F***! This Is Powerful.
We don’t speak about many female artists on here, however today I’m reacting to a song by a young British artist called Paris Paloma with her new song Labour. It’s quite a powerful piece. I’m aware nearly all of you watching are male but let’s have a listen without it triggering our defence mechanisms. She’s describing a very specific type of relationship that many of us may relate to and it’s quite good.
Here is a link to the video: https://youtu.be/jvU4xWsN7-A
#parispaloma #labour #musicreaction
@horselover-iris
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
no offence its Paris Paloma not Paloma Paris
@coolcalm1111
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
I'm so sick of men hearing this song and still not getting it. It's not ONE relationship or the 1800s. The oppression of women happens since the roman empire and it's very much revelant to this day, to the point this song was released in 2023 and generated a whole freaking movement
@gwolfstahl
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
How about listening to it thru to get the impact then you might get a better understanding instead of mansplaining every other phrase
@gwolfstahl
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
So you interrupted almost immediately?🤦🏽♀️
@Naomi-yr9bh
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
I thought you were Austin powers for a second 😂😂
@gaelle4328
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
This is about generational rage and violence… physical, mental, psychological, economical DA .
@nasabio106
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
This song is an anthem…. The pain from this song is like a dagger in my heart
And men wonder what’s happening with women nowadays… this is how all women feel unfortunately… and men keep denying it … generations of torture … trauma passing through… I can feel my mom’s pain …
But it is psychology here … men and their grandiosity … it took over them and transformed them to Monsters
@christinamoran-i6r
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
This was my last relationship. He had two daughters. I was temporary step mom. We both worked (me, 40hrs), but i was expected to take care of everything at home. Which i did, and he shit on all of it. Everything. And he mistreated me in front of his daughters. So i left bc A) it was awful and demeaning and B) I didn't want his daughters to think it was okay to be treated that way or to treat others that way. And i was made out to be the asshole for leaving, of course. This was 2018-2021.
@Jane-rc2rk
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
It’s a fabulous anthem … and so many women identify with it. So many double meanings … and so very very true. I’m a 61 yo woman who was married to man just like the man in the lyrics … capillaries bursting from being strangled, doing everything to stop him raising his fist. Every time I tried to escape I couldn’t because he’d promise to change. “False incompetence” … every time. I’m out and tell everyone I know to listen to this.
@SeverineFlayelle
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
"It doesn't really do enough, emotionally" because it doesn't need to. It's relatable. The music and the lyrics stand for themselves. And it's made all the more powerful with the interviews and posts in which she explains intersectionality is front heart and center in it all
Edit because I forgot to mention it. I probably missed something. Labour is also the process of giving birth. I'm quite sure lots of women connected the dots when they first heard the lyrics
@aminaa5824
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
It makes it even sadder to me because even to this day, in every demographic (working couples, traditional couples, so called 50/50 couples, everything) it’s shown that majority women still take on more domestic labour than the man, literally (If my memory serves) even if they are the sole income provider, there are very few women who can’t relate to this in 2025
@yoovie
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Men calling required emotional labor "the menial tasks", as you just did, is absolutely infuriating.
@Bonnie.E.M
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Loved this review! Was the compositional expression you were looking for "counterpoint"/"counter-melody"?
@amylouise9853
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Thank you Justin for bringing this song to your mostly male audience. The song also hints at domestic violence ‘the capillaries in my eyes are bursting’, which is a sign of strangulation. It is a common form of physical domestic violence and often is a warning sign that the physical abuse may escalate. For me the labour is the emotional burden I’ve had to carry and the emotional labour I’ve had to do healing because of domestic violence on top of the usual domestic labour.
@SarafinaSummers
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Where the vocals at the end are slightly offset and in two different bits, the bridge and the chorus is called a "round". It's awesome.
@janeeyre8596
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
I think its more than about a relationship with a significant other. Its the way boys are treated differently to girls as kids. How women are expected to stay in their lanes, do and be all the things that are "feminine "…'nymph, virgin, nurse, servant ' etc AND hold down a job, be an equal bread winner. Without an partner doing equal lifting its impossible. Its the invisible tasks that wear someone out. The organising, the remembering, the sorting, the planning. Its exhausting, and i think thats why in the end she just isnt there anymore. She either stays and becomes invisible or leaves and becomes absent. Love this song
@andidreyes5323
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
My cousin died, giving her love, and care to her family. She received from them… sometimes care and love back. I feel like I am back in the same place no matter how I TRIED to change the circumstances. I'm going to die giving them all my love and care and health while they give me all their stress and disrespect and derision even though I went to college, moved to a big city (Los Angeles), used public transportation and survived a lot of life-threatening surgeries/severe health issues. But they treat me with this thought that I'm just less… but I get up, live, do, even though I'm actually dying. I dealt with all of that… and I'm going to die… but at least I didn't have children to orphan.
@prib.drugge4536
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Uhmm guess what..this happens in lgbtq relationships too!
@prib.drugge4536
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Omfg…just the chores? And somehow you miss the double meaning of the word LABOR? Nay triple, nay 4, 5,6x+ of the work women do! No wonder women rage with this song
@AlexisH-f2r
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
I love hearing the difference between men reacting to this song and women, because men are mostly surprised and women are just sitting there like “finally! Someone put it into words!!”
@rosie8606
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
(Preface not hate just a general observation)
Right, why is it that every man that reacts to this song, even the ones that seem to get it, are suddenly possessed by the need to use a-gender language? Instead of “women” terms like they/people/partners/spouses just to jump into the breach. It’s not like it’s your default for inclusivity or anything, it’s a noticeable switch in behaviour around this song. Is it discomfort or shame or rejection, or even denial?
@Deryatari
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
As a women in her early 30s, I've seen both very healthy and very toxic relationships around me. My parents are in a very happy partnership and while my dad generally does his best to be an equal partner, I think my mum certainly did a lot more emotional, mental and physical labour around the home. Working part-time while taking care of us, making doctor's appointments, cooking and cleaning and all sorts of things. In retrospective we all took it for granted, especially when my brother's and I were younger.
However, my parents did an amazing job at making sure we would all be responsible adults who can do all the work around the household. I'm very proud of both my brothers, because they make sure that their girlfriend / wife feel supported and all chores are done 50/50. Also, both are very emotionally mature and available, making sure their significant others don't have to carry all the emotional labour. Breaking those generational traumas and stereotypes!!!
That being said, I've had my fair share of even just male FRIENDS, who brought so much trauma onto me and are the reason why this song resonates so much with me.
@Officially_LovingGod
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
I understand it really touched me a lot. Do not mind me you actually remind me of Austin Powers😅
@joygernautm6641
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Please react to Kiki Rockwell, same old energy
@helenmantell7353
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
The complexity of the writing in this song is sublime. There are so many multifaceted references: 'Why are you hanging on, so tight, to the rope that I'm hanging from? This was an escape plan' – physical escape from the relationship and I wonder if it's also referring to 'unaliving' as an option (I loathe the santised language we are compelled to use by YouTube so comments don't get removed, but here we are)? So he never lifts a finger' – doesn't do any domestic or emotional labour, and also doesn't subject her to Intimate Partner Violence; 'The capillaries in my eyes are bursting' – references to strain from hard labour and, possibly, also strangulation; 'And now I've gotta run so I can undo this mistake' – abortion references and a nod to the erasure of this as an option in the US? I am a late Gen X woman, navigating menopause, and I have experienced every bit of the relationship dynamic she describes. I was brought up to expect to do the emotional and physical labour and the men were brought up to expect to benefit from it. It set me up for a living hell and, in my circle of close friends, it was the norm. It's not historical, it is still going strong and the indisputable male privilege that fuels it is built on the broken backs of generations of women. I am in awe of this generation of Western women who are stamping their collective feet and saying 'no more!' And I am sad that even railing against it requires a level of privilege that women in many other cultures just don't have.
@datadivanet
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Since your daughter was in the room, I wonder if that line 'If we had a daughter, I'd watch and could not save her' hit harder than it would have a couple years earlier (or before you became a father if she isn't your oldest).
@TheTee5231976
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
This song is important especially 2024 / 2025. In the US we have lost rights to our own bodies. We had men determine if we should live through pregnancy & childbirth because the child is more important than the woman is to them. Women have died because even when the fetus is not viable we still didn't deserve to live in some states. Sexual assault happens to 1 in 3 women. There was men that forced women to change their vote because they felt they didn't vote the right way AKA picking Trump. Now that Trump's actually in office he spent the last less than a week destroying everything about our country. They just put out a bill in the house (HR 7) stating that Women's health care needs to take into account the needs of men, families, and community. Not too long ago women only got to go to college to gain their Mrs ( find a husband & get married). I'm 48 and my mother is in her 80s. When she married my father in the 1950s, she couldn't get a bank account in her name, own a home, or make reproductive decisions without her husband, brother or fathers permission. My father didnt want kids so he was able to force my mom on to birth control. She stopped taking it behind his back because it made her very sick. When she got pregnant with me , he gave her the option of abortion or divorce. She chose to have me but lost everything. She had to go home to her parents and had to sign a legal document saying they had no legal children of their marriage. I never met him, wasn't involved in his family, and my mom never got a single dime from him. This was how the US was not too long ago. They are dragging us back to that now. We are terrified.
I was raised in a conservative Catholic home where I had to take extra classes on cooking, sewing, cake decorating, flower decorating, and basically anything that makes you into a good little housewife. I wasnt allowed to participate in sports. I was given a good education because I would need to be able to hold a conversation with my husband's boss and needed to be well rounded so I wouldn't embarrass my husband at dinner parties. My mom and aunts were all debutants. College was to get your Mrs aka married to man from a good family. I was told my whole life that I was too curious and way "too opinionated for a woman". Many women went through that upbringing sadly. Its our job to break the cycle. I did the opposite with my daughters. My daughters were 3 season athletes including being a goalie in soccer and a wrestler. They all learned to fight and took self defense. Now I'm terrified that my daughters and granddaughters won't have the same opportunities. Women have lost rights to our own bodies in some states. We have men writing laws about pregnancy when they dont even understand how a womans body works, including thinking the baby isnt attached to us in womb and thinking we can 'shut down our bodies from getting pregnant during a rape'. The US house just released a bill (HR 7) where women's recroductive and healthcare decisions must take into account the "needs of men families and communities". We are going back to a time where my mother could not have a bank account, own a house in her name, or make decisions about her own body without the permission from the men around her.
@TheTee5231976
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Many women also had their invention stolen or ignored. We wouldn't have bluetooth if it wasn't for a woman. She was an actress too
@IndianaMascaro
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
My mother went through DV with my dad for 20 years, and when I come out with it, men always say, "What did your mother lie about today?" like I legit lived with her to see it.
@agent6bell
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
I'm so glad my dad also does chores, cook, and take care of the house along with us too. So to me he is the standard.
@ashleykearns6655
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
He looks like the real life version of Austin powers 😂
@EllieBeanz637
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
The amount of double meanings in this song is incredible and the symbolism in the video? Chef's kiss.
@PamK36
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
"Nearly all watching are male?" I don't get that feeling. I see lots of female names in the chat.
@digitalgraffiti_ca
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
It makes me angry. I watched (I say watched, i mean still watch) my mother go through this. My ex husband and his narcissistic mother constantly berated me for NOT doing this, because i flat out refused to let the cycle continue. I don't think the multi layered vocals was supposed to be some harmonic technique, I think it was the inner monologue of about 80% of the female population, screaming this in their cars, because they have dealt with it, are dealing with it, or have watched multiple women they love go through this. It's out collective rage seeping through. And the fact that I'm with a man that does NOT do this to me somehow makes me even angrier. If women would just straight up say NOPE, I'M DONE, eventually these men would either realise that they're feckless wastes of space and they'd get their shit together, or they'd just starve to death in dirty underwear, desperately clutching their crusty xBox controller.
Ladies, leave you useless partner. Leave your domestically inept boyfriend. Leave someone who doesn't value you as much as you value them. Leave the person that doesn't help unless you hold their hand through basic tasks. Ask yourself "is dealing with this person worth the peace that I find in solitude? Is this person adding as much to my life as I am adding to theirs? Am I his partner, or his second mommy?" Value yourself. They don't have any power once you say NO.
@weaselqueen811
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
The gang vocals and the round singing is so lovely.
@TheNewMrsDP
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Its not sn act of love if you make her , has such a strong double meaning it neans if he forced you to cook and ckean then its forced labour and also if he forced you to have sex then its rape not an act of love ,such a powerful song 😢
@mjchavez4302
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
The part of if we had a daughter always gets me. Because it's so true.
@Buggy-m9y
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
You sound like a Percy Jackson Audio Book person 🫶
@charlylimph
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
This song is not about lazy men. It is about violent men. "The capillaries in my eyes are bursting".
@jilliansmaniotto2326
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
1:15 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
@brendalonergan1440
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
When I first heard it.. it was the underlying violence refences.. she mentions beinin things which sound like him eating.. and being ungrateful. It's the capillaries in my eyes are bursting line where I started to cry… the whole song has all double meanings.. to violence in relationships… wether emotional or physical..
As a former victim of DV.. and having been throttled on several occasions… and how basic house wife duties in this are the reason… as they are in most DV relationships. Wen I read some of the comments on her song the section was full of horror stories of women who thankfully escaped. I think most women can relate to it on some level having either being in a minor situation like that or a major one, also we have to stand with our sisters in countries where women are still very much property and are all of the things she's speaking. It's very literal… and its also double edged … it has so many views because it hits a never with every woman… its not a man hating song by any means… its just very real. Its very deep.
@myoldyoutubechannel
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
I liked the way the repetition, looping and overlay of sound mimicked the way labour feels; monotonous, hypnotic, sisyphean.
@isaabel9767
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
We do have to take it historically though, because you’re missing the whole fucking point
@isaabel9767
August 29, 2025 at 5:56 pm
It’s a round? It’s sung in round. Takes a little labour apparently
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