Women’s History Month is coming to an end, but the symbolization and pride for women never leaves. Paris Paloma finished the month with her music, bringing women all around together to speak of the hardships of living under a man’s hand. She released Labour March 23, 2023 after excitedly bringing it up on TikTok, and the song is anything but a mistake. 

Paloma is a pop artist whose specialty is what is now called “female rage” songs, bringing attention to the anger women have with society nowadays. This artist writes mostly dark feminine songs, but that doesn’t make her any less of an amazing artist. Paloma has written other songs, dating back to 2021. Her most recent song before Labour was Notre Dame.

Paloma writes about the hardships of living with a man and his controlling lifestyle, speaking of his so-called “love,” which is merely just control over a woman and her free-will. Paloma also sings of greed within her song like how her husband just sits while she works and works for their relationship. Eventually, she even wonders if their love dying would really be a bad thing. A certain lyric she mentions in her song more than once is “emotional torture” that her husband provides from his end of the table they dine; the torture connects to emotional abuse that is frequent in relationships such as this one with the power unbalance.

Some people might say that this song is just about women in the 1900s, yet what they don’t understand is that this is still an issue in the modern world; men still feel they can be in control of women, and she is merely a servant for him and he does what he pleases with her. Women still fight to gain rights; sure, women legally have rights, but what about the rights within the community and society?

“This song is the perfect representation for female rage and the movement of despise toward men,” said Kiersten Wenzlick. “I always want to find the best song for my anger toward this situation, and I think I just found it. It’s been playing on repeat.”

There is a line in the song where Paloma sings about having a daughter with her husband. She goes on to explain that her daughter will live a horrible life under the power of a man and how she would fall into the same fate as her mother– trapped and living to a man’s potential and exhausting standards. She wishes she could change the unborn daughter’s fate, and she would do anything to try and escape giving her unborn child that horrible fate she herself is trapped in.

How did this song become popular? Well, Paloma sent out her teaser about the ending of the song, and women all around immediately latched onto this and came together to promote the song before the release date came. In the end of the song, she lists off a bunch of roles a woman has to play repeatedly and how she’s sick of it. “All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid, nympho then a virgin, nurse then a servant. Just an appendage, live to attend him so that he never lifts a finger,” starts the list of the roles a woman plays. It additionally explains how a man expects a woman to be in most cases, letting the woman do all the hard work while he goes to work to provide the money. “24/7 baby-machine so he can live out his picket-fence dreams. It’s not an act of love if you make her, you make me do too much labour,” Paloma adds. The second and last part explains the annoyance and betrayal a wife has toward her husband. This also mentions how some men still believe all women are breeders who stay home and do whatever the man says to live out his happy dreams, rather than what she wants. 

This isn’t a past thing. This is an issue that still happens today. Men still treat women like this, and it’s growing tiresome for every single woman in the world. Every female has the “you belong in the kitchen” speech, every female has been told at least three times that they are to merely bed a man and provide his children and raise them all on her own. Whether you believe it, this is still true and how some men think. Paloma spreads the anger to her fellow females, the female rage that females have toward feeling like after so long they are still being treated like they are nothing but merely housewives ready to obey her husband’s words.

If you ever have a chance to listen to this song, many people recommend it. The song helps one release the frustration they could have between relationships, betrayal, and power dynamics forced upon the feminine partner in the relationship. If you or a loved one is in a relationship such as the one Paloma describes, encourage yourself or your loved one to seek help and get out. Call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 800-799-7233. Whether this is physical, mental, verbal, financial, or emotional abuse, never settle for it. Never feel you are trapped inside a relationship as there will always be someone who is willing to fight for you.