In an article which I can't identify (DAMMIT!  Anybody recognize this?  
Please?) Tori said that her songs have many layers, and she mentioned 
"Pretty Good Year" specifically as an example.  She said this:
 
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	"It's funny because women don't seem to understand that song. I 
have guys coming up to me with tears running down their face going 'You 
know!' I know because I am Greg too," she explains in reference to the 
song's lyrics. "I know also because I have had to look at the way I have 
treated men. One thing that I do that a lot of women do, we've said get 
sensitive, get sensitive, but you need to be a provider, you need to be 
able to make me come a few times..."
    You need to be able to knock out that guy who just insulted me on the 
street...
     "You need to be very intelligent, creative, deep and spiritual..."
     And be able to cook dinner to make me know you care...
     "Yeah, right!" laughs Tori.  "And you need to be able to dominate me 
and throw me against the wall and tell me you love me..."
     But don't dare make me mad when you're doing it... it has to be done 
with just the right sensitivity.
     "Right!" laughs Tori as we decide we've gotten the point across.  
"Right now there are a lot of things that guys have to deal with, and 
deal with their feminine too, where it fits in.  I got a letter from a 
boy in the north of England, he drew a picture of himself: a drooping 
flower with long hair,  glasses, a real ill-looking grunge boy.  The 
letter was what I heard over and over again, which was: 'who I thought I 
wanted to be, I am just not able to accomplish it.  I don't know how I 
have run into this wall but I can't break through it.  I just can't move 
from this stagnant place.  I don't know what my purpose is, and I know I 
am not going to leave this town, and I am going to take my father's 
job... and I can't stand it.'
     "So in 'Pretty Good Year,' I refuse to give pity. That was the main 
thing.  Of course this was the worst year of his life; it's a tragedy, 
this song.  Yet... it's like the worst thing you can give somebody is 
support for their pity," she murmurs.
     "Now the other thing in this song is it made me look at when a man 
doesn't respect himself: how does that makes me feel? OK, we're patient. 
Let's be fair; we're patient for two, maybe three weeks. And then what 
happens? We're looking at the friend that's walkin' in the room with 
him," she smirks. "It's OK for us to be, 'oh, I'm laid off and I'm having 
a hard time and I am misunderstood and not given a chance,' but we get 
embarrassed [when it's a man]. I've studied this with women. If you're an 
exception, then you get the gold star," she mocks with an arch look that 
says she hasn't found many exceptions.
     "But a lot of times it's more like oooo, gross.  And it's painful to 
look at, because it's like 'why do I need a hero:' why do women need 
their men to be heroes instead of equals.  We say we want equality: then 
let's stop making them heroes aild make them equals.  We want them to be 
more.  We don't want to see their weaknesses. We don't want to see them 
shivering and puking on themselves.  We do! We puke all over ourselves!
     "But we have to be fair.  We're not fair.  We're real bitter, but we 
have to be fair, because we're not getting anywhere. We can drag them on 
their knees for the next thousand years. We've been drug behind them for 
how many thousands of years... yeah, we could get them back. But we're 
not doing anything: we're just becoming what they were. And they don't 
want to be that anymore, at least the ones that are waking up. And those 
are the ones who count, really, because it is them who are going to 
change the planet. You're always going to have your couch potatoes, but 
they don't effect anything; they just fart and take up space. They do 
pollute. But the people who are going to really make changes are open, 
they're out there!"
     I try hard not to judge on gender: I judge on how horrible a person 
is to others. And there's a lot of women out there who are very good at 
being horrid. To everyone!"

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