One of my new years resolutions for 2013 is to write or learn a new song every month and upload it to youtube. Between working on Miranda’s Hearth, painting, and selling my book, my folk songs are the most often neglected of my art forms and I want to make sure I want to spend at least a little bit of time on them every month this year.
This first song brings together quite a few years of feminist frustration. Two of those stories are told in the song (see the lyrics below) and others you’ve probably experienced yourself or heard from other people. But who knows what the next election cycle will bring.
LYRICS:
Here’s to all the future lady presidents, I hope there’ll be a few,
They’ll storm into the White House before my life is through
They’ll break our chains, take the up reins, and show us what it means,
To break through a glass ceiling and claim equality.
Don’t you see little girls, don’t you see?
All the history that made it so that you can fight to be,`
anything you see in your dreams
From raising a family to running our country.
When I was in middle school a friend of mine once said,
The USA would never work with a woman at it’s head.
She could never push the button that would end the fight,
And if she can’t do that than she couldn’t lead us right.
You can guess I sat up at my desk and I glared across the room,
I said tell me once again all of the things I couldn’t do.
His face got red, his eyes went down as he sank into his seat.
I guess he didn’t realize he was talking about me.
Don’t you see little boy, don’t you see?
All the women that you waved aside
are more than faces on TV
So don’t forget the women in your life
Could be your sister or your mother or even your future wife.
A few years down the road I heard a friend of mine complain,
“Why are all these feminists stirring the pot again?
They’re already equal, there’s nothing left to win
I asked him how he’d feel if all this shit happened to him.
I said your pay check would be smaller than your male colleagues
Your body’d be a temple guarded by lady liberty.
An let’s not even try to talk about your uterus,
Cause you’ll make the wrong choice whether you do or don’t have kids.
Don’t you see little boy, don’t you see?
We’ve come along way but we’ve yet to reach a true equality
And don’t forget to look around the world,
At all the messages we’re selling to wide-eyed little girls.
So here’s to all the future lady presidents you’ve got your work cut out,
Our fight is far from over but our side is cast with doubt
We’ll break our chains, take the up reins, and show them what it means,
To break through a glass ceiling and claim equality.