The meaning behind “This Love”

Being this a more mature work and with a more aggressive sound, the themes also became more realistic. From this album we extract for the analysis the videoclip of “This Love”, a rare song, technically speaking it is a ballad that has nothing to do with Pantera’s fast style. However, there is a catch here because “This love” is not a traditional love song, it is sick, depressing, sad and nostalgic. The video reflects these emotions from the subjective perspective of the one who narrates the song and from a sociological angle because it deals with the problem of prostitution in the streets. But first let’s review the visual composition to have a wider context that will help us to better understand the issues addressed by the song. And of course, at the end there is also an interesting philosophical approach that leads us to reflect on the meaning of love in the human being.

The visual approach

There is something that stands out in the video and that is the absence of clear atmospheres, bright, cheerful colors that expose a positive sense of love. The band, for example, visualizes their performance in two environments: an exterior shot that seems to be an industrial complex next to the city and an interior shot that is a recording studio. In the first one we see the use of fog with a dark blue background, sometimes you can see vast buildings in the background, but you can also see that the shot was filmed from a high location. Here we recurrently see the band’s vocalist, Philip Anselmo, performing the song in the foreground. The use of fog has always been notorious in film to create mystical atmospheres. If this atmosphere is reinforced with a dark blue color, and if the filming is done from a high position, the sense that is wanted to build in the video is more associated with introspection. Here it is important to unveil what Anselmo tells us in his song.

If ever words were spoken
Painful and untrue
I said I loved
But I lied
In my life
All I wanted
Was the keeping (of someone like you)
As it turns out
Deeper within me
Love was twisted and pointed at you
Never ending pain. Quickly ending life
You keep this love (Thing), Love (Child), Love (Toy)!
You keep this love (Fist, Love (Scar), Love (Break)!
You keep this love!
Love!
Love!
You keep this love!
Love!
Love!
You keep this love!
I'd been tempting one
Stole her from herself
This gift in pain
Her pain was life
And sometimes
I feel so sorry
I regret this (hurting of you)
But you made me...so unhappy
I'll take my life (and leave love with you)
I'd kill myself for you. I'd kill you for myself
You keep this love (Thing), Love (Child), Love (Toy)!
You keep this love (Fist, Love (Scar), Love (Break)!
You keep this love!
Love!
Love!
You keep this love!
Love!
Love!
You keep this love!
No... more...head...trips!!

If we put all these parts together what we can infer is that the interpreter is speaking from a self-reflective perspective in which he explains his motivations for rejecting a love that is leading him to self-destruction. He recognizes his inability to make coherent sense of his affective experience because the effects of falling in love, instead of providing a sense of order to his life, have led him to lose control of himself.

There is one shot of the indoor filming in which the performer can be seen with his band, but the environment is heavily charged with a red color with some flashes of blue. This could indicate the anger, frustration and revenge that are also part of the experience of losing a loved one.

While narrating this personal experience, the video shows the reality of prostitution in the suburbs of the city. To expose this reality, the video recurrently uses orange. Here it is important to note that this color is normally associated with youth, creativity, joy, playfulness. But when given a darker hue it can set the mood for situations of passion, domination, aggression, deceit, or distrust, which is, overall, the kind of interaction we see between the women who sell their bodies and the men who pay for it.

A sociological approach to prostitution

The video shows the complex relationship between prostitutes and their clients. There are several subjects that derive from this central question. First, who is the client. The video clip develops several profiles, but they all have one thing in common: they are lonely people immersed in an exotic sense of pleasure. They are powerful people who have no hesitation in spending huge amounts of money in exchange for feeling the absolute power of domination and control that prostitution offers them. They are freaks who have been excluded from conventional social interaction, they are people who live in the shadows, but have the freedom to choose when and how they want to have sex, in that sense they are free, although deep down they are walking alone on a meaningless path.

There are several scenes that indicate this kind of sociological reading. In one of the first scenes, we see an older man dressed in black leaving the elevator of a hotel following in the footsteps of a prostitute who is ahead of him on the way. Later we see quick snapshots of half-naked prostitutes in the hotel room carrying police whips or handcuffs while their clients appear in the background taking off their clothes.

There is a particularly sad scene where we see the first man, the oldest, walk alone down the corridor of the hotel as he caresses every door in the place. This is particularly striking because it draws out the deeply empty nature of these people who live in these environments until they grow old and die.

In another scene we see a man in a glamorous dress and dangling chains pick up a street prostitute in his car, but as events unfold the two begin to struggle, which could indicate several things: either the prostitute refused to give her service to the man, or he wanted to abuse her. In any case, what is clear is the abusive attitude of the client who, having money, feels he has the natural right to dispose of the life of the other person.

Previously it was said that although there are different profiles of prostitution clients, there are also common patterns that identify them, and one of the most striking that the video exposes is when it shows a woman being forcibly kissed by a man. Clearly, the woman’s disgust and contempt is evident because she does not want to be kissed or she does it because she has the obligation to do so. But what is striking is when the aggressor’s face is exposed, which is a grotesque and disfigured image of a man with a lascivious and unhealthy appetite. That is the natural reflection of clients who pay for sex regardless of whether they are old men, freaks or powerful, wealthy men who believe they have the power to buy life.

The nature of prostitutes is not better. In this case, there are several details that in their relationship are taking on a more complex meaning. The video shows two types of women. First, there is the type of woman of the street, with short dresses and prominent make-up, the woman who sells her body on street corners. In this regard we see very explicit shots of women alone walking through the shadows of the night, or sometimes we see them sitting on a hotel bed counting the money the client has left them.

But we also see a woman with a more youthful profile wearing casual clothes and holding a toy in her arms. There are several scenes in which this character appears, and they are very original. In one we see her sitting in a hotel room alone next to the bed hugging a toy. This shot may well be alluding to the fear or uncertainty that a woman feels in her first sexual experiences, or it may also suggest the sadness or nostalgia of having lost her innocence for an affair that did not deserve it. In another scene we see her standing and leaning against a metal wall (which has an angel drawn on it, recognizable by the wings on the sides) in a reflective position and holding the toy in her arms. Again, this may allude to lost innocence or it may also represent the vulnerable condition of the woman who feels domesticated in a male society.

This contrast is interesting because both are women, they share the same nature, but have different lives. Both are seen interacting with men, both circle hotels, although their purposes are different (the prostitutes get paid while the girl with a normal life does it because she wants to or because she is forced to). However, what the video suggests is that the effects derived from the passional or affective life (whether selling the body or not) in this human group are the same. They are victims of male aggression and domination. Their bodies are commodities or fetishes that have no value outside of sexual interaction. This dehumanizing nature has disturbing sequelae.

The video sadly shows how the young woman is assaulted in a car by a powerful man who surely seeks to rape her. In another scene we see a prostitute looking at herself in the mirror with indignation and rage as one of her clients dresses behind her. The message becomes explicit when the woman writes the word hate on the mirror, implying that she despises the life she leads. At the end we observe that someone takes a corpse out of the car where the young girl and the powerful man were struggling, according to the signs given by the video it is the aggressor who has died.

This conclusion allows us to interpret the reality of women in two directions: on the one hand, she has to fight permanently to be respected and to be considered as a human being, a fact that men have deprived her of due to the effects of the cultural transmission of meanings (let us remember that we live in a culture in which masculine semantics predominate); on the other hand, women will always be exposed to the deadly consequences of their condition, which exposes them to more risks. If she defends her integrity by not being raped, for example, she will inevitably have to deal with death (her own or the aggressor’s).

In the last decade, the issue of femicide has been very prominent. It has become increasingly evident that institutions must do more to protect women. This has been possible thanks to the effort and organization of many women who have simply understood that the only way to improve their living conditions in society is through the dispute of meanings. The fight for women is not only in the streets, but in all areas of society, because it is not a problem that only affects women who live from prostitution, but all women who daily are fighting to be respected and considered on equal terms.

The Philosophical Approach

If we read carefully the interpreter is describing a frustrated experience of love. In the written description there is a subjective narration in which remorse and guilt prevail. The interpreter seems to recognize himself as someone sick and even dangerous for an affective relationship. Lies, pain, falsehood, are recurring terms in the content he writes. Everything indicates that this experience has led him to madness and to lose control of himself, and that is why he renounces love. It seems somewhat contradictory and meaningless, it is supposed to love brings out the best in people, but this is not the case, at least from the interpreter’s approach love is experienced as a self-destructive, dangerous, and even deadly emotion (sometimes the narrative alludes to murder and suicide). A psychologist would say that this is a sick person who needs professional help, however, the problem is much more complex.

Love in itself is obsessive; it is like a drug that changes people in an improbable way. It pushes us to perform altruistic and selfless acts, it can even lead us to sacrifice, but it can also lead us to madness, uncontrolled obsession, hatred and finally death (of oneself or of someone else). This brings us to discuss the subject in more philosophical terms.

Philosopher Matei Tanasă helps us to unravel this problem when she raises the question of whether all people deserve to be loved. This is a complex issue to address, because indeed the answer is yes, all people deserve to be loved, but not in an absolute or uncontrolled way. Love is a powerful emotion; it is the desire for beauty or what is the same is the desire for perfection. That is why sometimes love can be confused with admiration, or contemplation. However, if we love someone, we must want their protection, their well-being, their preservation, their non-destruction (which implies the absence of pain). Here comes the paradox because if we want someone to change it means that we want her to be different, therefore, it implies that we do not love her as she is.

Beauty implies perfection and human beings are not perfect if they were not some kind of deity. They are imperfect. Imperfection implies that there is something wrong with people. Therefore, love is always going to set that trap for us. We fall in love with the perfection of someone who does not have it. No human being is perfect; therefore, all human beings are partly bad. If no human being is entirely good, does that mean that no one should be loved?

Tanasă believes that it is important to recognize our mistakes and limitations in order to mature a sense of love more consistent with human nature, so he invokes the words of St. Augustine: “Learn not to love so that you may learn to love.” This is powerful because what is being indicated is that we stop loving people because they are all bad in part and start loving the good itself, which is also present in everyone. Therefore, all people deserve a certain amount of love because they all contain a certain amount of good within them, even if they are not perfect. All people deserve to be loved to the extent that they are good.

What is the meaning of this philosophical erudition for the video clip we are studying? The performer is renouncing love because of his imperfection. He is telling us that his decoherence (as a person) is so overwhelming that it is inconsistent with a normal affective relationship. In other words, he is renouncing love because it will only lead to hatred, lies, suffering and death. In that sense to love can lead to the destruction of the other and of oneself as a consequence. The value of love lies in suppressing this contradiction. There will be relationships that are more balanced between perfection and imperfection and can survive, but there will be others that are at opposite poles and will develop in a perpetual conflict with the imminent destruction of the parties.

Imperfection should not be the core of affective bonds between humans, but it is inevitable, therefore, we must recognize that it is part of our affective relationships. Learning not to love consists in identifying ourselves and others as imperfect. As such, we will sometimes renounce love because only in this way can we demonstrate that we are pursuing the perfection that we do not have, but that we long for (in the projection of the other we love).