Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee
And I detest all my sinsBecause I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell.
But most of all because I love Thee
And I want so badly to be good.
And follows up with lyrics like:
Girls they just want to have some fun
Get fired up like the smokin’ gun
And
I’m about to go astray
My inhibition’s gone awayI feel like sinning
And
Good girls don’t misbehave
But I’m a bad girl anyway.
The reviewer was complaining that the juxtaposition of the
prayer was obviously only intended to shock since the lyrics don’t show any
real repentance. She’s reveling in being
a “bad girl” not trying to reform into a “good girl” in any meaningful way.
But is it really impossible to enjoy both being a bad girl
and a good girl? Especially if we define
“good” and “bad” specifically in terms of sexual freedom.
Good girls get the privileges of respectability and societal
approval and protection. Bad girls get
the freedom to act on their desires and impulses. Why shouldn’t we want both? Why shouldn’t we enjoy both?
Call it a conspiracy or just a convenience for society, but
there have been people wanting to label women as either the good girl or the
bad girl for a long time. The concept of
having the best of both worlds has been lost to us for a very long time.
When society decided it had a vested interest in controlling
women’s sexuality, it had to contain our natural instincts and interests. It did that by calling them evil and telling
us that “good” girls neither acted that way nor wanted to. It split women into the good Madonna-virgins
and the bad whores.
It bothers me that there’s still an underlying belief that
women fit into either the good or bad category.
A pop song may not change the world, but at least its exploring the
concept. Much more interesting than
sticking with something which got old and tired a thousand years ago.
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