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Paris Paloma has branded toxic masculinity a “massive tragedy” for all involved, as she addressed how her viral song “Labour” has become more pertinent than ever with the rise of the manosphere and incel culture.
The singer-songwriter rose to fame with “Labour” in 2023, which detailed the often unnoticed and unappreciated work that women do.
The bridge, in particular, was used in viral social media clips featuring the lyrics: “All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid/ Nymph, then a virgin, nurse, then a servant/ Just an appendage, live to attend him/ So that he never lifts a finger.”
Paloma, 26, spoke with The Independent’s music editor Roisin O’Connor for her Good Vibrations podcast at Montreux Jazz Festival, where the singer-songwriter was performing as part of its 60th edition.
She is currently preparing to release her hugely anticipated second album, The Fatal Flaw, and explained how several songs delve into themes of misogyny, womanhood and skewed beauty ideals.
One song, “Pyrrhus”, was inspired by the son of Achilles from Greek myth, known for his merciless brutality in contrast to his father, famed for his demonstrations of mercy and grief.
“It got me thinking about the immense violence that makes its way to us through our screens, and how it’s so often young men who are inflicting that,” she said. “I was thinking a lot about the type of boy who is groomed into doing that.”
Paloma was also influenced by Kate Bush’s “Army Dreamers”, a song written from the perspective of a mother watching her son be seduced by and then fall victim to war. “It’s one of my favourite songs on the album because toxic masculinity is a massive tragedy, and I wanted to write something that reflected that,” she said. “No one wins – young boys are thrown to the wolves, they enlist as soldiers and die for no reason.”
Reflecting on the impact of “Labour”, Paloma said it became a “lightning rod” for the cultural temperature of the time and showed that “change needs to be made”. Many women on social media have been using it in TikToks to demonstrate cases of oppression and misogyny. Fans have also messaged Paloma to tell her it inspired them to leave abusive relationships.
“Really unfortunately, ‘Labour’ only becomes more and more relevant,” she said, pointing to the rise of “tradwifedom”, women embracing stereotypical gender roles like homemaking, child-rearing and submissive behaviour towards their husbands.
“There are these young far-right women who are, funnily enough, they’re content creators and they have jobs [but] they spend all their time trying to convince women to not work, that they should stay at home and not have a job, no financial security, no pension,” Paloma said. “‘Labour’ is massively about that, and it builds and builds because we’re at a point in time where it’s more relevant, in many nuanced ways, than it was at the time when I wrote it.”
Paloma releases her latest single, “Pre-Raphaelite”, on Friday (24 July), a song written from the female gaze and inspired by figures from the Pre-Raphaelite movement such as Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris: “All the women and girls I’ve been obsessed with and admired so much.”
“We’re in a time right now where there is so much belittling of women’s appearances – social media has grown awful with the standards that men and boys have,” she said. “I wrote ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ about the way you admire a woman without it being about sexual attraction.”
Paloma’s album The Fatal Flaw takes its name from Donna Tartt’s 1992 debut novel The Secret History, in which a character wonders, “Does such a thing as ‘the fatal flaw’, that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn’t. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”
Her own album contains a similar kind of interrogation, questioning “why she loves the way she loves”, her relationships with people, patriarchy and beauty. “The album is meant to inspire questions,” she said.
Asked how she would describe The Fatal Flaw, Paloma said it was one containing songs “for great halls, songs that feel like heavy, massive paintings and great tapestries depicting battles and ancient stories, that are also really human”.
Her new single “Pre-Raphaelite” is out on Friday 24 July; The Fatal Flaw is released on 4 September.
The full episode of Good Vibrations, also featuring a conversation with Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan, is out now on all major streaming platforms.
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