Actually Ms. Clarkson, what didn't kill me gave me trauma.
Lets write the song with a little more honesty, shall we.
Picture this: It is 2011. You’re 15. You and your friends already have an overflowing amount of micro traumas and aggressions between you. You fluctuate between wanting the attention of boys to being terrified for your health and well-being when it comes.
Every single one of your friends already has a story of assault, varying in severity but all with a similar outcome. But you don’t call it that yet. Instead, you wonder if it was what you were wearing, as if you somehow did something to deserve it. You try not to believe that this is somehow your role in the world.
You hear Kelly Clarkson’s song in the back of your head. You think if you survive this happening to you over and over you will be a warrior. That it will somehow amount to strength one day.
If you haven’t already, the 2011 bop performed and made famous by Kelly Clarkson should be bouncing around your mind, let me remind you of its lyrics:
“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over 'cause you're gone”
It cannot be argued: It’s catchy. I know it. You know it.
Heck, Kelly certainly knows it.
Let’s be clear, I don’t have a bone to pick with Kelly specifically (I mean who do I think I am?). But the notion that strength comes from things that don’t kill us?
Yeah, I’m gonna argue the shit out of that.
If I had written the chart-topping groover, the lyrics would have been a little more like:
“What doesn’t kill you gives you trauma,
gives you a warped sense of humour
Makes you scared to be alone
What doesn’t kill you makes a cryer
makes a fight or flyer
I’ll push you away until you’re gone.”
Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?
This is a paid article if you have already bought my coffee this month or decided to stick around for the year, skim over this part. If thats not you: I’m experimenting with offering a month free trial for all of my articles — click here to redeem. You can obvi cancel before your card is charged, (I hope you don’t!) but I want more of you here and I want to get paid to write. So let me show you how its worth it… and in this case what I think actually makes you stronger.