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You're gonna hang like Benito from the Esso rafters
Hang like Clara with her skull caved in Against Me! – Osama bin Laden as the Crucified Christ
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In 1945, fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and his lover Clara Petacci were executed by communist partisans while trying to flee the country. Their bodies were found hanging in an Esso gas station in Milan.

Laura Jane Grace draws a comparison between Mussolini and Bin Laden. Both were fearful enemies of Western democracy in their day. Both were eventually hunted down and killed in a gory, undignified manner. “Esso” is brought in as an allusion to the oil industry: many people feel that access to Middle Eastern oil was the real reason for the “war on terror.”

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5 years

The theme of Communist hunting down and killing their fascists leaders is a metaphor for Trans folk. Trans folk tend to be left economically because of their lack of healthcare coverage, access, and rights in capitalist societies. The fascist are more literal. Trans folk (and the rest of the LGBTQIA+ community) have both historically and currently been prosecuted for existing. Fasciy are a known and obvious enemy to us. This song is trying to convey victory for trans folk. We will find our oppressors and give them the same undignified deaths they have given many of us

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Transgender Dysphoria Blues Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues
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The title track of 2014’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues is, as Parker Molloy wrote in Death and Taxes,

Unlike past releases that merely hinted at gender-based themes, [Transgender Dysphoria Blues] is direct, blatant, even… An anthem to the “this really fucking sucks” feeling that many trans people can directly relate to. An ode to being pissed off at your body’s self-betrayal."

The song’s “dysphoria” describes the dissonance between self-identifying as a woman, but being perceived as a man by society, and an effeminate one at that. Society doesn’t always smile upon those who buck traditional gender roles.

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23

8 years

Dysphoria in this context means a disconnect. So for some it could mean the disconnect of self identity and being perceived incorrectly. However more commonly it means a disconnect within ones self. For example identifying one way, but perceiving yourself wrong (IE: in a mirror). many trans people experience both.

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Chapter One: Destiny Jean Grae – Chapter One: Destiny
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The song that first introduces the assassin character Grae later returned to on Assassins, a track off Pharoahe Monch’s 2011 album W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) and again on her own Gotham Down Trilogy

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Haunted Love Press Release Shia LaBeouf (Ft. Lars Von Trier) – Haunted Love Press Release
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This is Shia Labeouf’s idea of an appropriate press release. Sent out as part of a “guerrilla hype” campaign for the Labeouf-directed music video in spring of 2013. [Sic] throughout

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