Re: Infant Kiss

[jan1073@usa.net]

In <3jd322$oqn@bigblue.oit.unc.edu>, celemon@email.unc.edu (Angela Reid) writes:
>I've been researching Victorian sexuality lately for a class, and I have 
>been wondering about this song.  Does anybody know Kate's story behind 
>it?  I'm struck by a thematic similarity to Henry James' "Turn of the 
>Screw," where the governess has a very erotically charged relationship 
>with her young male ward (even comparing their feelings to those of 
>newlyweds in the final scene).  Knowing Kate's proclivity for writing 
>songs related to books, I wondered if there was any connection.
>
>Angela



  Hi Angela,

     I may be the wrong person to interpret this (being male with no
offspring), but I'll hazard it out anyway...I think that it's a very powerful
song.
     The setting appears evident: Kate is a young woman (most likely
adolescent) baby-sitting (or something equivalent--perhaps simply tucking 
a relatives child into bed at a family gathering-- it has been my observation
that maturing women experiment with mothering experiences through close
observation/assistance with new additions to a family such as cousins, nieces
and nephews, or close family friends...usually not siblings or children of people
with whom they are not familiar.  But I digress.) laying a child down to sleep
for the night.

  I say goodnight - night.
  I tuck him in tight.
  But things are not right -
  What is this?  an infant kiss,

     As the young Kate tucks the boy into bed, he is undergoing a familiar
ritual...one Kate is not familiar with.  How many small children are tucked into
bed without recieving a kiss from their parent?  Not many, I'd wager.  Since
babies primary behavioral resource is imitation, they begin to kiss back as the
skills develop (until bedtime becomes undesirable, anyway :-) ) to do so.  This
boy catches Kate unawares and kisses Kate goodnight.  Tenderer moments are
hard to find.

  That sends my body tingling.
  I've never fallen for,
  A little boy before,
  No control

     This suprise has stirred the inherient maternal instincts in Kate...a
biological urge which is very new to her, both physically and intellectually.
The most significant part is NEW...this little boy has opened doors Kate didn't
even know she had.  Life suprises us like that sometimes...I think adolescent
women may handle such suprises better than adolescent men, but I'm straying
from the realm of my dime store philosiphy.

  Just a kid and just at school,
  Back home they'd call me dirty,
  His little hand is on my heart,
  He's got me where it hurts me.

     Kate is a developmental age where she is aware of her sexuality, but it's
a dirty thing, not much discussed and even less frequently in a positive light.
I am uncertain whether Kate is still bending over the boy, or if she has picked
him back up again...in either case his hand is clearly on her breast.  Since he
is old enough to present her with a kiss, he could be puller her blouse as she
bends over so he can kiss her, or she could be cradling him in her arms.  She
knows her classmates would think of this as 'dirty' (in a non-malicious sense),
be she feels something much stronger, and definately not dirty.

  Knock, knock, who's there in this baby?
  You know how to work me.

     The recognition of a maternal capability is directly related to the 
realization that this baby will turn into a _person_, just like Kate.  Though
difficult to comprehend, the understanding of this is almost immedately present.

  And all my barriers are going,
  It's starting to show,
  Let go, let go.

     This isn't about sexual barriers, this is about maternal ones.  Stronger for
women I think because after all, _they_ can get pregnant.  Kate can make one
of these things; she posses an ability innate with her femininity to creaste
another human being.  No small thing, that.

  I cannot sit and let,
  Something happen I'll regret,
  Ooh, he scares me,
  There's a man behind those eyes,
  I catch him when I'm bending

     Mothers are more aware and more protective of their son's sexuality, just
as most fathers are more aware and more protective of their daughter's
sexuality.  This infant boy will become more than a person; he will become a
man.  I am less certain of whether this is biological or learned (or is Kate
being dirty?  Frankly, I don't think so).  Perhaps some feminine folk can answer
this question for me.  The bending reference may be Kate bending down to kiss
him goodnight, I'm not sure.

  Ooh, how he frightens me,
  When they whisper privately,
  Windy-waily, blows me,
  Words of caress on their lips,
  That speak of adult love.
  I want to smack but I hold back,
  I only want to touch.
  But I must stay and find a way to stop this before it gets too much.

     Kate isn't comfortable with the concept of herself in a motherhood role...
of course this is the very subject which the mothers, and perhaps fathers,
discuss either while she is not present or whisper to one another while they
feel she is more focused on the child than them.  She wants to strike out,
to remove from their minds the idea that she is a sexual creature, capable of
such an act because she feels some sort of shame.  Remember, they'd only call
her dirty.

     I think the focus of the song is more maternal than sexual, though the
two awarenesses awaken about the same time.  The song reflects Kate's
psycological and cultural conflict with such powerful internal stirrings.

     There's my two cents.  It's all my opinion, and flames on what a sexist
pig I am can be sent via e-mail or to /dev/null.  That's my youth and
paranoia speaking there, I think :-).


                                                     ---Jan