Asking For It
As suggested by the title, ‘Asking For It’ deals with both literal and figurative rape in the sexual sense, but also the feeling of being ‘raped’ by other people’s opinions of you. Love wrote the track following being sexual harassed by audience members of a show in Glasgow, where Hole opened for Mudhoney. Following a stage dive, she describes her dress ‘being torn off of me, my underwear was being torn off of me, people were putting their fingers inside of me and grabbing my breasts really hard’.
A much slower track in comparison to the rest of Live Through This, one may suggest that Hole are attempting to draw attention to this track in order to highlight the importance of feminism and consent “was she asking for it / was she asking nice / yeah she was asking for it / did she ask you twice”. ‘Asking for It’ somehow manages to be poppy, angry, distant and in your face all at once.
album or in a playlist…in essence the most eminently listenable song of 2016 – My wife now hates it.