Grimes Pens Open Letter About the Gendered Misconceptions of Her 'Suicide Squad' Song

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Aug 5, 2016

Grimes (a.k.a. Claire Boucher) has weighed in on the gendered press reaction to her Suicide Squad soundtrack contribution, "Medieval Warfare." Despite some publications' belief that the cut is a super sexed-up entry in the electronic pop artist's catalogue, Grimes reports that the song is actually about ā€” get this ā€” medieval warfare!

In a since deleted post, screen-grabbed by fansite GrimezszDaily Twitter, Boucher notes how "the press genders my lyrics," based off of a few misheard lyrics. In particular, she points out the that the chorus's neutral "are you hot?" had been misinterpreted as "are you hard?," which she argues is "implying a hetero relationship ā€” or sex involving a dick."

Another key line misreported is "can you kill someone with ur hands," currently listed on sites like Genius as "can you kill a man with your hands."

Grimes reflects that the song is a about "a platonic relationship with a female friend." As the title implies, it's also inspired by medieval warfare, "which involved mostly dudes," but is also delivered from the perspective of Suicide Squad's Harley Quinn, a character prone to decimating people with her mallet and baseball bat.

"P much every quoted lyric from the song has been changed to make it about sex with men and to distance the song from being about violence against men."

You can read Grimes' letter in full below.

Suicide Squad opens in theatres today (August 5), and the movie soundtrack is out now.

 

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