Her going from the "gas leaks and the
> oil spills" to "sex kills everything" is not logical if you take it
> literally. But if you take it in an absurd context, the larger
point of how
> ridiculously the substitution of scapegoating for justice has become
in our
> world it becomes clear, i.e., "sex caused the oil spills, too."
Yeah, right.
I never thought she was necessarily pointing a finger at any one
institution or group of people in this song. To me it's just a series
of observations of things that are royally fucked up in modern life.
The first verse does address justice and questions whether there is
such a thing anymore but I don't think she's trying to draw some
direct line of causality from that to gas leaks and oil spills. Nor
do I think she's saying that AIDS is the result of greed and lust.
She's merely observing that in the world today there is corruption and
greed and it can and does pervert justice, that gas leaks pollute the
air, oil spills muck up our oceans and that Madison Avenue shoves sex
in our faces to sell products but fails to mention that you'd better
play safe if you value your life. (I must admit however, that the
blanket statement 'sex kills' has always bothered me. So after
rereading your post, Kakki, I must admit that there may be something
in what you say.)
She continues, talking about health care and how the cure can
sometimes kill you while the price keeps getting more & more
ridiculously astronomical. Pettiness clogs the courts with lawsuits
and road rage makes people driving the freeways into psychos. Rapists
stalk women any place at any time & kids in schoolrooms mow down their
classmates with guns.
Not one specific thing. Many, many things that Joni sees as terribly
wrong with modern life. As she sees it, 'the balance is undone' and
of course that balance between positive & negative is one of her
ongoing, pervasive themes. She also seems to have a pretty healthy
respect for those 'Indian chiefs with their old beliefs.'
Of course, there are many good things in our day to day lives and Sex
Kills is not representative of those. 'Taming the Tiger' gave us
quite a few of those but so many seem to dismiss that record. I count
it as one of her best but that's another subject entirely.
Mark in Seattle
