“labour” by Paris Paloma is about all of the unpaid “labour” that women do in relationships that is never equally reciprocated. This includes emotional, physical, and mental work that is normally expected of women but never rewarded or acknowledged. She sings about how unfair and draining it is to live as a woman who is expected to be and do everything all at the same time. She lists off things that men believe a woman ought to be in order to be worth something, “therapist, mother, maid, nymph, then a virgin, nurse, then a servant…24/7 baby machine.” This song perfectly captures what it is like to be a woman living in a patriarchal society.
Important Lyrics
“Emotional torture from the head of your high table”
“Who fethches the water from the rocky moutain spring? And walk back down again to feel your words and their sharp sting”
“For somebody I thought was my saviour, you sure make me do a whole lot of labour”
“If our love ends, would that be a bad thing?”
“Apologies from my tongue, and never yours”
“And weaponise the false incompetence, it’s dominance under a guise”
“If we had a daughter…she’d do what you taught her. She’d meet the same cruel fate, so not I’ve gotta run so I can undo this mistake”
“All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid, nymph, then a virgin, nurse, then a servant, just an appendage, live to attend him so that he never lifts a finger. 24/7 baby machine so he can live out his picket fence dreams. It’s not an act of love if you make her”