I didn't know the backstory behind Fugazi's song "Suggestion" until about a year ago when I read Sara Marcus's book, Girls to the Front, about the history riot grrrl and the third-wave feminist movement associated with it. During their set, Fugazi would invite a female vocalist to sing the lyrics, which are about street harassment and rape:
Why can't iI walk down a street free of suggestion? Is my body the only trait in the eye's of men? I've got some skin. You want to look in. There lays no reward in what you discover. You spent yourself watching me suffer. Suffer your words, suffer your eyes, suffer your hands. Suffer your interpretation of what it is to be a man. I've got some skin. You want to look in. She does nothing to deserve it. He only wants to observe it. We sit back like they taught us. We keep quiet like they taught us. He just wants to prove it. She does nothing to remove it. We don't want anyone to mind us. So we play the roles that they assigned us. She does nothing to conceal it. He touches her 'cause he wants to feel it We blame her for being there But we are all guilty.The song itself doesn't give me pause: the lyrics are harsh, brash, and self-aware enough to want break down those institutions that allow men to objectify women. A lesser songwriter would fail at this self-awareness; however, I don't think this is a man's song to sing (hence the guest vocalists), or even a man's song to write. Regardless of the all the good intentions, "Suggestion" always felt like appropriation to me, especially since hardcore itself was pretty inhospitable to women.
