I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams; he said it’s lack of sex that’s bringing me down.
I went to a whore, she said my life’s a bore; to quit my whining cuz it’s brining her down.
The shrink is a she, the whore uses both he and she pronouns in the song. The pronouns are even bolded in the lyrics sheet and quite noticable in the song.
Singer is bisexual and while he was supportive of generally challenging gender norms, sometimes his trans comments were what would be considered transphobic nowadays. See:
https://genius.com/Green-day-android-lyrics
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh0Mozl_ZTo
And
As a kid who had no understanding or awareness of anything that challenged gender norms, I was confused about the mixed pronouns. Then I forgot about that song. Some twenty years later, this mystery was addressed. Thank you for the information.
Interesting, I never pictured the character in Android as a trans person, honestly what I had in mind was more of a mentally unwell, possibly unhoused, person that perhaps had no other choice but to wear woman’s shies. Given, all of that in today’s lens is very problematic, but the song is 33 years old after all and I didn’t really have an understanding of trans people when I first heard it more than 20 years ago. Though I did pretty clearly understand the meaning of the line in basketcase.
Idk, maybe it’s because I grew up with them and Billie Joe was a queer idol for me growing up, but king for a day never struck me as demeaning towards people who cross dress or people who are trans either. Just a (probably autobiographical) song about breaking gender norms.
I am almost as old as Android and probably my views are getting outdated so feel free to ignore my ramblings. Just interesting to see how the world has changed even from when I was little confused kid. (Now I’m a big confused kid)
Yeah, I read that as the homeless person is wearing woman’s shoes and is crazy, not that he’s being judged as crazy for wearing woman’s shoes. Nothing in android’s lyrics struck me as transphobic.
In king for a day I see homophobia in general represented by the dad character and the implication that the “guys” will do something bad - but that’s the point, isn’t it? To condemn the homophobia?
Idk, I think that when it comes to interpretation there is no winning when up against someone with an agenda. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It could also be that the prostitute is male and telling the singer to quit whining because their life is so boring that it’s probably even bringing down their therapist.
