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Interpretations:How Can I Sing Like A Girl?

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The line about letting his freak flag fly, is a reference to David Crosby's Almost Cut My Hair, which appeared on CSNY's 1970 album Deja Vu and contains those very lyrics. In that case it was having long hair, in this case it's singing like a girl. Obviously. ASL

I believe this is a feminist song about how women are treated unfairly, both stigmatized and objectified.

I disagree. I believe that if you take it literally, it's about a guy that wants to sing like a girl without being seen as girlish, or gay.

Tell me how can I sing like a girl And not be objectified As if I were a girl?
This isn't meant to stigmatize women, because according to this there is nothing wrong with singing like a girl if you are one. If you sing like a girl and are not one, then you are traditionally labeled as gay. He wants to sing like a girl without the spotlights being trained on him; in other words, society's label.

Otherwise it could be about any person that wants to be different without being labeled/treated differently. calvino07@hotmail.com

Self-referentially, the song begs to be sung with falsetto voice. Like the narrator who denies his true talent and desire, it is not sung that way. (Ironically, in concert it would still be performed with spotlights and everyone watching - sung falsetto or not.)

I think you're both right. I definitely think there is a pro-feminist angle to the song. But on a more superficial level, I think the song is a nod to Beach Boys/Brian Wilson typically falsetto type songs.

I always just thought the song had more to do with singing in a chorus. he doesn't want to do it, and he's asking why you would even think of it, [who ever suggested it]! ~~ doog

I think this song is about a teenager who is in chorus and his voice hasn't fully matured yet. He has to do a solo in a song and he thinks he his peers might poke fun at like saying his a girl because of his high voice. In raising the freak flag he is trying to find people like him or have his problem after his peers mock him so he will never be alone. Well weird huh? -Ben G. Rogers I

After talking good talk about freak flags in this song, I thought John and John were disingenuous at best in their references to a Milwaukee/GenCon performance in this 1998 Onion AV Club interview.

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/23081

The narrotor wants to be unique, but is afriad of actually acting any different from anyone else and being ridiculed. Like me in high school.


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