‘Creep’: Goat Girl’s powerful feminist anthem
The whole point of post-punk is to explore the avant-garde, the experimental, and the taboo. It’s a wild departure from anything you’re likely to have heard before, and a vital part of that, lyrically, is tackling subjects that others may feel too uncomfortable to broach. That’s precisely the point of ‘Creep’ by south London band Goat Girl, a feminist anthem that takes back power from the worst of women’s experiences.
Before even taking in any of the words from ‘Creep’, you can get a long way in understanding its purpose simply from its sonic position. It opens with warbling strings and guitar, foreboding vocals only continuing to add to the rising, sickening unease. Then, at once, it is juxtaposed by a somewhat jaunty tonal shift using the same instruments, but the vocal timbre is maintained. It’s as jarring, uncomfortable, overwhelming, and confusing as it sounds – but here’s the thing. That’s what it’s meant to do.
Goat Girl’s lead singer, Clottie Cream – real name Lottie Pendlebury – wrote the song for the band’s 2018 self-titled debut album following an experience where she was sexually harassed by a man who took unsolicited pictures of her on a train. The song “was my angry reaction to it,” she explained, “And maybe wishing I’ve done more about that situation at the time.”
In the chorus of ‘Creep’, Pendlebury repeats the mantra that “I want to smash your head in,” the violent imagery of which is part of the song’s feminist anthemic reclamation of agency, she said. “[The man] was making me feel really uncomfortable, but also it’s a song that says don’t be afraid – you can smash their head in as well.”
She did also admit a slight ulterior motive along with that: “Well, yeah […] I still have hopes that the person who did it will hear it.”
Ultimately, the images in ‘Creep’ such as the “Scum of lust in his brain” and “With his dirty trouser stain”, speak to the culture of sexual abuse around women that Pendlebury was seeking to address through the song. She expanded: “It was about the frustration I felt at not doing anything. I just sat there and tried to cover my body up. Afterwards, I thought, ‘Why am I receiving this and why am I not standing up for myself?’”
In many women’s experiences, as well as in Pendlebury’s, this leads to feelings of self-blame and anger, but she advocates through ‘Creep’’s purpose that the balance should be redressed. “I always have that feeling, like I’m really pathetic, but these occasions shouldn’t even exist, I shouldn’t have to train myself to deal with it. Men need to be taught how to be human. We shouldn’t feel that we should respond to rape culture, because rape culture should be non-existent.”
Amen to that. It’s for this reason that ‘Creep’ can be seen definitively as a song that provides a voice to the normalised abuse against women in society as well as the complex emotional responses that victims can have towards it. Post-punk may be hard-hitting, but if Goat Girl is anything to go by, God, they do it well.
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