From this great article with Dave Eringa:

Wouldn't be the first or last time they all changed their minds on how much they liked a song!

Over the years, I’ve seen that “Born A Girl” is often maligned by fans, but it has always struck a very deep chord with me. I don’t know what that may or may not say about me but...yeah, a lot of raw emotions tied up in that song.

I did read somewhere about Be Natural being a single contender but couldn't remember where. To be fair, SYMM could've probably got to number one at the time too. Gutting that in the space of 7 or 8 months, a song they'd been so excited about slipped so far down the pecking order to never be played. Can't wait to see it next year..

What? Born A Gril was trashed by fans? How? Who? Probably the guys with a fragile masculinity, or something. My (female) friends and my sister all agree it's a good song. ♥
It takes courage to write and sing a song like that, really.

To be fair the lyrics

The censorship of my skin
Is screaming inside and from within
There's no room in this world for a girl like me
No place around there where I fit in

could be written both by and for a girl as much as by and for a man

It's not easy being born a girl

I still see no problem in these lyrics, sorry.
All I see here is a person struggling with the pressure to conform to social norms and stereotypes.

Doesn't suggest girls have it easier either.

I agree with you and Richey, I think it’s a lovely, emotionally intelligent and very heartfelt song, even though I wouldn’t rank it all that highly on TIMTTMY, but I love most songs on that album so it’s no major criticism. I often think it’s a grown-up cousin to Life Becoming A Landslide in a few ways, they are interesting songs to contrast and compare, even beyond the obvious “I don’t want to be a man” lyric of the GATS track... they both have themes of identity, masculinity, wrapped up in a longing or desire for something to be that which it is not, and yet from different perspectives (i.e. looking forward in trepidation vs looking back wistfully).

But enough sensible analysis, because I really replied because I love your typo (“Born A Gril”)! Sounds like a song for George Foreman or something...

#... I wish I had been born a grill / And not this messy old pan... :D

https://s2.gifyu.com/images/BORNAGRIL600px.jpg

Ahahahahah
Born a Grill ♥
Didn't notice, thanks for pointing out. Thought I wanted to edit my original forum reply, but I guess, at this point, it's better to leave it as it is. :)

I was expressing an opinion not a problem


and I always read Life Becoming a Landslide ... 'I don't want to be a man' as a desire to remain a child and never grow up with so much corrupted

My invite to the barbecue in the post then?

Heheh, yes, I always read it that way too, but that’s why I think they’re interesting songs to compare - in LBAL it’s a desire not to grow into an adult male, in BAG it’s a desire to have been born female in the first place, but you could read it as (in both instances) essentially not wanting to be a man (adult male) specifically, whether it’s as a rejection of masculinity or adulthood - just from two quite different perspectives at different points in the band’s career.

:) Yay!

In this season of goodwill, let’s hope ‘throw some acid into your face’ goes the same way as ‘I laughed when Lennon got shot’ pretty soon.

Random "what if..." thought.
What if you had a time machine and went back to 1992, when Generation Terrorists was released and toured, and had the Manics listen to Resistance is Futile?
What would be the reactions? Would they recognise James' and Nicky's voices? Would they relate to the lyrics? Would they like the music style? Would that change the sound and concept of their whole discography?

Okay, guess I need to sleep now.
Good night. ♥

This reminds me of the question I've always wanted to ask the band (and have sent into 'ask the band' features many times without success)... If the band were sucked back to 1991 in some unexplained time travel phenomenon, how would they record Generation Terrorists? As it was, as a Manics Greatest Hits, as their most recent album....

I think there might be 3 possible reasons why your question gets ignored:
1. Maybe it's a very frequent question they're tired of getting
2. Maybe they took the question too seriously and they don't wanna think about it
3. Maybe your question was misunderstood, maybe they think you asked them about a piece of information that could be found in interviews and biographies

Too bad, these time-travelling related questions from the two of us are just light spirited hypothesis of a situation that will never happen. Something to just amuse ourselves with. At least mine is. Hope I didn't belittle yours.