Cornflake Girl

[Edgewise]

Apologies if their is a thread already about this song.

I've read lots of interpretations about this song on the net and some people seem to... over-analyze it. Isn't the line "never was a cornflake girl" Tori saying that she wasn't always a red head? I know from the pictures from the Ellen Amos days she had dark hair, and I think "thought it was a good solution hanging with the raisin girls" was just like 'yeah, I did it to stand out'. And then the rest of the song is just about the relationship women have - i.e., the backstabbing, bitchyness etc. I know Tori said that "the man with the golden gun" is God, but as for the rabbit and the keys, I have no idea.

[Julie]

Cornflake Girl

Never was a cornflake girl thought that was a good solution hangin with the raisin
girls
She never was a mean girl so she thought it was a good idea to be with the nice girls.

she's gone to the other side givin us a yo heave ho
A nice girl went to be with the mean girls and betrayed the nice girls she left behind.

things are getting kind of
gross
The girls are being cruel to each other.

and I go at sleepy time this is not really happening you bet your life it is

Peel out the watchward just peel out the watchward

She knows what's goin on seems we got a cheaper feel now all the sweeteaze are
gone
The power of the mean girls has become so strong that sweet girls are becoming fewer and fewer.

gone to the other side with my encyclopedia they musta paid her a nice price
She must have given up a lot to be with these mean girls.

she's puttin on her string bean love this is not really happening you bet your life
it is

Rabbit where'd you put the keys girl and the man with the golden gun thinks he
knows so much
Certain men think they understand the betrayal and cruelty between women, but Tori is assuring that they don't.

thinks he knows so much Rabbit where'd you put the keys girl

Tori's explaination:
"I read the Alice Walker book, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and there's umm, in that book, the mothers take the daughters to the butchers to have their, let's say their genitalia removed. And even though it's a patriarchal culture that she's talking about, and that this custom was put into practice a long, long time ago by the patriarchy, it's the mothers that take their daughters. And, what I was singing about was, it's funny how from generation to generation women really betray each other in the ladies' room. There is a whole secret society that happens, and a lot of times a mother will say 'I'm doing this for your good' whether it was binding the feet in the Eastern cultures or whether it's marrying your daughter to this gangrene, smelly-breathed, old, decrepit, rotting scumbag that's 80 years old with dough. 'You know, this is really the best for you,' when the truth is, it's the best for everybody else. And, that's an extreme of women's relationships brought to just like, your girlfriend that you're hanging out with, but betrayal is betrayal, and I was thrown in to many situations as I was reading that book where girls, my girls, we were just dissin' each other. The things that we were doing, umm, it's like I would have never imagined that we could be so unsupportive of each other, and it was just happening while I was reading this book, and Cornflake Girl is the betrayal really of girls."
-- Tori; 99X Radio Interview, 08/05/94

"History has recorded some pretty nasty things that have happened to people I think we remember I think it's in our cells and I think it can still hurt sometimes."
-- Tori; Under The Pink Songbook

More of her description of it: www.yessaid.com/talk/8cornflakegirl.html

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: Apollo's Frock - Tori Amos

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