By Chelsea Ives

Tori Amos’s song, “God” from her 1994 album Under the Pink, opens with funky electronic sounds that could be the interlude music between a 90’s sitcom cut – just picture the music between cuts in Friends and I think you get the idea. Although the album’s themes are as far from happy-go-lucky as you can get. Amos faces serious issues like rape, feminism, and religion head-on throughout Under the Pink.

The theme of “God” is an everyday truth for women: “You got your 9’9 iron in the back seat just in case […]”, Amos sings ironically acknowledging women’s necessity for arming ourselves with make-shift weapons in case we are ever attacked at our cars late at night.  Amos achieved a song which laments and condemns the position of women in 1994 – a sound and position which still resonates in 2019. The line, “a few witches burning,” can hardly be ignored when considering the way women are treated, even now in the 21^st century. Too often have women been used as scapegoats for men’s violent tendencies – as if we both ask for it and are the reason for it.

The song quotes the book of Proverbs from the new Testament: “Give not thy strength unto women nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings”. In an interview with WHFS Press, Amos describes how she was trying to represent the oppression of women and minorities in the bible in her music, and how her Methodist-minister father could not conceive of the oppression, “[…] it was very interesting to me how my father … just can’t acknowledge the way that the church has treated not just women, but people in other cultures […]”. No doubt this was all the proof Amos needed towards the importance of her musical activism.

Overall, the song fits perfectly in the setup of the album, which begins by laying out the plight of women with strong and ironic vocals from Amos, leading in to the second half of the album which rejoices in hopefulness for women taking back the control over their own lives and bodies.