Does anyone else have a frisson reaction to the entire This Woman's Work sequence, or are you normal and don't get skingasms from queer media?
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Ok so I’m taking a break from shitposting to talk about the use of ‘This Woman’s Work’ in episode 3 because I’m a massive Kate Bush fan as well as OFMD - it’s taken me a minute to process my feelings about this because it’s also super personal.
This song is sung from the perspective of a man whose partner is going through a traumatic childbirth - in the video you see him in a waiting room, alone, trapped in a kind of limbo:
You can see both the visual and symbolic similarities with Ed’s experience in the ‘gravy basket’ - he is also stuck in a blue-toned, washed out limbo, effectively alone (as Hornigold is really just a projection of himself)
The man in ‘This Woman’s Work’ is also starting to drown, he’s drowning in his feelings of regret, fear for his partner, his helplessness in the face of her suffering, just as Ed is drowning in his self-loathing, his fears of being unloveable, his trauma and the suffering he has caused to others:
But in both of these situations, they are visited by a vision of the one person who can pull them out of their downward spiral:
In each of these situations their partner is just there with them, being present without interacting but this presence alone is enough to give them the strength to pull out of their drowning.
And of course there is the significance of the line “give me your hand…”
Both Stede and the man in “This Woman’s Work” are powerless to help their partner through their suffering, the work of birth (or rebirth on Ed’s part) has to be done alone - but they can be there, and they can hold their hand.
I was in labour with my first son for 30+ hours, ending in an emergency c-section and my son being taken straight to the NICU because he wasn’t breathing. This song and this use of it in the show will always mean a lot to me because I know what it’s like to be drowning, in a kind of mental limbo with all this scary crap going on around you, but having a partner there to hold your hand through it, grounding you and bringing you back to the surface.
Anyway, I’ll go back to shitposting now ;)
And my son is a happy and healthy 6 year old now, just in case anyone was worried!
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