It's probably easier to ask, when hasn't she mentioned shame?
Personally, I think shaming someone is one of the worst things you can do. When I was young and my brother was younger, we were walking through Wal-Mart and I started looking at the lingerie and I told my brother he should feel the texture and the silkiness of the underwear, and his little face got all red. He wouldn't do it, but I kept on persisting that he just had to feel it. So finally, out of annoyance he reached out his little hand and the second he touched the fabric, I screamed "PERVERT!" and ran away. It wasn't very nice, but it was extremely funny...to me.
Key definitions of shame:
Shame is a social condition and a form of social control consisting of an emotional state and a set of behaviors, caused by the consciousness or awareness of having acted inappropriately. Intense shame may lead to depression or suicide.
"Shame shame time to leave me now
Shame shame you’ve had your fun
Shame shame for letting me think that I would be the one"
"Well happy birthday
her blood's on my hands
it's kind of a shame cause i did like that dress"
In her lyrics she uses shame in the it's a pity or "shame on you" teasing variety, but in her interviews shame is quite a serious matter.
Now as I read these quotes lifted from various interviews, I always imagine my Tori speaking in that unique stilted cadence that she always sinks into when she's talking very seriously.
Exhibit A:
“I don’t have to try in the least to shock people. My beliefs are sufficiently shocking to most people. Because we live in a culture where passion and sexuality have been replaced by shame. We are miles away from our hearts, our feelings. In Greek mythology the gods were sleeping with humans all the time. But the Christians claim Jesus was fathered without a single drop of sperm. There wasn’t even a penis involved. It’s a religion without penetration. And subsequently the same believers take their swords and chop the non-believers to pieces, stab babies to death and burn witches at the stake. And you think I’m shocking when I say I gave God a blowjob? Give me a fucking break!”
I said, Dad, why are we so controlled and why do we feel so much shame? This is not what this rebel was talking about. And as I started to study, I really opened myself up to a lot of different belief systems. My dad really wanted me to write religious music...and he got his wish I guess."
-- Tori; MTV Revue, Nov 4, 1998
Tori: Well, Protestants have guilt just as much as Catholics. I mean, it's all about, "shame, shame, shame, I'm so bad that I had that thought of that choirboy. But I was always having those thoughts." You know, I always had those.
Let’s be honest, religion has not supported women and men exploring all sorts of their sides, their unconscious. It has not been supportive of, you know, go into the places without shame, without blame, without judgment, and just let yourself really see what’s cooking in there.
Tori: Well, the songs have layers to them. It's not... nothing's really about one thing. Although this goes back to my childhood and all the sexual shame, the shame for a woman being passionate, a woman, a young girl feeling passionate and um, wanting to try and express that. But you either get into the good girl-bad girl case here, and what defines a good girl, and what defines a bad girl, and more important than anything for me growing up was, I wanted respect, especially from my father. So, of course I aligned with the Magdalene, and everyone else was aligning with the Virgin Mary. And the Virgin Mary actually had babies later that people don't really want to talk about. She obviously "did it" and people just have a hard time dealing with that. And um, this is about a girl that masturbates to survive, to really try and reclaim a part of her sexuality before they kill it, numb it out of her.
And um, there's a lot of shame in the major religions. I'm much more -- my mother's part Native American -- and I really believe that unless the religions expand, um, they just won't serve the people anymore, because people are going to the well, to the source.
“As women we are simply shaming men by saying ‘all men are rapists’ and I don’t believe in shame. That’s just Christianity in another guise, shame as a form of disease, a poison. As a woman I refuse to buy into that any more.
For Tori "shame" seems to be intrinsically linked To Christianity -- thus shame on one hand and the bible in the other. They are two sides of the same coin. There is speculation concerning young hollywood's lack of morals, Britney's a mess-- and my life can not be whole unless I know Britney is ok-- although Camille Paglia has a theory on Britney:
Feminist professor Camille Paglia has identified the exact moment Britney Spears "jumped the shark" (a reference to the "Happy Days" episode that marked the start of the series' decline). "A great promise was contained in the moment when Madonna kissed Britney at the MTV Awards," Paglia told Us Magazine's Web site. "She in a sense was saying, 'I'm passing the torch to you.' It was a fabulous moment. Britney looked toned, in control of her career . . . Literally from that kiss, from that moment onward, Britney has spiraled out of control. It's like Madonna gave her the kiss of death."
Hmm...I do wonder if Tori watches "Desperate Housewives." Instead of Bree, Lynette, Susan and Gabrielle-- what if the housewives of Wisteria lane were Tori, PJ, Ani, and Bjork and Madonna could be like the Edie-- always around, but doesn't quite fit in.
Interesting link:
A discussion about Tori's music from a Catholic standpoint:
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=132539
1 comment:
its hard to read the black ink on black part. fred
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