"waif me"

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I don't want to listen to the song, so I don't really know the context, but I hear there's such a thing as rape fantasy.

In a 1991 interview with NME, Cobain reflected a point of view about sexual assault which suggested that it was a “we” problem as opposed to just a “they” problem – something that highlighted how rape prevention was being treated just as one-sided as the AIDS epidemic had been.

“Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth. And it happens every few minutes,” Cobain said. “The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there.”

At the time, the idea was that women needed to defend themselves through self-defense measures – a sort of “slut shaming” under the guise of female empowerment.

“I was talking to a friend of mine who went to a rape crisis center where women are taught judo and karate,” Cobain said. “She looked out the window and saw a football pitch full of boys, and thought those are the people that should really be in this class.”

Nirvana notably recorded songs which addressed the issue of sexual assault on “Rape Me” and “Polly” – spawned after reading about the rape of a 14-year-old girl in the news – and broader feminist rights on “Pennyroyal Tea,” and “Breed.” But it was Nevermind’s “Been a Son” which best addressed the nation’s sexist viewpoint at the time. Women weren’t just viewed as second-class citizens, Cobain argued that the public didn’t even want them.

Tori Amos, a victim of sexual assault who later touched on it her own song, “Me and a Gun,” spoke of the power of Nirvana’s own song on the topic, “Rape Me,” telling the New Musical Express in 1994, “I spoke publicly about that because I thought it was very clear what it was about. It was like ‘Go on, hit me! Rape me! You cross this line, Motherf***er, and I’ll kill you…you’ll never break my spirit.’ It’s a defiant song. But the scariest thing to a rape victim are the words ‘rape me’. When I first heard it I broke out in a cold sweat, but when you get over that you realize he’s turning it back on people.”

Inside the liner notes of the last album Nirvana ever released prior to his death, In Utero, Cobain solidified his willingness to put human rights over album sales, writing, “If you’re a sexist, racist, homophobe or basically an as*hole, don’t buy this CD. I don’t care if you like me, I hate you.”