Florence + the Machine - song ‘King’ from Dance Fever album.

“What women must sacrifice in service to their careers in relation to men is an age-old question. Even as modern-day amenities like paid maternity leave and evolving ideas of gender roles have sought to close that gap, it still remains, often lingering in the background for most women as, in the best-case scenario, a mental chasm to surmount” .Nylon.com

I need my golden crown of sorrow
My bloody sword to swing
My empty halls to echo with grand self-mythology
I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king
I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king

Source: Musixmatch

I was listening to this album and King is the first song. When I was studying Psychology, my last paper was entitled Women in Psychology. I read an essay that described how historically women had been catagorized as either mothers or brides (wives) and most early studies of women could not identify women outside these labels. When reading about Penelope of Ithaca fame, I noticed that although she was a mother and she was the wife of Odysseus, she held onto the island for twenty years while he was away. She did not take the role of Queen as there was no King, so she in fact took the role of King. I was struck by the line in this song because it should have read ‘I am Queen’ to be gender accurate, but instead she choses to use the word King. She is taking control of her narrative, just like Penelope, and just like the feminist writer Hélène Cixous, describes how women have to write their own history, their own narratives. I thought I would incorporate these lyrics into my work.