You Men Out There Lyrics & Chords By Peggy Seeger

You men out there, you've shown real strength
Listening to me going on at length about women this and women that.
Almost as if the other half, well 48%
Of the human race wasn't worth the time and space they occupy.

Stop surreptitiously checking your watches,
Hands instinctively covering crotches.
Inspecting your nails and rearranging your shoes.
It's understandable, you're confused.

And your father's father and
His dad's dad and his pop's poppa and all the lads,
And the uncles, sons and brothers too.
They probably felt the same as you,
Confused.

But from where we're at,
Here's how it looks.
Long before the time of books
Women were magic,
Women were mystery.

Way before the start of history,
Before space travel and mega cities
Females were heading planning committees.
Women searched the fields and hedges
Hunting flowers, herbs and sedges.
Roots for soups, leaves for healing,
Plants to enhance loving feelings.

Wise women,
Now called "witches"
And powerful women,
Now called "bitches"
Managed life and death and birth,
Cared and shared with planet earth.
When the golden age came to a stop,
There were the men up on top.

I guess it starts with lust and love,
Where a man spends a lot of time up above.
But somehow women got redefined
And got accustomed to tagging behind.
Got used to living by manners and graces
And being judged by our figures and faces.

And before long you were peelin' our bananas,
Opening doors for us and moving our pianos
Then you got busy.
You had a ball making and breaking
And rearranging it all.

The taj mahal, the game of chess,
Safety pins, the printing press,
Chemotherapy, burglar alarms,
Money, ice cream, nuclear arms,
X-rays, battery farms, wired bras,
Designer cars, opera houses,
Disco bars, income tax,
Revolving doors, glass ceilings,
War.

We all admit that you've done wonders
And if at times they seem like blunders
And look like a recipe for global death,
Women everywhere will have to accept
That we didn't stop you or slap your hand
As we travel the road to no mans land.

Still,
You're up there in the drivers seat
And we're down here with a balance sheet.
We're answering a question you didn't ask.
We want to go forward into a past
Where humans were part of a natural whole.
Where we didn't hunt, exploit or control every plant and animal species.
Where we didn't cover the world with feces of one sort or another.

As for the vote,
Well it's not the answer to a woman's prayer,
But it's a start and it's kind of fair.
And as women living in the world of man
We have to use every tool we can.

So,
Forward to the past
With attitude,
And backward to the future,
With gratitude for the battles our fore-mothers fought and won.
For the battles we're winning one by one,
Informative action.
And I do believe in what we women are going to receive
And what we women, if we want, can take.
52% of the cake, 52% of control.

And in terms of democracy as a rigmarole
That's only one person, one vote.
You men out there,
It's a time of change,
Of redirection
And it does feel strange.
It'll get less so hour by hour,
But remember it isn't easy relinquishing power.
We know.