're not makin’ any sense,” Bo said with a frown as he crossed his arms. Harley let out a sigh.

“I know that I,” she closed her eyes briefly “killed Ellie but... I don't remember. The facts are there but the details are missing. That persona... the one that killed her is the only one who remembers and knows...why.”

"So you know about that one but not the others."

"I only know what people have told me."

"So it’s basically…” Bo paused. “You’ve got different people with their own memories in that head but you as the original don’t know what they’re thinking," Bo concluded slowly. Harley nodded.

"If I am the original..." she muttered.

“Well, you’ve at least got three, right? That I've counted. You,” he motioned to her. “Psycho chick,” she grimaced. “and the kid. Think there's more than that?” Bo asked. Harley nodded.

“Ellie would never tell me about some of them specifically; she was afraid she'd trigger them by talking about them but… The way she would talk sometimes… There are more than the ones you’ve seen that’s all I know. I don’t know if they do get triggered or they just… take turns honestly.”

“Do they know what the others think? Do they remember?” Harley gave another shrug as she shook her head.

“I’m in the dark as much as you. They could… I have no idea. Sorry.”

“No need to apologize, I already like the ones I’ve met, just gotta meet the others,” Bo said with a smirk. “Any of these personalities know how to clean and cook?”

“Well yeah, I do. It’s all in my brain.”

“Great, when you're not helping us you can be helpin’ round here,” Bo said. Harley nodded.

“Seems fair,” she said.

“Great, I’m gunna change the wheel of your truck-.”

“Oh, my things are still in there.”

“Don't worry; I’ll bring everything back here. Vince, show Harley around.” Vincent, who had been doing his best to blend into the background away from her eyes, jumped slightly and stared at his brother with a wide eye from beneath his mask. “Give her the grand tour. I’ll be back in an hour or two,” Bo said before leaving. Harley turned in her chair to face Vincent and gave him a soft smile. He shifted slightly as she stood.

“I know you don't talk much and if you don't want to show me around you don't have to. I would enjoy the company though,” Harley said as she held her hands in front of her. Her tone of voice was so soft and her smile was so warm. It was hard to believe the same person had murdered her own sister in cold blood not even an hour before. Vincent found himself nodding and his breath hitched when Harley's smile grew. “Great.” She headed to the door and turned to wait for him. He hesitated and slowly followed after her.

She continued to smile as they left the house. He walked a few steps behind her as she held her hands behind her back. Vincent found himself watching her. She was pale but not deathly pale. Her hair was such a bright green but there was about half an inch of her natural brown roots that had grown out. She’d put her hair back in the two messy braids that went down to her bust. The blue dress he’d brought up from the basement for her went down to her knees and made her hiking boots look out of place but she didn't seem to care as they walked down to the town.

"So, you made everything in the House of Wax right?" Harley asked as she looked back at him. She noticed he was further back and walked backwards a bit so she was walking next to him. He seemed uncomfortable and looked at the ground away from her. "That’s amazing," Harley said with a soft smile. She couldn't see his eye behind the mask but he glanced at her before she looked forward.

The two reached the town and Harley ran up to the pet store and looked in the window.  

“They look so real,” Harley said with a big smile before going to the next window. Vincent watched her as he followed behind. The dress swished as she looked in each window excitedly. She would compliment his work each time though Vincent remained silent the entire time. He was rarely outside during the day but he felt a sense of almost security as he walked beside Harley who was humming a carefree tune, the warm smile still gracing her face.

Bo had explained to Harley on the way to the house, before, that every wax figure in Ambrose was once a person that his brother had converted into wax in the basement workshop that connected their house and the wax house.

The wax house itself was the last stop on the tour. Afterwards Harley turned to Vincent with a smile that made him shift awkwardly as he brought his gaze to the floor.

“You're amazing, Vincent,” Harley said. "To create such... " she couldn't find the right word but Vincent could tell by her tone she meant to finish the sentence as a compliment. "You're so talented." She walked into the piano room and gently rested her hand on it. “Ellie would look perfect in here; you should make her a dancer… She always wanted to be one… But she was stuck taking care of me…” she took her hand from the piano and held her hands to her chest as she lowered her head. Her smile was gone. “You probably think I’m a monster…” she said. Vincent blinked and frowned beneath his mask. “I mean… I killed the girl who was supposed to be my sister…but… I don’t feel bad about it- I mean I do!” she turned around quickly to look at him with wide eyes. “I am sad that… she’s gone… but... I didn’t do it… you understand what I’m trying to say right?” she took a small step towards him and he nodded. Harley looked a little relieved and had a small smile. She continued to hold her hands to her chest and started to play with her necklace chain. “Um…” Harley swallowed as she looked down. Vincent hesitated but then went to walk past her. Her head popped up and he stopped. He looked towards the next room then back at her. “O-oh…” she stepped out of the way and looked down. Vincent watched her biting her lip before he walked past her and into the dining room then into the kitchen. “W-Where are you going?” Harley asked in a small voice. Vincent stopped and turned back to her slowly. “I-I’m sorry. I get it if you don’t like me…” she said. “I’ll just… try to find Bo or something…” she said before she quickly fled the room. Vincent watched her go.

“Bo?” Harley called in a small voice as she pushed open the door to the garage. “Bo?” she heard a noise and a moment later Lester walked out through the door to the garage. “Oh… Lester…” Lester stopped when he saw her.

“Uh Harley, right?” he asked. Harley nodded.

“H-Have you seen Bo anywhere?” she asked.

“No, I haven’t… you alright?” Lester asked with a small frown.

“I’m okay,” Harley said with a forced smile. “I-If you see him… would you just tell him I’m at the house?”

“The house?” Lester asked with a slight frown.

“Oh… yes. I’m… um… I mean my sister and I are going to be… staying…” Harley fidgeted with the chain of her necklace nervously. Lester blinked.

“Stayin?” Harley swallowed. Just then Bo pulled up in Harley’s truck. He got out and headed into the store.

“Hey, Harl, I was just testing out the spare,” Bo said to her. He noticed Lester. “Lest,”  he greeted with a nod. Bo looked between the two. “Harley this is our younger brother Lester.” Lester looked at Bo with wide eyes.

“She know? Even bout Vinny?” Lester asked. Bo nodded. He noticed Harley fidgeting with her necklace.

“What’s up with you?” he asked. Harley glanced at him but brought her gaze back down to the floor. “Somethin' happen? Where’s Vince? Thought I told him to show you around town."

"H-he did."

"Well then where is he?” Harley shrugged.

“I… I don’t think he likes me…” Harley said in a small voice.

“Don’t worry your little head about that. Lest, help me out with something, there’s a few things I have to explain to ya. Harl, go on up to the house now. I brought your stuff up and put it in the spare room upstairs. There should be some uh, sheets and things in the hall closet.” Harley nodded and quietly yet quickly left the garage.

If you wish to be tagged (or to stop being tagged) to know when a chapter is posted let me know via ask/messages/reply.

Next Chapter

[troutfishinginmusic]

Essay: The problem of character songs during the Grunge era

No one believes Jello Biafra when he joyously sings about killing poor people on The Dead Kennedys’ landmark 1980 album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. Each word drips with contempt for the machinery that grinds down the underclass. The takeaway is easy, American society cares little about poor people.

On the opposite side of the spectrum sits Dire Straits’ 1985 hit “Money for Nothing” a supposed critique of working class ignorance. The song is a character study that echoes sentiments of homophobia, racism and misogyny. There’s something uncomfortable about a cheesy ‘80s song saying these things. It feels like an endorsement of the callousness of the time. 

Making these songs is a high wire act. When using method to criticize worthy targets, Grunge and post-Grunge often struggled. Good intentions can be taken as a consignment to bad behavior. Most people won’t pay attention to the creator’s motivations. Here are three examples of these odd relics:

Nirvana-Polly

All things Kurt Cobain have been dissected in the years following his death. Most people are now aware of his feminism. But when Nirvana’s Nevermind exploded, less was known.

“Polly” is about a 14-year-old girl who was abducted and raped in Aberdeen, Cobain’s hometown. The song is written from the point of view of the abuser: “Polly wants a cracker/Maybe she would like some food/She asks me to untie her/A chase would be nice for a few.”

The song was reportedly sung by two men as they raped a woman. Cobain responded to the event in the liner notes to Incesticide: “Last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song 'Polly.' I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience.”

The liner notes also went a step further: “If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us—leave us the fuck alone! Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records.”

The song wasn’t a hit, but it was on a gigantic album. Millions bought the album and heard it. Some more than likely took it the wrong way. Nirvana had more feminist songs including “Been a Son,” “About a Girl” and “Pennyroyal Tea.” Cobain went a step further and tried to make a song he viewed as even more straightforward. It ended up making things even more complicated.

“Rape Me” is seen as a difficult relic of a progressive band. It’s intentionally uncomfortable. It’s a stark song from the point of view of a survivor essentially saying no matter how much you abuse me you’ll never win. The song is a taunt and a reclaiming of agency from the abused. The song became huge on American radio. It was put on the airwaves during the 1994 Rwandan genocide to encourage abuse against the Tutsi population.

Kurt Cobain was a celebrity with a conscience who had good intentions. He carried feminist ethos into mainstream Rock from the underground. What he underestimated was rape culture’s resilience and ability to repurpose critiques into endorsements.

Stone Temple Pilots- Sex Type Thing

It’s a bit jarring to hear Scott Weiland’s booming Grunge croon sing “I said you shouldn't have worn that dress, worn that dress” in 2020. What sounds like a justification of rape culture is the exact opposite. It’s something strange and complicated. It’s possibly one the bravest and strangest songs in pop music.

The 1993 song was intended to be an anti-rape statement. It’s about the destructive state of mind that led a group of jocks to sexually abuse a woman Weiland dated.

“I just put myself into the mindset of the total macho American male attitude toward women and their sexuality, which I think is something important that needs to be said,” Weiland said on an episode of Headbangers Ball.

The song was more than likely difficult for its creator, even if it wasn’t on a conscious level. Weiland details getting raped by an older student when he was 12 years old in his autobiography Not Dead & Not For Sale. This is an event he was only able to come to terms with after years of therapy. The idea of a survivor reliving their trauma and taking on the viewpoint of an abuser is unthinkable.

And yet the lumbering riffage and earworm chorus made it into a radio staple. It was a song I remember being slotted on local alternative radio stations with less socially conscious material. While some may have followed up and tracked the song’s meaning, others probably saw it as endorsement of bad behavior. The song did some good and more than likely caused harm.

“Hopefully the idea comes across and isn’t misconstrued,” Weiland said in the Headbanger’s Ball interview. “The last thing any of us would want is for the point to be taken literally.”

Cold-Stupid Girl

Cold was more of a Grunge or a post-Grunge band than a Nu Metal band. Yet they were on the same label as Limp Bizkit. They shared stages with Nu Metal bands. The band also had a song to slot in between the casual misogyny of the time.

“Stupid Girl” was the band’s biggest song. The 2003 song from Year of the Spider had a surprising co-writing credit from Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo. It featured lyrics like “Wanna love ya, wanna bug ya/Wanna squeeze ya, stupid girl/Wanna touch ya, wanna take ya/Wanna shut ya, stupid girl.” When I first heard these lyrics as a teenage boy they spoke to angst I felt at the time. When I revisited the song as an adult I was repulsed by the song and the sort of ugliness I thought it fed into.

I was wrong. What I failed to consider were lyrics like “I'm a loner, I'm a loser/I'm a winner in my mind/I'm a bad one, I'm a good one/I'm a sick one with a smile.” The lyrics show how completely unaware the narrator is of his toxic attitude toward woman. He doesn’t realize he might be the problem in a relationship turning sour.

This was singer Scooter Ward’s intention for the song: “You could just be a total piece of trash and at the same time, you don't know that you are. You have this person that's going to leave you and you don't have any idea why. A lot of people are blind to the fact that they are idiots."

Cold had been around since the late ‘80s and were previously called Grundig. The band’s first self-titled 1997 album as Cold is weird. It features bleak, noisy guitars. It shares more musical DNA with Nirvana and Helmet than anything Korn was doing. It featured depressing songs about relationships and serial killers. It wasn’t far removed from Kurt Cobain’s songwriting, although not quite as revolutionary.

Yet the context was different. The explicit feminist politics of many Grunge bands had faded. It was replaced with apolitical bands that were more relatable. Pearl Jam featured politics and musical experimentation that weren’t always relatable. A band like Creed had more relatable bombastic songs about relationships and faith. Record labels snapped up Creed-like bands after Grunge’s first wave. Grunge’s dismantling of ‘80s glam excess was rebuilt in its own image.

Cold became famous during this time. Even if some of the band’s songs railed against things like child abuse, its major hit could be woven into prevailing ideas of the time.

Takeaway

Art’s intent can become inconsequential once it’s released. That’s the unsaid bargain and it can be very frustrating. It can be easy to disregard songs with ugly lyrics. In a world filled with so much hatred and bigotry, there doesn’t seem to be much use for them.

Yet there is a danger of completely turning away from disturbing topics. Art that glosses over inequity and ignorance can allow it to fester in the shadows. Great art can do many things. It can comfort, sooth and entertain. It can also spur activism, awareness and steps toward change.

Grunge and post-Grunge, at their best, tried to do this. They attempted to take the revolutionary politics of the underground and bring them to the masses. The problem was releasing them into a society that hadn’t resolved those issues. While they exposed a lot of people to new ideas, they also could normalize existing inequality.

In 2020 we should look at these songs as a sparks that changed mainstream, male-dominated radio Rock. They did so by subverting norms and slipping in radical politics. They did this imprecisely and left too much room for ambiguity. Current music should look at these songs as examples of what to do and what not to do. Artists have responsibility and if they are tackling injustice should at least try to be clearer.