It’s rare that a pop anthem references an 18th century, Rococo French painter. It’s even stranger when his name is dropped in the first line, an arguably vaulted position in the pop songwriting format, typically reserved for the most iconic celebrities of our era. But MARINA is no ordinary pop songstress, nor is Man’s World- MUNA Remix your ordinary, danceable track. The listener is initially hooked by the dreamy, sweeping tones of MARINA’s voice as she croons over cherubs, strawberry soda, and clouds in her eyes in the beginning of the first verse. She then switches gears abruptly, stating “Burn me at the stake, you thought I was a witch centuries ago/ Now you just call me a bitch.” When I first heard the line I audibly gasped— one of those 1960s, I Love Lucy, over-the-top, this guy must be kidding gasps. I stopped my run mid-stride, hit rewind, and listened again. She of course, said it again, I gasped again, and then I kept on with my run. As I rounded the corner of the quad, she continued to throw out line after line, utterly dragging our societal structure. She cries out that Mother Nature is dying without notice, an allusion to the ongoing, global environmental degradation, before she reaches the basic tenet of the song: “I don’t wanna live in a man’s world anymore.” This underpins every ensuing line as she drives the song forward with a compelling, deceptively syncopated beat.
I found myself unintentionally, and somewhat ironically, voguing to her second verse, a shade-filled four lines aimed at the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah. Brunei, a modern-day bastion of homophobic legislation, including the death penalty for “same-sex acts,” has come under widespread international scrutiny for its treatment of LGBTQ+ people. MARINA further fuels the fire as she recognizes the disgusting hypocrisy of Bolkiah killing “thousands of gay men” while owning “the campest hotel in LA.” This particularly apt censure of homophobia is all the more cutting when the listener considers the track’s almost inevitable popularity at gay bars and clubs across the world in a post-COVID world. I know I will personally relish being in a sweaty crowd at Icon as the song comes on and the whole room screams in wild, frenzied adulation. My only criticism of the remix is the cut to MARINA’s final lyrics, as she calls for men to think of their “mother, daughter or a friend” and realize that they live in a vastly different world than our own. But one need only listen to the original track to remedy this. I highly recommend you listen to both- maybe you’ll be as surprised as I was to discover the strange joy of voguing to highbrow criticisms of systemic sexism and homophobia.
