Chumbawamba:

WHEN NO MEANS NO

We know what they said of our lives
Choose between a lie and a lie
I’m asking where was I?
When man made history
In the magazine you read with one hand?
Packaged and wrapped for consumer demand?
On the factory floor being qualilty controlled?
Smiling at the camera of the status quo?
All theses images printed and filled
Detailed description of what the rapist’s victim wore
Never about the courage or the women in Armagh-jall
Stripsearched, rnentally raped many times a day
They can steal her right to choose but not her dignity
This is a uniform with nothing inside
Watch who it beats and why
This is the state, paid to hate
Locked doors and legal rape
She bites her lips, won’t show her shame
Forced to strip again and again
This. woman won’t submit, it won’t be in print
Nor will you be able to video it
The media push soap, ignore real life
One requires submission, the other choosing sides
Gender’s not a choice, but to fight back is
Been too o ten tricked by compromises
Too often raped by the same old lies
Won’t be the victim, or the slave of a slave
From Northern Island to Spain and Russia
A child in one arm, gun in the other
First we listened and obeyed commands
Discovered ourselves: made demands
In the miners’ strike saw the media lies
Raised our voices, reclaimed our lives
Found ourselves fighting on two frontlines
Against the bosses, against our husbands
Markewitz, Devlin, Jacobs and Goldman
Luxemburg and others deliberately forgotten
Fought for the land, the workers, the peasants
Belonged to nobody but themselves
Stood beside the men or not al all
Saying .”Why should I fight to keep you in control?”
When no means no and women own their bodies
When judges don’t set rapists free and find women guilty
Wnen we can walk alone without fearing every sound
When we don’t think we're wrong before we've opened our mouths
Whnen we can enjoy sex without being called whore
When intimacy’s a partnership not one taking all
Wher we can have an abortion without feeling shame
When they no longer tell us biology’s to blame
When we’re taken seriously without holding a theory or a gun
Until that point our struggle’s just begun
History sticks and stones may break our bones
And names can often hurt us
But paper burns and anger turns victims into victors

Chumbawamba