Although listening to Grace Mitchell’s pop/alternative-rock song “Kid’s (Ain’t All Right)” there might not be many gender specific relations, the song has minimal references to queer representations- and this is what I will be focused on analyzing for my 17th post.

 

The first verse of the song is as follows:

 

If you came in late, then you would have missed the early warning. Now we pray for our mistakes, thrown right in our face, is no one sorry?

Then the chorus:

I’ve been so blind, the kids ain’t all right. Why is everything so stupid now? I’ve been drinking my delusions down.

The second verse is where the main mention of queer representation is:

 

Now you get what you made, land of queer and patriotic, playing it safe, you want me to finish what you started.”

 

Then the song launches into the chorus one last time.

 

The most I could take away from these lyrics relate to Grace Mitchell’s official Instagram where she has her pronouns “She/They” included in her bio.

This song is the first song in my portfolio where, because the length of the song is just over two minutes and the lyrics are very limited, there isn’t much included in the lyrics to analyze by the Sex Role Theory. The mention of queerness in the second verse doesn’t go into much personal depth of the feelings of the singer. She speaks of “playing it safe” while simultaneously proclaiming to drink her delusions down. I can analyze that “playing it safe” is a form of yielding, a feminine trait according to the Sex Role Theory, but on the other hand: drinking away your problems is a more aggressive and demonstrates the willingness to take risks (masculine).

 

As far as Grace Mitchell’s Instagram, there are more identifiable feminine traits. She wears feminine clothing like dresses, crop tops, bikinis, and high heels. In many of her photos, she features many different hairstyles in very feminine ways that make use of the length of her hair. Another apparent staple of hers judging by her Instagram are red lipsticks and Smokey eyeshadow looks.

Shared by: Em von der Ruhr
Image Credit: https://www.instagram.com/gracemitchell/